#dharmanerd

Happy Pride to my 2SLGBTQIA+ kin. May you get the rest you need and may the coming weeks bring you nourishing time in community. To all our cishet accomplices, keep standing up for our collective liberation.

(Spoiler: This doesn't mean you should constantly be happy or that you should be positive to the point of ignoring or minimizing harmful things!)

Thanks to my dear Dharma Sibling @skipperjenn for the suggestion to turn this into a blog post after I told her the whole story some time ago. May this bring some joy to folks. Stuff is intense right now, for too many reasons. Take a break from the news. Read a silly blog. Go make yourself a fancy hot beverage. Snuggle a local fur-friend. Give your nervous system a break.

Just published a new Lojong commentary! Link to my blog in the link tree in my bio. ID: Lojong card reading “Don’t bring things to a painful point” sitting on a small black card stand on a white bookshelf. Books and an image of Mahakala are in the background. #Lojong #LojongCommentary #DharmaNerd https://www.instagram.com/p/CK13RNXh7Co/?igshid=1wob9vf680x8o

Image descriptions: before and after shot of blending the rainbow background on a thangka. Video footage of progress. #MakeDontBreak I intend to work on some art every day this month, alongside the thousands of folks signed up to @badasscrossstitch Make Don’t Break community support. #thangkaArt #ArtProgress #DharmaNerd https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhKP06BdWW/?igshid=si6nqexpeqkh

Image description: me in a green Tara t-shirt holding a copy of “Black & Buddhist” So excited to read this anthology edited by Cheryl Giles and faculty/cohort member in my chaplaincy training, Ayo Yetunde. This is on my list for January reads, for sure, and already influencing me as it’s one of many anthologies that have motivated me to start the Disability Dharma anthology project. #2021ReadingList #DharmaNerd #BookNerd #SecretLibrarian #RepresentationMatters https://www.instagram.com/p/CI31d_NBjnv/?igshid=ojps8uhiw2md

Thesis ready. I have 56 days until the deadline for submitting my first draft. That seems like a lot and it nearly enough at the same time. Working on this thesis has been so interesting as writing the paper itself feels like an extension of the project I did, and a practice. I’m exploring contemplative care and social justice. Specifically learning to sit with prejudiced implicit biases and supporting others to do the same. The more I write, the more there is to write. The more I write, the more I notice. The more I write, the more I see how necessary this little piece is to the wider conversation of liberation and justice. I’m writing to challenge the status quo, in a format the status quo decided on. I’m refusing to conform though - challenging the format and pointing out how narrow and immature the status quo view is. It’s a lot. #dharmanerd #thesis #buddhistchaplaincy #justice #liberation #buildanewtable https://www.instagram.com/p/CFhu29rhjja/?igshid=s3d4qpd83prn

Books I’ll be referencing for my thesis. First image is all the social justice/social psychology stuff. Second image is Dharma. • • • I have been a writer since before I could spell. Most of my writing has been fiction, although I do write blog-essays and sometimes poetry. Academic writing is 100% not my thing. I have had zero training in formal paper writing. I dislike academic language and rarely read academic books. But Heck if I’m not going to give this a solid effort. • • • #dharmanerd #buddhistchaplain #contemplative #socialjustice https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpLY7wBAjq/?igshid=1prk4n7czz8j