Jesus was a Jew—not a Christian—a person of color—not white—born in Bethlehem and was an immigrant in Egypt because an ignorant, insecure, power-hungry national leader was afraid of losing his power and control and wanted to kill Love and Light and Justice, the Prince of Peace.

I have been thinking a lot about my friend, Tara. I was one of the lucky ones, and I got to meet Tara just over eight years ago.

One of my favorite hymns is, “Here I am, Lord”. When I was a kid, I loved the catchy tune and loved singing along, even though I didn’t fully understand its meaning. Now I understand—thanks to my rock star pastor—that this hymn was inspired by scripture in 1 Samuel 3:4 (and Isaiah 6:8, but we are just focusing on 1 Samuel for now, so bear with me).

When I was a little girl, I would sit at the player pianos in my grandparents’ houses (yes, both sets of my grandparents had player pianos, and they also lived across the street from each other) and play and play.

Last week my Grandma Barb would have been 107 years old. I dedicated my second book to her—as well as to my other grandmother, Grandma Joyce—and noted how I like to think I am a good mix of the two.