Our Weekly Devotionals are created by our staff and members to inspire reflections and conversation.
How Are You Using Your Voice?
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
― Edward Everett Hale
Two and a half decades ago, a group of 25 queer women in Kansas City formed a chorus, so they could come together in a safe and welcoming space and use their voices to make beautiful, meaningful art. Since then, the Kansas City Women’s Chorus has grown to include over 150 voices with almost 1,000 alums. The group embraces people from all walks of life, gender identities, ethnicities, races, ages, sexual orientations, and belief systems.
Send up the Bat Signal
Spring came early this year. In fits and starts and freezes. We had a spring break week that started Monday with -10 degree wind chills and ended up with a 90 degree Saturday. Eight tornados in the area in April. The extreme weather matches the extreme politics and the extreme lifestyles that parade by on social media, often with extreme plastic surgery that I would be more likely to pay someone to undo if it happened to me.
I Hope You Make It
I have had to travel a significant amount for work recently. I am not an easy traveler. If nine out of ten restaurants are decent, I’ll pick the one that has bad food and lousy service. This last week has been especially rough. I smashed my phone. Then, I lost my prescription sunglasses and forgot my computer phone charger at a VA facility in St. Louis. They were sent to the other location after I had left there. So, they had to be sent back to the first place - where I had originally left them. If that wasn’t enough, I also left my hard hat and steel-toed boots in my hotel room one day. Unfortunately, I will be returning to finish the St. Louis audit next week, so we’ll see how it goes.
Reflections
This has been an unsettling year, to say the least. Increasingly, we hear our leaders piously quoting the Bible (accurately or not) and calling for an expanded role for I.C.E., an agency whose surveillance has gone beyond foreign nationals to include U.S. citizens who oppose the administration. Meanwhile, our government denounces the theocratic rulers of Iran and the Revolutionary Guard—the mission of which is to preserve and enforce the ideology of the regime. The juxtaposition is difficult to ignore: we increasingly appear to mirror the very traits we condemn the loudest.
You Must Be New Here
On some unusually warm day back in February, my neighbor Himanchan and I sat in lawn chairs in the driveway chatting. We talked about her wedding, which involved celebrations in her home town, as well as her husband’s in another part of India. We looked at photos and talked about the beautiful traditions surrounding the occasion –the clothes and jewelry, the food, and the dancing. I barely remember the part of the conversation where I said that once upon a time, a long time ago, my favorite at-home workout had been Indian dance.
Putting it on Paper
Do you ever feel like the universe is trying to tell you something? Or God?
What about popular culture? Your Instagram algorithm?
Well, all of the above plus a good friend recommended that I read the Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad. Subtitled “A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life”, it’s not simply something to read. It’s something to do. And I had been getting a lot of nudges from a lot of directions to do it.
Heart Coherence
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23
I’ve been thinking lately about the heart, how it has its own, independent nervous system, often called the “heart brain”, comprising tens of thousands of neurons that can operate independently. Our hearts produce an electrical and magnetic field that is significantly stronger than anywhere else in the body, impacting not only us but those around us.
If Time is a River
Einstein’s idea that “Time is a river” was one of the random things that popped up in my Instagram feed this week. The river image that snapped into my minds-eye was a group of people holding on to bright yellow rafts as they crash through white water rapids – not a summer camp-style tranquil canoe ride past a gentle tree-lined shore. And I guess a river can be both. But in this time right now, the image of the rapids sums up this particular time on our world’s crazy river ride the best.
All You Need is Love
All you need is love.
My broken kneecap has once more reminded me that the Beatles had it right. Even though I had to cancel a trip to Mexico, and I’ve been pretty much housebound for the last month, every day has brought something new.
Dropping You a Line
We are barely two weeks into Lent and for many faithful people this means thoughtful, intentional sacrifice as a way to focus on their relationship with God. I didn’t grow up in a tradition that has rituals around Lent, but along the way I did make attempts at a denial practice, a “Lent diet” if you will – giving up chocolate or fast food or alcohol. In the end though, I decided that I needed a different, more proactive way to observe the season.
