As Dias de los Muertos approaches, or All Soul’s Day, I'm delighted to have blogger Kara Jones from Mother Henna with us to talk to us about creative ways to address and honor our grief.

For years now I’ve worked a non-traditional minister and my speciality is spirituality and the arts. But my best lesson came not from my seminary training, nor from the numerous hours I’ve spent studying spiritual direction. The best lesson I ever learned about art and spirituality came from one of my ministerial partners, Israel Button, who told me: “People intuit truth through art. You have to use art to preach.”

As I write this is the final day of Christianity 21 – a new kind of conference for A New Kind of Christian. C21 featured an entirely female speaking roster, but was not a women’s conference. (I know, shocking!) In fact, it has been reported that the men who are normally the big name speakers at these gigs (Doug Pagitt, Shane Clairborne, etc.) were all happily staffing the welcome tables and passing out the nametags.

Your period. Cramps, tampons, mood swings and…a spiritual experience?

Sunday night at sundown will mark the beginning of the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement. As a child growing up as a Christian I was always fascinated by this holiday celebrated by my religious cousins. It seemed to me to be the solemn yang to the celebratory ying of Rosh Hashanah, the Judaic New Year. (Hurrah!