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I was probably 12 or 13 when I first met Brian. A decidedly awful time of life for most people. A time when most people don’t feel at home anywhere in the world. I was a Catholic kid trying to figure out my place in the Body of Christ. But Brian cultivated a space of welcome for a gaggle of awkward, hurting teens in that Fireside Room of Carmel Presbyterian Church. And he never stopped holding that space for us – for those he came in contact with. The reason so many feel so closely tied to Brian is because of the hours Brian spent with us when we were the hurting, the lonely, and the forgotten. Or when we were the bored, uncomfortable, and lost. He reminded us, through his life’s work, that this journey of life was coming alongside the humanness of one another and just being. Simply being and loving with compassion. It’s from him that I learned so much about holding space for others. Brian did this radically. And he did it at some of the hardest and most monumental times of our lives. He journeyed with and among us. And he was wise enough to know that most of the time all people needed was a tiny bit of respite. Not a lecture, not a teaching. Just a friend and a big warm hug. It was Brian that helped lay the foundation of social action in my life – the very thing I talk and write about day in and day out. Brian was one of the first people to show me what it looked like to harness my anger into hopeful action. That those of us that claim to follow Jesus have a responsibility to see and know the hurting in the world and do something about it. He invited me into ecumenical and community spaces and gave me the confidence to believe I belonged there. That I was capable of learning and reflecting. That my voice and viewpoint mattered. If you were lucky enough to hear Brian speak, it was also clear that Brian was a teacher. The good and the wisdom that he spilled into this world is undoubtedly immeasurable. His teachings were of justice and love and moving into action to be part of what makes this world a beautiful place to be. In life we are given many teachers at different points in our life and I am grateful that Brian was a mentor of mine for so many years. There is still so much work to do, but luckily Brian has touched a lot of lives so there are plenty of us to tackle what he left us.

Things are so busy that I feel like I am just able to do the next first thing in front of me. I have so many ideas that I want to get down into writing, but everything is swirling with no direction. There is also a lot that I want to write about, but not every story is just mine to share. It is one of the complexities of writing in the realm of nonfiction and current news and events. But also, I am not sure I am ready to write about all of it because I am still processing so much of it. The image in my head when I feel this way is a tangle of knots, like the hard ball that forms when a delicate chain wraps up into itself. When life gets like this, my go-to is Mary, Undoer of Knots. Her feast day is tomorrow – September 28th. In the many times I have turned to her she has gently shown me the role I play in making these knots tighter. Often by trying to fix what was in front of me – no matter how intensely I tried to pull and yank the knot out – it stubbornly laid there hardened in front of me. She showed me that sometimes you just need to gently knead out the knot by rolling it in your fingers and letting the knot show you where it can come unloosed. It takes time and patience. Slow breathing and stretch breaks.

In June, we honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus. By placing these knots in front of Jesus and asking Him to take it up, I learned detachment. Ignatian spirituality helped drive that home. Detachment is a big scary leap that offers a freedom and lightness on the other side. It is so hard to loosen my grasp on the railing, but once I did, I found that I was on stable ground ready for me to regain my footing. In meditating on detachment I started to see that I didn’t need to hold on to these knots. Last night, in prayer, I realized that the Our Father actually nudges us towards detachment. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done. It is what it will be. As they say in AA, “Let go and let God.” It’s all detachment. Now, that is not to say we move to inaction. Instead, it reminds us that we have a responsibility, yes, but we are not God. We will be judged by our actions, our care for Creation and her people, yes, and our love. The righteousness and holiness for which we are to strive is to be right with God, which begs the question: what is God’s and what is actually just… noise?

The knots that are mine to unravel slowly respond to the gentle movement between my fingers, like rosary beads falling and rising as I work towards the next Hail Mary. The knots that are not mine to fix will stubbornly sit there wound up and hardened no matter how hard I try to smooth it all out. It’s okay to let go of those knots and trust that someone will get to them. Maybe it will be you some day, but maybe today is not that day. Maybe it’s time to just lay it down for a bit and take some deep breaths and stretch your neck out. Look out the window and ask Mary and Jesus to hold on to it, work on it for a bit. From my experience, usually, it’s not really my handiwork anyway. Just the Spirit moving through my fingers.

