Let us ask our ancestors — all who have made this road by walking before us — to be here, today & always. As Chrystos* reminds us — we walk in the history of our people. Those of our blood & those of our belonging. Some whose names we know & many whose names only whisper in the mysteries. We invite all who have served us with their experience, wisdom, strength & their longing. We are their wildest dreams & we are grateful for their conjuring. 

An important lesson I've learned is to trust the Universe at life's crossroads. This advice is common but hard to follow! Over the years, I realized listening to my deepest intuition often goes against my desire for certainty. Taking big, potentially life-changing risks can feel nearly impossible. Yet, every transformation in my life happened when I got out of my own way. I've been reminded again and again that valuing my inner-knowing, which connects me to greater forces, will always guide me where I need to go.

“Everything!” people exclaim when I tell them I’m teaching a course this semester for ministerial students called “White Supremacy: What’s Religion Got to Do with It?” We see it in the prayer rally the night before the January 6 attack, to the insurrectionists storming the Capitol with flags for Trump and Jesus. White supremacy is evident in the presence of right-wing Christians on the Supreme Court, the election of a stalwart Christian Nationalist as Speaker of the House, and the disturbing rise of explicit white Christian Nationalism in U.S. life in our news cycles.

“After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372)
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?
The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

There must be spaces where authentic selves engaged in interdisciplinary discourse can come together to address inequality and work for social justice. Dr. Nigel Hatton made this point when he spoke of the critical importance of the Braxton Institute at our October 27, 2014 “Recovering Human Sustainability in a Time of War” symposium. Nigel’s observations remind me of Parker Palmer’s essay “Now I Become Myself” and the importance of naming all of the fragmenting things that get in the way of that wholeness and that becoming: