Leiah Bowden Lightspeak Blog

This is a drash I wrote for services at Congregation Ner Shalom on June 11, 2021 to honor teenagers, whom I have long felt have been...

I am on the final day of my weekly three-day grand-daughter duty. We are sitting at her sweet white desk and she is showing me the...

photo credits: http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2013/08/maori-elders-explain-meaning-of-hongi.html and https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/grat...

Created as the February 12, 2021 drash, or sermon, for Congregation Ner Shalom. The image refers both to the idea of a hungry mob,...

It's THAT month. December brings the darkness into which we dash as one hungry tribe, bearing all the light we can find. May the light of...

You can listen to this here I’m here to call in the angels, to invite all of us to call in the angels. But what I really want to say is...

ELECTION “I voted. I voted for the rainbow. I voted for the cry of a loon. I voted for my grandfather’s bones that feed beetles now. I...

In tonight's insightful commentary during services at Congregation Ner Shalom I heard something I wanted to think more about, and I...

You are here to build and to witness. To reflect and cast forth the Divine blueprint alive in you.

I am human. My birthright spans the cosmos and I can explore it at will.

"It is never easy to relinquish the safe harbor.”

How absolutely astounding, she thought. Being an artist is confounding, and so lovely. Look what I’ve done, she thought,

This peace you sing for is always around you, forms the core of your being.

Know that I am waiting for you as I always wait for you to be my empty vessel.

We need to be unabashed about who we are. Or if you prefer, Who We are. Right now.

the ravaging of this creek I learned to love as I walked for my health and joy is what COVID has done, destroying what was.

This flow of words, breadcrumbs on a dark path have become a pattern of hopes under which I have placed the fabric of my days during this...

I pray for the holding open of the rock at the edge of hope. I pray for the light never to go out. I pray for my eyes never to close. I...

Today I completed my project, and I can see my 80s self sinking back into her comfy chair with relief.

When I first connected with the elephant, Pelusa, before her scheduled rescue by the Global Sanctuary for Elephants, I was moved to the...