All my paths converged when I answered the call to ministry and applied to seminary. I've always been a writer, and I've always seen the world through the lens of panentheism. That means, my theological understanding is that God and the source of all love is greater than what we can understand in this universe but the world also includes the manifestation of God in everything we experience and all that we cannot. I write to explore how humans interpret their understanding of "what it all means." 
     I wrote in high school and in college, but I didn't sink into my writing until I arrived Portland, Oregon, and began taking workshops using the Amherst Writers and Artists method or AWA. I lost my rigidity but began to understand how to tighten my prose. In January 2009, with a Fellowship from Literary Arts of Oregon, was able to pay for my four year old to attend preschool while I went to the library and learned how to really revise. Not just edit: revise. My work paid off, and my stories found their way to publication, and two were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.  In 2010, I co-founded PDX Writers and received my certification in the AWA so I could teach in a way that worked so well for my own growth. The more I worked with other writers to structure their books, the more I learned about shaping my own. I took many solo writing retreats to complete my stories and my novels and found that Labyrinths are not only a spiritual practice, but a great way to untangle character glitches and plot points. ​
    Unitarian Universalism has become the container that holds all my various spiritual practices and searches. My family roots are in Christianity and so are Unitarian Universalisms, but I separated from the Christian religion as a youth, walked my solitary path of spirituality as a younger adult until I found the UU church after the birth of my daughter.
​     I still use the word “God” interchangeable for the Divine and the Spirit of Life. I use it mainly because I have spent so many years praying to that name; it comes to me easily. I discovered Cunningham’s “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” and I continue to cast my circles and light candles prior to meditation and prayer. I have most recently begun studying the Sufi interpretation of the Ninety-Nine names of Allah, which I find so comforting and incorporate the chants into my morning practice. I still pull from my Celtic Animal or Kuan Yin tarot decks, and I contemplate a large variety of poetry. I welcome both theological study and mysticism into my continued practices and those I share with others. 
   
Jennifer's CV