jshimota

Truth for Lent

I have been very productive in my work lately. I’ve worked with a team to craft curriculum for a week of camp focused on prayer. I’ve crafted liturgies for our congregation’s anniversary and to use during Lent. I worked a 14-hour day on Sunday – doing some of the most beautiful things a girl couldContinue reading “Truth for Lent”

ELCA/Portico Biometric Screening

We clergy folk are among the least healthy folk. (Don’t believe me? Here’s just one piece of journalism about it.) I’m a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and my church is doing what it can to help me be healthy. Our benefits services include a “Call to Live Well”, with anContinue reading “ELCA/Portico Biometric Screening”

Waste and Such

I really want to be one of those people who can put all her waste for the month in a small canning jar. I dream of shopping in zero-waste or nearly-zero-waste stores, y’know, schlepping my containers in there to buy the hemp soap and whole grains like barley and farro and fill my olive oilContinue reading “Waste and Such”

The Light Persists

(I wrote this article for our local newspaper last month. I’m posting it here on my blog and adding some pictures, so I can share it with someone over the internet.) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:5 This short verse from the gospel of John containsContinue reading “The Light Persists”

Jennifer, Table for One

I have lots of friends who are single. Many of them have been single for years. For me, it’s been 2.5 years of singleness. And I’m noticing something. I do big things alone, now. There are a hundred thousand little things I do now as a single person that are slightly different. I’m finally learningContinue reading “Jennifer, Table for One”

Sonder

When Sage was maybe a middle schooler, she brought home a new word. I don’t know how she had found the word, but when she told me about it, her eyes were so alive with fascination…and maybe relief. She said she never knew there was a word for something her imagination had dwelt upon forContinue reading “Sonder”

Creativity as Non-violent Protest

Today, I am in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina at a women’s retreat just filled with love and light and hope and sisterhood. Today, I am reading accounts of demonstrations at the University of Virginia wherein members of the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and Alt-Right carried torches and shouted declarations of white supremacy. So, IContinue reading “Creativity as Non-violent Protest”

remembering the gentle way Love shows up

I am a pastor in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Most pastors in my tradition don’t choose the biblical text from which we will preach each week; we use a lectionary, a calendar of texts. Some use the Narrative Lectionary which has us reading through the story of God and God’s people…as aContinue reading “remembering the gentle way Love shows up”

Things that make you go hmmm…

I have a dear friend who makes “10 Things…” lists. I always enjoy reading them. Here’s one from the last few weeks of my life. Sometimes you get an invitation to a new adventure, which only serves to help you know you prefer this current adventure. Sometimes it takes a serious fall that could haveContinue reading “Things that make you go hmmm…”

Frightened and Grateful

Sunday evening, I came home, tossed my keys in the bowl, put my purse in my purse-place, had my phone in one hand and a drink in the other as I went downstairs to let the dogs out. After taking 2 stairs, I tripped/slipped somehow and tumbled the rest of the way down 4 orContinue reading “Frightened and Grateful”