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Coming Into (Healthy) Community
This morning I woke up at 5:45am to the sound of rain. I then drove down to the sweet little house that belongs to my zen community and sat in meditation for an hour. After which I joined several of these lovely folks for tea and conversation at a comfy coffee shop down the street. […]
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Reckoning | 1.3 | Inside the Ark
The story of Noah’s Ark was often used as a literal example of what was going to happen to the world when God finally decided to once again cleanse the earth in a global Armageddon. The forces of nature would be used to murder billions of people who refused to heed the warnings of impending […]
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Hope is Not a Good Feeling
As I’m coming out of the darkest depressive episode I’ve had in a decade, I’m starting to reflect on my despair. I spent a long time staring out of windows and curling up in the fetal position this year. For months I thought that perhaps I was going to be lost for good. I was […]
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The Gentle Life
Yesterday, as I was taking a leisurely stroll through my neighborhood, a thought occurred to me — one that had not occurred before in all of my 48 years: Perhaps I deserve a gentle life. My life has not been gentle by any stretch of the imagination. Not physically, emotionally, intellectually or spiritually. I was […]
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Reckoning | 1.2 | And I Feel Fine
As I look back and try to explain my childhood to people, I do realize how bizarre it all sounds. My entire worldview including the purpose of religious community, my understanding of the nature of God, and the way I related to other human beings outside my church was quite literally sociopathic. The matter-of-fact way […]
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Reckoning | 1.1 | It’s the End of the World As We Know It
I was born in the spring of 1974, right before the world was about to end. At least, that’s what The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, (the official name of the small Christian sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses) had predicted. Based on creative interpretation of select biblical verses and some “divinely inspired” […]
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It’s OK to Stop For a While.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde It’s hotter’n hell outside, and it feels like everything around me has come to a screeching halt as a few hundred million of my fellow Americans and I try to wrap our heads around what […]
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Reckoning | Three Religions. One Story.
An autobiographical blog series about religious practice, interfaith engagement, and seeking what is True. Table of Contents Part I Introduction (below) 1.1 | It’s the End of the World As We Know It 1.2 | And I Feel Fine 1.3 | Inside the Ark 1.4 | From Whence I’ve Come 1.5 | Making Our Family Life Happy 1.6 | Sweet Pea […]
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On Belonging
MAYA ANGELOU: You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great… BILL MOYERS: Do you belong anywhere? MAYA ANGELOU: I haven’t yet. BILL MOYERS: Do you belong to anyone? MAYA ANGELOU: More and more… I […]
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On Motherhood.
There is no greater joy. There is no greater responsibility. There is no greater fear. There is no greater pride. Motherhood is hard. Done right, it takes everything out of you. It changes you, pushes and pulls you in to a shape that feels familiar and alien all at the same time. Having watched my […]
amanda quraishi
You can call me Q.
amanda quraishi 