​Journey

I grew up in an Iowa river town, nurtured by a close family. The living waters of my journey to ministry have their source there, in the Mississippi River.  Those waters resurfaced in the forested hills of southern Indiana, bubbling up like the underground springs so common there. Bloomington was the place where I spent my 20s, going to graduate school, ​finding my UU spiritual home, and working in the community. ​

water flows down limestone (S. Indiana)

in San Francisco, on my way back east

In my 30s, drawn by the taste of deeper currents in meditation, I went all the way to the Pacific Ocean. There I worked for a time for a meditation center in Marin County, California. But like Maria, I was not destined for a cloistered life. My calling was out in the world. ​

Mississippi, the sun glints pure off your skin.
The river and I are open to the wide sky,
the high feathered clouds.
I am from the river and the sky,
from LaRue and Avonell, Ronald and Ruby,
from Mom’s gentle strength and Dad’s recovery,
from Europe’s shores,
from Mother Africa’s forests,
from the blue-green marble of Earth,
from the great questions and longings
and the Primordial Love that always was
and ever shall be.

(from my poem "Riding the River," 11-06)
​

Baroness:  My dear, is there anything you can't do?

Maria:  Well, I'm not sure I'll make a very good nun.

      ~ The Sound of Music

Yes, I married a fellow Star Trek fan and was married by one, too.

So I returned to the Midwest in 2006. There I continued my non-profit work, found my life partner, served on my church board, and raised our daughter through the early years, before recognizing the call to ministry. Aha! This was the way I was meant to fulfill my spiritual vocation. The time had come to go to seminary.

So how I got this job I'll never know
But when it calls you can't refuse to go
​
~ Carrie Newcomer (from her song  "Close Your Eyes")

At UU General Assembly 2014, with fellow students in the Meadville booth (Exhibit Hall)

I enrolled at Meadville Lombard Theological School, a UU seminary in Chicago. The M.Div. program combined intensive classes in Chicago (and occasionally at other sites) with local fieldwork and ongoing virtual connections to peers and faculty. The integration of academics with practical preparation for ministry served me well, and I have continued to tend and build on the collegial network that started in seminary. I graduated from Meadville in May 2015, receiving accolades.

I completed all the required fieldwork while in theological school. So during the in-between year following graduation, I took an interim job at my home congregation; went before the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC), where I was granted Preliminary Fellowship; and was formally ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry. I found my first ministry match in Westside UU Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2016. Westside is a beacon of liberal religion in North Texas. I am grateful for the time I spent there and the wonderful people with whom I got to work.

I received Full Fellowship as a UU minister in 2019. I also felt a tug to return to my family and four seasons, amid the rivers and woods of the Midwest. I began serving First Unitarian Church of Omaha as its settled minister in August 2020. It is a joy to minister to and with this congregation, in a place that feels like home.

Trinity River, Fort Worth

Missouri River, Omaha