That image looks like a book cover, doesn't it! It’s just an article: much shorter. :-) 

Here's a snippet from a 'cauldron conversation' earlier this week - on Yeses and Nos:

We all have yeses and nos that shape our lives. What if we think of them as our left foot and our right foot. We can’t walk without either foot! And when we dance with the universe, we have to use both feet! Our lives become shaped around what they say yes to and what we say no to.

Some people lead with one foot - their yeses. Other people lead with their other foot - their nos. Sometimes we get too used to constantly leading with one foot, and we have to reassess, shift our balance, and strengthen the other. Often it is the “yes” that is the dominant side. That can lead to over-exhaustion on one side of the metaphorical body. And for some people it is the “no” that leads. From those strong nos, the yeses can emerge, sometimes hesitantly, sometimes stumbling, but there nonetheless. Our great dance partner, the Universe/Life, listens to both.

There is no “right” or “wrong” here - just like there is no “right” or “wrong” way of leading the dance. The most critical aspect is that you notice which foot is leading - and how that is shaping the dance itself.

We just had a really rich ReMembering Course Informational Webinar. Part of what came up in that conversation is how much the prison industrial complex and other aspects of injustice may look really different and really far away from climate change and ecological issues - but they are not. They are all part of the legacies of colonization. 

This Course helps you to understand the "domination code" that has come to influence so much of our global society through both inquiring into some of its roots and finding ways of re-sourcing ourselves, and thus enabling us a greater level of un-coding and un-raveling from it. If you wanted to come to this info session one but didn't make it, our next one is coming up in March. (details below). 

Finally - I want to lift up some of the cool things I'm reading and listening to from other people. I tend to listen/read many things at once. Currently I'm in the midst of Saving Time by Jenny Odwell (which is so great and will influence upcoming writings/teachings on time) and 'How Tech Thinks,' which I'm loving (and is helping me prepare to give an upcoming talk on technology, innovation and the Doctrine of Discovery - though the book is not at all about the Doctrine, it digs into some of the myths around Silicone Valley).

Here in the U.S. it's Black History month. Of course, its important to pay attention to these histories all year long, not just for a month, and then act like they aren't there the rest of the year! Given the increasing political rhetoric that is trying to change historical narratives and contemporary experiences, including but not only Black history and Black experiences, I want to lift up a few of the many vibrant Black voices out there. Maybe you'll want to read/listen yourself, or integrate it into some of your own work, or maybe you'll just be glad to know of them, if you don't already. And feel free to send me some of what you are sharing, as well! I'm leaning away from some of the more frequently referenced authors such as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and James Baldwin... though I could write about them extensively as well...

I’ve been really enjoying this email series on black history, business, and innovation that I’ve been following this month.

- From, How to Survive the End of the World podcast (which I often reference): Original Sins with Dr Eve L Ewing. She gets into her new book by the same title: Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.  It looks like a tome of a book, but after listening to her talk about it, it also sounds super well researched and very readable.  I particularly appreciated how she was reframing the "school to prison pipeline" as a "education system and prison system nexus." Subtle but important distinctions. 

From This American Life podcast/radio show: Talking While Black episode was poignant. 

The Three Black Men podcast just did a show on truth telling journalist and sociologist Ida B Wells - this is one of the better 15 minute segments I've heard about her!  

Dr Willie James Jennings - who is one of the beloved authors I teach in my ReMembering Course - is going to give a lecture to the Jewish Boston on Jewish Christian relations on Feb 26 that's available via zoom - To Touch the World Together: Why Jews and Christians need a new doctrine of creation. Dr Jennings is a theologian's theologian (currently teaching at Yale Divinity in systematic theology and africana studies), if you would, so I'm expecting this to be a theologically substantial lecture. He's also speaking at a fascinating time in an interesting space - so I'm very curious about how he is going to use this particular platform at this particular moment. 

Dismantling the Master's Clock: On race, space, and time - this is a new book that I'm looking forward to reading by afrofuturist Rasheedah Phillips. 

A few Rules for Predicting the Future, by Octavia Butler - originally an essay published in 2000 by one of my favorite sci-fi/futurist writers, this link goes to a more recent online version. And there's a new colorful book out with the essay, if you like buying pretty books. 

As DEI crackdown escalates , faculty choose between silence and resistance - from Inside Higher Ed, this essay looks at how college professors across America are responding. 

Mother Jones magazine profiled the anti-Trump resistance at a historic Black church here

Bad Faith: the rise of Christian Nationalism on the podcast, "Holy Smokes: cigars and spirituality". (note there's a lot of general talk before this piece really gets going.) 

One of the classes I keep referencing from my time at Seminary was on the Black Social Gospel movement, taught by one of the chroniclers of that movement, Dr Gary Dorrien. His book, The New Abolition: W.E.B. DuBois and the Black Social Gospel, is quite a tome - and I'm so glad I read it.

Remnants: a memoir of spirit, activism, and mothering - Rosemary Freeney Harding was a spiritual activist engaged in the civil rights era... and this book is an expansive and beautifully written compilation of her writings, activism, and spiritual journey that blended southern African American mysticism, Anabaptist Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, and Afro-Brazilian Candomblé traditions. It's compiled by her daughter, and I love how she interweaves mothering into these other dimensions, and how she actively works with and from the distorted fragments - the remnants - of her own history.

So many of my clients and students have been inspired by Tricia Hersey, and she's been coming up in a lot of recent conversations - do check out her Nap Ministry work if you have not yet done so! Amongst her many offerings, she recently gave a talk on her new book, We will rest! for the National Museum of African American History and Culture that's now available to listen to.

 I gotta say, the brilliant rapper/poet Kendrick Lamar's NFL Superbowl's half time show was one of the more incredible poetry- music-art- pieces that I've seen on a big national broadcast show this month. I don't follow pop culture that closely, but I even I could tell this was a bold move(s) (though apparently somewhat tuned down) that I felt moved from performance to sheer art with some strong political commentary about America.   If you haven't, I'd watch the show first, then see if you want to wade through the firehose of commentary and analysis around it (much of which is around the competition/beef between Drake and Lamar).

And if you are watching dance-music-halftime shows, then how about (re)watching Beyonce's Bowl, aka the NFL's 2024 Christmas Day half time show? So. Good. Both her performance... and that of the gorgeous horse (a former jumper!) she rode into the totally-crowded football stadium who didn't flip out at all at the crowds. His name is Marshmallow.

You might not have known that I watch football half time shows. Well, I used to roll my eyes at the whole thing. But when I started living with Krissy, who comes from a football (and sports, generally) watching family, I realized I was letting a prejudice (plus my own family's discomfort with sports in general) get in the way of understanding her and her family. So I've learned a lot more about sports, and games, and, with that, a lot more about humanity.

I'm still way (way!) more interested in making art than playing soccer. But Krissy did get me a football for Christmas one year, and I'm getting much better at tossing it around the backyard. Which my nephews appreciate.

So: let's go for abundance!