Every year I’ve lived in New York, I’ve routinely spent my last December night in the city in the same way—in front of the Big Tree. The Rockefeller Christmas Tree serves as a holiday magnet to millions from all over the world and I am unashamedly one of them. The idea of this tree and …
I’m sending you love and light. I never really understood that phrase and began to think I was friends with a bunch of Care Bears because I was reading it online so often. The internet tells me “love and light” is a phrase used by Reiki energy healers; a blessing rooted in the hope that …
A few months after I graduated from high school, I attended a birthday party for a casual acquaintance as a favor to her mother. She and I weren’t friends, barely acquaintances really, but she was new to the church and her mom wanted to create an opportunity for her to get to know teenagers her …
There’s a palpable feeling of helplessness that descends when tragedy erupts in our world. Having spent my childhood in Dallas, I basically lived at the off-ramp of Tornado Alley, right in the parking spot of the swampy Gulf air. Annually, our springs and summers were peppered with torrential thunderstorms and green skies that heralded the …
Continue reading "On Hurricanes and Humans: The Importance of Showing Up"
When I was in sixth grade, my church made the decision to relocate our congregation to a new building in another part of town. Our current building had aged and the thought was that by moving, we could have both a modern facility and the ability to reach a new demographic in cities experiencing exponential …
Ryan Brinson 