Today we wish Holy Shenanigans a happy 2nd birthday... and talk about the intersection between faith, traumatic experiences, and trauma recovery with Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez.

About today's guest:
Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez is in the first call process toward ordination in Word and Sacrament ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her first book, A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance: A Love Story of Grief, Trauma, Healing, and Faith, is published by Chalice Press.  Ohman-Rodriguez is a frequent workshop presenter in trauma-informed spiritual care and also curates the Trauma Recovery Page at Compassionate Christianity.  She holds master’s degrees in early child development and divinity.

This weeks' poem:
It's only just the dawn

October’s chill is falling, fog is rolling, and crickets sigh. A train is on track with mourning’s blight and wheel clack in the mid-of-night.

There’s always something moving, even a drowsy lark.                                                    
There’s always changes coming, even in the deepest dark.

True mercy can’t be kept apart from the shadows of life and love. Mercy stretches her arms to embrace the whole sad world and breach the great divide.

 There’s always someone walking, in the sweaty heat of life.                                              
There’s always someone moving, shifting between dark and bright.

 Wandering souls aren’t lost, when they remember their cause. They hold tight to hope in the darkest night or the cold of an early frost.

 There’s always someone trying to tell you what you’ve done.                                            
There’s always someone saying, you’ve lost and it can’t be won.

 There’s a train that travels in mercy and it fills the world with grace. On this train all are welcome – it’s no matter of beauty, wealth or place.

There is One who says you’re accepted. There is One who extends all the grace.  
This is One who banishes the darkness and ushers in the morning light to shine on every face.

Don’t heed those words of worry. Don’t let them hold you down. 

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Join Tara for a free online discussion about wholehearted living on Sunday, August 24 at 6 pm EST.

The Wild Goose Festival is Thursday, August 28 to Sunday, August 31. It is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Come learn and grow by co-creating art, music, story, theater, and spectacle, and engaging in a wide variety of robust, courageous conversations with each other and with thought leaders and artists from other communities.

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020. Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America). She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.