Say It in a Text?
I scrolled and scrolled through his lengthy text message as it came through on the tiny face of my smart watch. Panic, dread, loathing, catastrophizing - and about 150 words later, I got the message.
My brother is in the Navy, stateside, working on flight data - or something like that. I don’t really know, to tell you the truth, and I think that’s on purpose. He’s been back since last Christmas, having spent the last 10 months in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a giant aircraft carrier.
Holy Intersections
“Wait, you’re Dr. Pomeroy?”
“Yes,” I said, pointing to the name on my white coat.
“How old are you?” he said, intently searching my face.
I paused… looking around to be sure no one else was in his hospital room to hear. My age isn’t something I like to share. But when I did, he asked me if I had gone to Shawnee Mission Northwest. I looked at him more carefully. Was he one of my teachers? This guy was in really bad shape. Long gray hair and beard. Plus all of his medical problems.
Never One Thing
It’s a strange time of year. The world is frozen in winter. The world is also awakening towards spring. The days can be cold, yet the daylight grows brighter.
It’s a strange time of life. I feel a deep dissatisfaction as there is so much more to do, be, experience. I also feel a deep satisfaction from the life I’ve lived so far. I am in pain, tempted towards despair, yet I am likewise profoundly grateful and buoyant with joy.
Uncovering Hope
I’m not a big fan of snow. I know people love to get snuggly under a blanket and binge-watch TV while they are snowed in. I wish it wasn’t true, but snow makes me anxious. However, there is one thing I do like about snow. Our dog, Nelson, is a pit-bull terrier rescue. We do not have a fenced-in yard, so Nelson gets walked frequently. She, like all dogs, loves to sniff around.
God Speaks
Don’t make me come down there. – God
That is still my favorite one of all the billboards from an award-winning ad campaign that appeared about 30 years ago. Over the past few weeks, as I’ve watch unbelievable absurdities and casual cruelties play out on both the domestic and international stages, that is the image and phrase that has flashed into my mind more than once watching the unnecessary spectacles play out.
Veneration
I read a book recently about a small island off the coast of Korea where, at least until recent decades, the women woke each day to dive for abalone and octopus in freezing water, and the men stayed home to raise the children. The society had a fascinating mix of traditions and spiritual practices, including ancestor worship—quite different from my life in Kansas.
Recipe for Remembering
Early on Christmas Eve day, I sat in the kitchen with my brother while Justin prepped for the next day’s meal. We’ve hosted Christmas dinner for most of the 20 years that we’ve lived in this house. And almost from the beginning, Justin took over the duty of cooking our traditional Cuban meal for the holiday. He likes to recount the time he asked my Dad what was in the marinade for the pork roast. The way my Dad chuckled as he answered, “the same thing we marinate everything in.” It’s not quite that simple, and it is unbelievably delicious.
New Year, New Direction
New year, same old me.
But not really.
My 50’s will come to an end this year- which has been very stressful, of course. I spent a lot of 2025 trying to prove something to myself. Reading more than ever. Exercising and walking more than ever. Working more days and taking more call than ever. Learning more new electronic medical records and joining the staff at more new hospitals than ever. All while trying to be a good partner, father, son, brother, doctor, friend. Also while continuing to be involved with everything else in my life. Not to mention keeping up with so much reality TV.
Yule, the Season of the Longest Night
The holiday season is not merry for everyone. Whether we’ve lost a loved one, are dealing with our own or another’s physical or mental illness, are stressed financially or for other reasons, are isolated or disconnected from family and friends, or are simply deeply attuned to all the suffering in the world, the juxtaposition of a season when over-the-top cheer is the relentless focus right next to our own pain can be extremely difficult.
Christmas is Fun
Growing up, my family had prime rib for Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn’t until I was teenager that I learned that is not the norm. When I asked my mom why we didn’t have turkey for Thanksgiving like my friends did, my mom said that Nammie (my grandmother) felt like she could never live up to her mother’s Thanksgiving dinner with the perfectly cooked turkey. So, she made her own Thanksgiving tradition.