That all just came spilling out of me and I really came here to share about some books and writings that I have seen around the Internet and thought I should beef it up a bit with some explanation of why I haven’t been writing on the blog. I guess some of those whirling ideas had more of a direction than I realized.

Here is what I wanted to share:

• The newest issue of Common Horizon (Vol. 1 Issue 3) is now available for purchase at From Here Media.
• Shannon Evans has a new book out called Rewilding Motherhood: Your Path to an Empowered Feminine Spirituality. I was lucky to be enough to be part of the launch team and, man, it does not disappoint. You can buy it here or pretty much anywhere books can be purchased. You can read my review here.
• My Instagram friend Gina started a Substack and her writing is fantastic. She lives in France, but she is from Scotland. We both lived in Seattle, but not at the same time.
• Now I am reading Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength by Kat Armas and I cannot wait to tell you more once I am done.
• OH! And my other Instagram friend Cameron Bellm partnered with Lauren Winters from Brickhouse in the City released a new No Unlikely Saints devotional focused on mental health and it is just what the world needs right now.

Common Horizon Vol. 1 Issue 2 is now available for purchase!

Getting to walk alongside Alissa as she has grown From Here Media has been a privilege. I have a recurring article in the Common Horizon publication urging readers to move to action. Each issue explores one of the seven Catholic Social Teachings. Both Issue 1 and 2 are available for purchase. You can find the Universal Voices podcasts, From Here Sessions, and Common Horizon issues at FromHereMedia.org.

Support a newly forming nonprofit Before Gethsemane Initiative

I have recently been asked to sit on the Board of Directors for a newly forming nonprofit Before Gethsemane Initiative, an organization with fidelity to the Catholic Church and Her teachings and committed to anti-racism in the United States. We are in the early stages of incorporating the organization, which is the process of officially becoming a 501©3. If you are able, please consider donating to the GoFundMe as it costs a significant amount of money to start a nonprofit. If you are not able to donate at this time, please consider praying for our co-directors and the Board of Directors as we work together to launch this worthy organization.

If you are able to contribute to the startup costs, you can give to the GoFundMe.

I had the privilege of contributing to a project, A Place to Belong Letters from Catholic Women, that is currently available for pre-order, which will be released on March 25th – the Feast of Annunciation! In preparation for its release, I had the opportunity to be on a podcast “The Daughters’ Project” by the Media Nuns.

Pre-order the book here.

Listen to my episode on the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Google!

I like to think about the giants who have come before us – the giants whose shoulders we stand on – those that laid this ground work of seeking justice for us. A litany comes to mind: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta King, Servant of God Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Thomas Merton, Saint Oscar Romero, pray for us.

A friend shared a story on her account recently about people before us exchanging letters before ever meeting. And it makes me think about the relationships among these greats that started over letter writing. Yesterday I learned that Thomas Merton and Dr. MLK, Jr. were set to make a retreat mere days after MLK’s assassination. Dorothy Day traveled West to meet Cesar Chavez and offer support and solidarity for fieldworkers. The connections to the global struggle for justice are everywhere.

I think about the work for justice today and the relationships of solidarity I have made over Instagram. I joked that learning about the letter writing made me feel less creepy about calling these people friends even though I’ve never met them, but I have spent hours with them on Instagram, Voxer, and Slack. Social media can be a dumpster-fire-time-suck, yes, but I sense that the Holy Spirit is at work here, too. The Internet has offered me community, solidarity, and consolation in the midst of pandemics – a pandemic of injustice, a pandemic of loneliness, a pandemic of disease. This space has helped me persevere as I limp along – exhausted, angry, and tired – maybe the same way these letters exchanged by the greats helped them find energy to keep going, often feeling isolated and alone.

I’m thankful for these friends. I am thankful for those that came before us that started the work that we must now take up to do our part to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven. The work of justice must happen in community and it’s okay that, right now, this community is virtual. But oh what joy it brings me to think about when we get to meet face-to-face and embrace and make a retreat together – all for the good work of justice.

