hi, i’m lucy

My name means light or light-bearer.

I am the descendent of European ancestors from Germany, France, and the British Isles.

I am a somatics coach, politicized spiritual leader, mom, land-tender, ritualist, writer and organizer.

I work at the intersections of spirit, embodiment and justice to support the emergence of our collective liberation. After ten years as a pastor and community organizer, I am now focused on weaving together cultural change and organizing for material change, with the body at the center. I am particularly called toward engaging other racialized-white people in embodied anti-racism practice, as I am always deepening my own.

my commitments

also…what I trust

I have long trusted that our spiritual life is not so different from our political life.

What we give our attention to, what we trust, and what we practice are spiritual matters. And – these shape how we show up in our political life. Let me be more precise about what I mean when I say “political”: it is how we show up in the public square to navigate what it means to be a human living in community. Our spiritual practice and our public life reflect one another.

I do this work for the freedom of our own human bodies and for the liberation of all beings.

The history of enslavement, colonization, white-supremacy and heteropatriarchy have taken their toll on our bodies. These toxic structures have nurtured cultures of domination and have been embedded not only in our policies, but in our culture, ritual, & stories. We live inside of cultures of trauma, and we have the power to both perpetuate and resist them. Embodied ritual and practice support our struggle for our own liberation and the liberation of all beings.

We must work with the body to nurture change.

Somatic practice, weaving new rituals and organizing for material change are all powerful modalities I interact with to support the undoing of these toxic ways of being. These are all related to our embodiment, or more simply put, how we show up in the world. I view the body and the natural world (of which our body is a part) as sites to encounter the divine, to practice trusting our intuition as a source of the divine, and as places where we can practice bringing our bodies and lives into alignment with our values and our longings. I trust that the body will guide the way and that we have what we need to care for ourselves and one another.

We must build up a new way of being, we must practice what we dream.

I have tried for many years to think or believe the right thing. And I have been a part of many communities that operate in the same way. What I have learned is that we cannot just think or intend change — we must practice what we want to become — with our bodies. There will be mistakes along the way, and we will learn, and grow. I fully trust now that we cannot leave our bodies behind in this process. The path to get there requires that we practice — together.

Everyone deserves healing support, I work with people with all identities and from any social location.

I believe everyone deserves support in their healing journeys. I will work with you and support you just as you are, letting the change you desire be our guide.

Our collective liberation comes from healing in the collective.

We all have personal grief and healing work to tend. And I trust that our healing personally is connected to how we are hurting and healing as a community or society. I bring questions, curiosities and worldview that see you and your path as a part of an interconnected web of life that is always struggling to move toward more life. Let’s get curious about how your pain and your longings connect to the whole.

how i arrived at these offerings

I could tell you a story about my education and my qualifications. But what I want to share is how I have been shaped. And how I choose to “shape back” the world.

I was shaped by a small rural midwestern town that was run by a major international chemical company. I grew up in the class of people who managed others but didn’t quite own the big capital. I didn’t know what it meant to be midwestern or white until I went south for school. I have been shaped by the soulfulness of the south and the resilience + devastation of a majority black city in the so-called United States.

I have been shaped by mainline Christianity, both from childhood and as one of the “ordained.” It is from that texture that I learned the power of chosen family. There I also learned how to prioritize my mind + right belief over my body (something I have been tenaciously unlearning).

I have been shaped by the gift of being trusted by whole communities of people to guide them/us toward truth and love and to tend the hearts of those who are lonely, scared and passionate.

I have been shaped by working in and around the carceral systems of our communities.

I have been shaped by grief — by the loss of so many people + by the grief that manifests in the streets when the people say, “no more!”

I have been shaped by the messy work of being a part of a people who rise up to imagine and fight for something different in public.

I have been shaped by the cedar stands and the oceans of freshwater that surround me.

I have been shaped by practicing parenthood — reckoning with shame and perfectionism and overwhelming love all at once.

I could go on.

These are the contours that have shaped me and bring me to this particular season to make these offerings you find here on this site. Because, you see, we get to shape back the world, too! We each, daily, are a part of shaping a world that is always emerging into something new, a world that will continue to shape others. And so I offer myself in these ways for the sake of shaping back the world to move toward what I long for.

I long for a world:

where we all get to bring our full selves into the room
where we are in relationship with our own bodies + the earth in ways that nourish all beings
where we get to celebrate + grieve the fullness of our lives with collective care and vulnerability
where all beings are free from domination and extraction
where we each get more clear about the rigorous work that is each of ours to tend while here.

There are things we encounter and there are things we make. We are shaped and we get to shape back.

I want to work with both.