From D.W.: I know that, in the larger landscape of issues that involve actual, real human suffering, that the White House is just a building. And it's a building with no shortage of historical trauma in its DNA, having been built by forced labor on stolen land.
From D.W.: Maybe it's because Autumn is creeping in. Maybe because I just had lunch with a very old friend I hadn't seen in 15 years. Or maybe it's just because I'm kind of hungry today, but I thought I'
From D.W.: A "Hate America Rally?" Really? Is that the best you can do? I can't say for sure whether or not Rachel would have been at the No Kings rally in Houston this weekend. But I can say that she would have full-throated-ly supported
From D.W.: Real talk... I had no idea what to post about today. Our neighbors are hurting, and democracy feels so fragile, and everything just makes me angry, and I hate it. My brother in law suggested that I post about compassion, and he has a point. It'
From D.W.: It's not winter, yet. Certainly not in Houston. But it's coming. And after that comes Spring. Eventually Spring. I like these two pieces from Rachel building on a motif she leaned upon often, written nearly a decade apart. We have to remind ourselves
From D.W.: One of the things I admired most about Rachel's writing, and loved about her person, was how she could always ground me in context. She never let me travel too far down desperate roads without reminding me that there was a spare tire in the
From D.W.: This post was written right after the Virginia Tech shooting nearly two decades ago when Rachel was still working in parish youth ministry, but really it could be about any mass shooting event that's occurred in this country since then. I warned you there was
From D.W.: We're still a few weeks away from the anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, but I stumbled upon this post today that she wrote on the actual 2oth anniversary of that event. Now, 16 years later, it still works. Long Valley Lane. November
From D.W.: I've never had much use for birthdays. At least since I crossed the little kid threshold. Rachel, though, LOVED birthdays. She loved her own birthday and she loved celebrating everyone else's. She didn't care that I didn't care about
From D.W.: She and I used to talk about the two of us together being the strange, but beautiful alchemic photo birthed by the amalgam of two completely different puzzles. Individually broken apart so that they recombined into something uniquely stunning. Uniquely us. I've been thinking about
From D.W.: I'm a generally private person. Not anti-social, necessarily, but certainly introverted. I have a small circle of close friends, but I often joke that I'm actively trying to shed them. Rachel, as anyone can attest, was completely the opposite. Her circle was enormous
From D.W.: I was talking to a colleague yesterday about my struggle with wanting to make this site represent the totality of Rachel's writing while also feeling contemporary and reacting to the moments we're in. She wrote so much that was joyous, funny, uplifting, silly.