May we remember and honor the saints and the workers every day. May we take up the fight for justice and find respite in these communities.

To read Dorothy Day’s account of the pictured encounter with Cesar Chavez and Coretta Scott King click here.

As 2020 comes to a close I’ve been compiling photo books. Sometimes the pictures convey more than words ever could, but sometimes the pictures can also smooth the edges of the roughest memories. And the latter is making me increasingly uncomfortable. I’m being reminded that in the art of storytelling we need those rough memories no matter how hard they are to remember. Not because we need to wallow in what’s hard, but we need the reminders of what we have overcome. We need the generations-to-come to know that they are not alone in feeling their angst, their disappointment, their cynicism. We were there once. And we are still there, too. If we embrace a nonlinear understanding of time I think we can better cope with the need for reflection. Anyone who has dealt with any sort of traumatic event can attest to the fact that we don’t really ever “move on” and forget. Instead, these moments embed in us and we often revisit them. We circle back. I don’t mean that we live in and wallow in the trauma, but it is important that we sit in it and feel it in order to heal from it. It’s okay to revisit it. We don’t just do it for ourselves. We do it to be of service to others. To offer empathy and support when someone else finds themselves in a place we once were. We can go back to those painful times, whether the feelings have dulled or not, and we can still pull from those experiences. I think in many ways our current generations have lost the art of healing and storytelling. We have lost the sacred ways in which our ancestors learned and taught when we bought into Western linear time. Let us not forget that God has never claimed a linear timeline. As Saint Oscar Romero reminds us in his Christmas homilies, Jesus is simultaneously in the incarnation and the crucifixion. As humans, we have the capacity to feel the loneliness of the darkness and the warmth of the light at the same time. It may be uncomfortable, but is it not part of the complexity of the human experience? I think of Mary’s joy as she brings forth the Son and her sorrow at the foot of the cross. Without both, our salvation story is incomplete.

As I think about 2020 I know that it wasn’t just our world that was rocked, but there are some things we celebrated and suffered that was unique to us as a family. Jobs lost, financial uncertainty, balancing working from home and academic, behavioral, and social progress of the kids on our own — in those ways our experience was very much like a lot of people around us. But we also had to confront addiction, and recovery, and whatever life is after that. I took on a month of solo parenting while working from home in a pandemic while I was 8 months pregnant. By the time Mila was born I felt like I was at my weakest. I remember, while laboring with her, that I wasn’t sure I had the strength to do it this time. I felt like I was drawing from an empty well. My body was tired and I am still feeling the affects of it. But I also got paid to do consulting and restorative justice work. We somehow swindled the universe into letting us buy a house. But, the loneliness of 2020 is the heaviest. Having a baby during a pandemic is lonely. Navigating addiction and recovery is lonely. Being separated by thousands of miles from my best friends and my closest family members is lonely. And right here at the end, our beloved dog died.

This loneliness is not something that I can fix with a 2021 resolution. I can’t help but think of the words of Servant of God Dorothy Day, “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” My heart aches for community. I have been reminded about my passion for radical hospitality. I think for many of us, a light was shown on our loneliness this year and we are being forced to grapple with it in a way that we weren’t prepared for. I don’t have any solutions to this or a nice send-off. Instead, I am sharing I suppose, to reach out, to offer a space of welcome and solidarity. We have work to do ahead of us, but we cannot go at it alone. Together, we were made for times such as these.

Hello from your friendly nonprofit professional! I am going to start with some not-so-great news, but end with some action items. I want to leave you feeling hopeful so hang in with me for a sec, k?

According to Philanthropy News Digest charitable giving is down in 2020 and that is probably a surprise to absolutely no one. There are reports circulating, like this one, that many community-based organizations are increasingly getting inquiries from potential donors asking for voting history and political affiliation of the recipients of their charitable giving. In case you didn’t know, this is unethical and pretty much always illegal for charities, social services, and nonprofits to collect and track this information, let alone as an eligibility prerequisite. Although this is not surprising given the current political climate we’ve had over the last few years, it is disappointing.

