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Wow! I’ve been really surprised by the friendly and encouraging emails I’ve received — mostly from people I don’t (yet) know personally — expressing interest in this! The plans are taking shape…. We’ll be gathering on Sunday, 12 September, 1-3pm in the picnic area of Gabriel Park (along SW Vermont). In the event of inclement weather, we can just head across the street to the Laughing Planet Cafe in the strip mall at the corner of [...] In addition to my work as a writer/journalist I am a seminary-trained interfaith minister and religious diversity teacher. Naturally, I was outraged when I heard about a Florida pastor calling for a “Burn a Qur’an Day” on September 11 of this year. The Dove World Outreach Center plans to host a bonfire on the evening of 9/11 to burn copies of the Qur’an. In an attempt to counteract prejudice and hatred, I contacted some of the [...] I’ve been quiet on this space for a while. That hasn’t been out of laziness or lack of something useful to say. Rather, I’ve been silent out of concern over who’s been reading my blog. I have attracted a stalker, you see. It started not quite three months ago, when I was approached by someone posing as a potential business client. I won’t go into the details — because it’s unnecessary on this blog, and because it [...] I fasted yesterday for Tisha B’Av. And it kicked my ass. I’ve had problems with hypoglycemia since I was a teenager, so I allowed myself some juice and tea during the fast, but I was still feeling dangerously spacey as the day wore on. Amazingly, I managed to cook dinner for Mike — a non-Jew who was definitely not fasting — even though I still had a few hours to go. The only real difficulty there [...] Tonight’s sunset marks the beginning of Tisha B’Av, the Jewish remembrance of the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, the destruction of the Second Temple, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and a number of other horrific events. And tonight I attended a Tisha B’Av service for the first time ever. We sat in the sanctuary in the dark, reading the weeknight maariv and from the book of Eicha (Lamentations) by flashlight. The sanctuary [...] It’s been a year since Michael Jackson died. I imagine there are memorials — both organized and informal — being planned across the globe today. When I first heard the news of his death, I didn’t react with shock or horror. Instead — and please don’t take this the wrong way — I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It was over. The pain, the controversy, the hounding, the anger. For years, I’d not been able to listen to [...] Nine years (and one day) ago, I launched not my first website, but my first independently hosted site. I’d had a personal webpage since I first got online in 1994/1995, but going live with www.ravenwald.com on the summer solstice in 2001 — just after the completion of my New Seminary studies and my ordination as an interfaith minister, and just prior to the release of my first novel, rhythm — was an exciting and nerve-wracking [...] |
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 Areas of expertise: - Sustainability - Religion/Spirituality - History - Health/Medicine - Technology - Dogs Jennifer Willis |
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