I See You . . .
I am grateful to you AIDS
You have deconstructed
Everything I made.
And allowed it all
To reassemble in a new creation
Still all that I was
But a new creation
All that I will become
Yet, all that I am.
– Karl J. Vidt, October 2008
On March 6, 1989, I tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. I expected the test to confirm that I did not have the virus. I thought that I had escaped. But the virus had been lying dormant in my body all along. I was in deep shock. Read more »
“The Closet is a Spiritual Tomb!”
The first time I heard these words I was at our General Conference in Los Angeles. It was the early 1970s, and a young preacher by the name of Howard Wells had gotten up to speak. Over a thousand people were in the auditorium that day and when he spoke you could hear a pin drop.
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Do not recite your poem.
Do not read your poem.
Do not present your poem.
Your poem deserves a better fate.
Sing your poem.
Proclaim your poem.
Shout your poem.
Cry your poem.
Declare it.
Dance it.
Argue it.
Torture it.
Preach it, pray it, spray it, spew it.
Make your poem shine forth.
Do not recite your poem,
Sing it.
And do not live your life.
I charge you,
Make your life a poem, and
Sing it, sister, sing it.
This week’s reflection is a poem by Lannie Rose, ©2002. It is used here by permission of the author. You can find this poem and other writings on Lannie Rose’s website.
Valentine’s Day is on the horizon. Soon love will fill the air, hearts and flowers and cuddly bears will be everywhere. For a moment, we will celebrate and embrace the people we cherish: our lovers, friends, and especially this year, our spouses. Inside we will wonder what the final decisions of the court will be. Will they decide to erase marriages already written into law? What awaits us? And so, we celebrate, we pray, and yes, we worry. Read more »
That clown Wavy Gravy made me a transsexual. Well, he didn’t actually make me a transsexual, but he inspired me to be one. More accurately, this icon of the sixties hippie movement provided a model that helped me understand my transsexuality.
As I began living more and more of my life as a woman, and feeling very, very good about it, I wondered, how could this be? Could it possibly be true that I was a real woman, in spite of my male body? I had been getting nowhere contemplating, Am I fundamentally a woman at my core, and what exactly does that mean? Read more »
This week’s reflection is by Jnana Otto.
Jnana writes, “Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word referring to the philosophy and practice of peaceful, nonviolent resistance developed by Gandhi which also heavily influenced Martin Luther King. I wrote the following prayer in honor of King and Gandhi.”
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The One who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion.
– Philippians 1:6
It is New Year’s Eve, and 2009 is just a few hours away. It’s a good time to look back, reflect, and dream exciting dreams about the new year.
When I was quite young, I would greet each new year with a flurry of resolutions. I had great plans for how I would improve myself and every aspect of my life in the coming year. Unfortunately, trying to do everything at once wasn’t very effective, and few of my resolutions survived the second week of January.
Several years ago, I decided to do New Year’s resolutions differently. Read more »
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March 3, 2009 11:00 am | 
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