In my stints in fund development I learned that most people are generous givers and trust the good people doing the good work to be responsible with the donations. However, there were always a few thorns demanding more recognition, offering unsolicited criticisms, or sharing their veiled (or sometimes blatant) prejudice thoughts about the community the organization served. So, I don’t find this surprising to hear — especially after the election cycle that we just had.

Here are ten tips for you to keep in mind this #GivingTuesday to start practicing how to be a responsible and well-loved donor, especially if this is new for you! I’ll link to some of my favorite organizations at the end of this post.

So, tell me: what are some of your tips? And what are some of your favorite organizations to donate to?

And now, some of my favorite organizations to support:

At the beginning of my reversion to Catholicism, sitting on a futon in a small dorm room in Seattle that I shared with Melissa, I would scour the Internet for blogs or articles or just something that was written from a point of view of a Latina cradle Catholic. I was looking to find a Latina whose Catholicism was formed by a conviction for social justice and a grandma praying the rosary with a copy of Vanidades laying around. I was looking to find a reflection of myself in someone else. If the statistics were right, I knew I wasn’t the only one out there, but back then I never found anyone. 

My hope in sharing honestly and openly through these little boxes is to offer a space where someone else searching for the intersection of justice, social change, and Catholicism can come sit around this fire and spin ideas. I want to offer what I was looking for to help someone else feel less alone. Fast forward to today and I have found comadres talking and planning and moving to action among the corners of the interwebs. I am apart of and I have helped create and space like the one I was looking for.

I decided awhile ago, though, that I’m not going to stress about curating this weird little piece of Internet that I have. I really, really love photography as a creative outlet. I like the idea of a feed with a color palette and a cohesive theme. But, I’ve learned over and over again that my life does not lend itself well to that type of stability. A good and wise and former college roommate who knows me startling well (Melissa I’m looking at you) has said some things to me over the past few weeks that has helped me remember this. As a family we’ve had to pivot and reimagine what life is going to look like in dramatic ways. Career changes, cross-country to cross-the-town moves, some-day-but-not-yet answered prayers, unexpected babies, unexpected medical journeys, and loss and death, addiction and recovery. It has often left me feeling like I am grasping to steady myself on some janky carnival ride. Even if I am able to plant my feet, I am not entirely sure this whole thing isn’t going to have a major malfunction and fly off its tracks. It’s dishonest for me to try to package that into some nice message for you to follow because over here the outcome is usually messy and a little lopsided. My guess is that maybe that’s true for you, too. 

We are often telling writers, and artists, and neighbors to stay in their lane on the Internet. We want to commodify each other – we want the products, but we don’t want the people. And I’m not down with that. I’m going to say what Melissa reminded me of: there is space for us to be too much, and too intense, and too loud about the things that hurt us or inspire us or move us to action. There is space for us to invite one another in and circle up and share our gifts and talents, as well as our thoughts and opinions. So, if you have been searching for a place where justice, social change, and Catholicism intersect: welcome and stay awhile.

It’s Ichthyosis Awareness month so I’m dedicating my posts this month to advocating for those with ichthyosis and sharing a little bit of our story.

Today, I’m talking about skin care. All of the well meaning people in this world like to suggest what we could use on Olivia’s skin and try to hide their horror when they hear that we REGULARLY use bleach and petroleum based products. Here’s the deal: I am a pretty crunchy mama so when I heard these things I searched desperately for “natural” alternatives. Surely other products can work just as well. Surely people are just blindly listening to medical professionals without doing much personal research. Surely there are other options. Trial after trial, especially when Olivia’s skin would get really dry or really tight or really flaky, I would find myself back ro using Aquaphor instead of, or in addition to, Shea butter or organic cold pressed coconut, safflower, and avocado oils.

