Hopeful Thinking

    As I write this I am mere hours from becoming a father. My husband Jamie and I are adopting. She’s a bit older than infant. About 22 years older than infant, to be exact. As many in my community will already know, a young blind and autistic woman with a remarkable singing voice whom we call Lavender is becoming an official part of our family. Her chosen name will become her legal one.     Adult adoption seems like a curious concept to most people. If they’re of legal age, why would adults want to be adopted? It’s about belonging. Having kin. Trusting in a family unit for support, safety, and a place where holidays and happy occasions most warmly reside. Lavender needs a family and we are honored to be that family.     This brings up questions for me about the depth of choice. There’s an oft-spoken idea that adopted children are special because they were chosen. Biological children are not chosen so much as they are a natural result of multiple factors...

    I believe we are made of two things: love and light. Perhaps that sounds like wispy new-age speak, but my personal sense of faith tells me that love is the directive force in the universe. Love is what informs the crafting of all that is. In this thinking, the atoms themselves have assembled according to the greater intent of something larger than they.     And of light—science concludes that we are but light conforming into the appearance of matter. Everything we see is literally made of light. In fact, it’s light reflecting off of light that we actually perceive with our eyes. Which are, of course, made themselves of light.     To the second ingredient, love. Perhaps love is actually a thing with substance. What’s interesting to me is that people can’t define God any better than they can define love. Ask someone what love is and you’ll get an answer that is clear only for someone who also knows what love is and can read between th...

    What do you think about the state of the world today? Is there a silver lining to all this turmoil? What does your personal faith tell you? Notice the answer.     I watch a lot of news. Both liberal as well as conservative. The powers of the world appear to be tightening their fists lately. It used to be that they didn’t have to work so hard to maintain control over their people. Many were of course brutal and corrupt, but pure viciousness appears to be on the rise. Why might that be? It looks a lot like panic. Each culture is experiencing it in its own way according to its own societal paradigm. In the US we are arguing our revolution along the strata of transgender bathroom rights and healthcare. In Saudi Arabia women want the basic right to drive a car. They are very different issues, but each are along the exact same tectonic crack: I have a right to thrive. You do not have the right to stop me. The effects are as far reaching as the Inter...

    Thank you for the way.     That is usually the full extent of my prayers. Those five words. Thank you for the way.     Thank you for the unexpected solution. For I have faith enough and reason both to conclude that to my concern there is a likely answer. Somewhere. In a drawer or in a thought. It already exists. Perhaps I am courageous enough to hope there might even be a win-win situation. Just out of my view. Just around the corner. But real enough. Connecting with its likely existence is the first step to finding it. The first step away from despair. I believe the solution exists. Even if I can’t yet see it, can’t imagine how it could possibly get here, and wouldn’t believe it if you told me. Thank you for the way. When praying on behalf of someone else it’s the same thing. Thank you for the way. Thank you for whatever it might be that can bring this person or this situation a relief from suffering. Thank you for anything which ...