Boston Marathon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While a marathon may be an experience of individual triumph, our experience of last year’s terror remains collective. From near misses to eyewitnesses, our lesson should be how well connected we are. We count among our friends the fallen and heroes, and those left puzzling how their schoolmate “Zack” could have gone so wrong. Despite subsequent efforts of some to appropriate “Boston Strong” as a mere brand, it is both through our celebration of individual striving and shared determination that we remain strong this year.

Read my previous posts on the Boston Marathon bombings.

This is kitchari. Indian comfort food. A traditional Ayurvedic cleansing dish used for detoxifying and healing.

Grounding, calming, warming, balancing.

Kitchari can be made in infinite ways, but in its basic form is a stew/porridge-like mixture of split mung beans and grain warmed with spices and enhanced by vegetables. Perfect for giving your digestion a break while still providing the body with a nourishing and filling meal. And even more perfect now that it’s fall and the cold is starting to seep into my bones, when I desire nothing more than curling up on the couch with a steaming bowl of comfort.

In this specific recipe I use both whole and split mung beans for extra protein and fiber, but adding a grain like brown rice/quinoa/barley etc. to the mix is the traditional way and tastes just as well. Use whatever veggies you’re into or whatever can be found in…

Boston Marathon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We don’t know, and we can’t imagine.

via “We Don’t Know.” (a post on Quest for Meaning, a Unitarian Universalist blog.)

Today as I go about my life, I hear the words of Martin Sheen in my head, narrating a documentary I sometimes show in my classes, “On this day, there is only one place to be.” The words are a part of “Bringing Down a Dictator,” a film about the nonviolent overthrow of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević in 2000.

For me, on this day, there was only one thing to do. Our scheduled topic for my Introductory Sociology class was religion. I did work in the topic, but clearly not in the way I had planned. We talked about the Boston marathon bombings, and differently in each class, deferring to the experiences of people in the room. Some of…

This has got to be the best April Fool’s prank I have ever seen. Watch it and see if you can keep a dry eye. I dare you.