The reality is that Aquaphor, a product I only knew to use to heal tattoos, is one of the only things that helps alleviate itching. And the fact that it helps with itchiness AND it can help fight bacteria and create a barrier against infection is why I still use it. Even though it leaves grease stains on my clothes, destroys elastic (which is why I use disposable diapers more often that cloth diapers, a very different routine for me when compared to diapering with Oscar), and leaves gunk in my washer (among other minor annoyances), but the bottom line is this: it brings comfort to Olivia. It just works in a way that other emollients don’t work. At the end of the day, any mother is going to do what is best for their kiddo. Bottom line. Full stop. End of story.

So, yes, we put in a cap full of bleach in a bathtub full of water every now and again to kill off any lingering germs after visiting somewhere that was full of people, animals, or just wasn’t very clean. And yes, I use petroleum based products, and disposable diapers, and a cream that I have to wear gloves when I apply it to Olivia’s skin because this routine is what works for her skin right now. It might not work later. And it might not work for someone else’s skin who is affected with ichthyosis. This ability to adapt and respond to needs and to find compromises is what we, as parents, do day in and day out – parents with kids with different needs just find themselves going a little further, but you would do it, too, if you were in our shoes. Bottom line. Full stop. End of story.

I don’t want to end this post without sharing appreciation for Bieresdorf, the parent company of Aquaphor products, because thanks to them folks affected by ichthyosis can receive a FREE case of product once a quarter after sending a letter from a dermatologist. That’s a huge savings for our family. Any company willing to donate product directly to those that NEED it, instead of gauging our pockets deserves recognition.

This month I will be sharing a few posts related to ichthyosis with the hope to advocate for acceptance and understanding of people with visible differences, support FIRST Foundation and the possibility of improved treatments and cures, and to spread awareness about this rare genetic skin condition.

Ichthyosis. How do you spell that? How do you say that? I say ICK-THEE-OH-SIS. I’ve heard it say other ways, too. For the sake of simplicity I often tell people that Olivia has a genetic skin condition that makes her skin grow really fast and she can’t slough it on her own like we can. It works for kids and adults alike so I stick with it. But it’s not the whole story and it is an oversimplification of the disorder.

There are about 20 different types of ichthyosis and although there are similarities across the conditions, there are a lot of differences, too. Some are linked to the x-chromosome, some, like Olivia’s type, are double recessive, and still some others are dominant. Never did I realize that those Putnam squares and pea varieties that I learned about in Biology would come in handy! Ichthyosis is so rare that there is still a lot we just don’t know. For example, Olivia has Harlequin Ichthyosis – a phenotype that presents with thick white diamond shaped scales at birth. Olivia received two different gene variations. One from me. One from Casey. And since we aren’t related the mutations were different. One of the variations had been previously recorded in someone with Harlequin ichthyosis… and the other had not. Why is this important? Since the mutations are different and we don’t know enough about this particular part of DNA, we don’t know how else these variations might affect Olivia. Additionally, the two mutations that Olivia has are also different than the two genetic mutations or variations that someone else with Harlequin Ichthyosis might have. So even though someone else might have Harlequin Ichthyosis, that person and Olivia might have different challenges. I found myself saying, “genetics are weird.” on a regular basis.

What is common among the ichthyosis population, however, is that the largest organ – skin – is compromised. Your skin is the first defense for your immune system. Your skin, and it’s ability to sweat, helps you control your body temperature so you don’t overheat. Your skin retains moisture, which helps keep your whole body hydrated. When your skin is compromised, as in the case of folks with ichthyosis, you are more susceptible to infections, overheating (which can also happen if you get too cold as your body goes into overdrive trying to warm you up), and dehydration.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of the world with ichthyosis and for most people it’s more than enough information to grasp all they need to know. But there is more because with any congenital condition, there is almost always more. What is important to know about ichthyosis is that it is NOT contagious. And although your skin provides very important functions for your body, people with ichthyosis (and their loved ones) don’t have to live constrained by fear. We are cautious, yes. Of course. But, it is my goal to equip Olivia with the tools necessary so that she feels confident enough to pursue her interests and passions. This may mean that we get creative, that we stay flexible, and we adapt – but is that any different than any other family?

During the month of May, please follow along as I share about #ichthyosisawareness and consider donating to FIRST Foundation to support their work “to improve lives and seek cures for those affected by ichthyosis and related skin types.”