Tag: Inspiration
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A Black Guy and an Indigenous Guy Talk About Thanksgiving
If you are like me and my guest, Chickasaw Comedian Blake Pickens, your childhood education around the first Thanksgiving holiday was filled with stories of pilgrims, buckle hats, and happy Indigenous folks. This happened two years after my folks came to America for our “internships”. Since learning about the histories of our peoples, I have…
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Once a Pastor, Always a Pastor?
Whenever I describe myself as a former pastor, almost always, someone says, “once a pastor, always a pastor.” To which I usually respond with shrugged shoulders, and say something to the effect of, “I don’t know.” I’ve been trying to figure out what that statement means to folks––“once a pastor, always a pastor.“ Is that…
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A Miscarriage of the Nations: Where are the Founding Mothers?
“Women are the true architects of peace. Their strength, resilience, and wisdom have the power to transform societies and build a more peaceful world.” – Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE, Founder and Executive Director of the International Civil Society Action Network. Yes. This title is provocative. But, we are in perilous times and sometimes you have…
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Being Is The Way (Greater Things)
In this message, I challenge us to consider that the greater things that are in us are easier done than said. All of life is waiting for us to be who we can be. Erich Fromm, social psychologist and author of To Have or To Be said: Our capacity to choose changes constantly with our…
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How Do We Live When Paradise Burns?
Just a week before the fires that devastated Lahaina, and ultimately Maui, all of Hawaii, and the world, I said goodbye to the banyan tree at the heart of that place that has become almost sacred to me. I literally spoke to it in my heart and thanked it for enduring as long as it…
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Diversity and the Rightness of Being Wrong
Doing the Right Thing the Wrong Way Did you know that by doing the right thing the wrong way, you could do a lot more harm than good? You don’t have to look any further than the many tone deaf ad campaigns that somehow still make it out in the world and see that if…
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You Can’t Help Yourself
I grew up with a single mother who was friends with other single mothers. Several of them had their own businesses. I often heard them bashing men and saying things like, “I don’t need a man to be happy.” While ontologically true, many of them attempted to enter into relationships with men or other women…
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The Time to Shine is Always Now
The time to shine is always now. If people are surprised to see me rapping now, there’s more to the backstory you don’t know. A lot of people don’t know this. But my mom was basically a part of early hip hop. She used to be called JoSi, The Queen of Rhymes and she had…
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Disconnected: Lessons Learned From Social Media Silence
At 8AM on October 12th, I started–what was meant to be–a 24 hour social media fast. But, if you follow me online at all, you know it was for much longer. I was initially calling it an “intermittent fast”. But once I crossed the three week mark, I think intermittent was out the window. And…
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Giving Up a Dream to Receive a Vision
Dreams are overrated and not for everyone. In fact, after living a life where I have worked in almost every type of organization with almost every type of person, in numerous different cultures and backgrounds, I can affirm that for most of us, a dream for our lives is a distraction to living the reality…
The Roofless Church 