Tom Adams
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I was doing my best to ignore all the Trump hype about America’s 250th anniversary. His celebration isn’t mine. So, I figured I would sit this one out and pretend it wasn’t happening. The arrival of a Special Issue of Sojourners magazine gave me a different and healthier way to approach this important landmark. Today’s post reflects on the 250th and possible responses.
I got some unexpected gifts from seeing a billboard reminding me that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Today’s post is about those gifts and the challenge of appreciating the mental health challenges we each face with compassion and understanding. I might not...
I’m writing from Dublin, a city that understands the math of motion. It was here that one of the most rapid wholesale migrations in history occurred. Driven by starvation during the potato famine, and met with deafening silence and inaction from England just across the water, the Irish scattered. They fled to New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. They were nomads created by desperation and hostility from those abusing their power, and they were often treated poorly by their new homelands.
It’s often unclear what sparks curiosity and where it leads. Recently, I found myself wondering about the founders of Netflix—remembering the early days of DVDs arriving by mail—and whether they were still involved.
A few days ago, I joined other Christians in celebrating Easter. Whether through faith or nature or personal choices, spring is for many a time of hope. Depending of course on where you live, “spring” may begin at different times of the year. Today’s reflections are about the connection between hope and action. This post is in part a response to the challenge in last week’s piece Anchoring Joy by A. Adar Ayira on how joy is a different experience for Black people than white people.
When U.S.-born Black people speak, write, commune on the topic of JOY with similar backgrounded strangers, family, and friends, our conversations share a common societal overlay: the magic of BLACK JOY; that Joy that is legacy and heritage born of pain, hope, struggle, and impossible odds. The conversation is bound in that context, as it is this history that Black people tend to reference and in which we tend to anchor our Joy.
Editor’s Note: Our guest co-author today is Meredith Heneghan, a young St. Paul, MN resident and activist. She is part of our monthly Racial Justice Conversations and shared this report at our March 2026 meeting about the long-term and lingering harm caused by ICE’s...
Today, many in the US and elsewhere pause to honor a Christian saint, St. Patrick. Faith is only part of the robust celebrations. People of all faiths and of none enjoy the parades, the celebrations, and the revelry that go with St. Patrick’s Day, a cultural as well as a religious holiday. My post today reflects on my experience of this special day and how it has helped shape my notions about heroes.
We live in extraordinary times. As Black History Month 2026 comes to a close, I find myself asking: What have I learned? And what commitment do I really have to making the study of Black history a personal priority — and to sharing what I learn, especially with my white friends?
Editor’s Note: This week’s post offers additional reflections from friend and retired nonprofit leader, Greg Cantori. Greg and his family moved from Baltimore to Spain in 2025. In this post, he shares how Spain is approaching immigration and “regularizing” people already there. While the country sizes are different; Spain’s approach offers a fresh possibility as our nation avoids the work of developing a just and win-win immigration policy and focuses on unwarranted punishment and cruel, fear-based enforcement of flawed policies.
Tom Adams writes and speaks on topics vital to the intersection of our personal lives with our community and global lives. He has for decades been engaged in and written about nonprofit leadership and transitions, spirituality and spiritual growth, how we each contribute to a more just and equitable world and recovery from addictions and the Twelve Step recovery movement.