Leiah Bowden Lightspeak Blog

In 2017, I sat in quiet appreciation as Sally, a fellow member of my congregation, led a guided visualization during the Yizkor section...

They are the opening lines of a prayer I have loved since first hearing it as a child in my Reform Jewish temple in Schenectady, NY.

I am at ease...Peace is who I am. Peace is what I send to you. Peace is what I am. Peace in balance I now. Finally, peace in balance.

I am on the final day of my weekly three-day grand-daughter duty. We are sitting at her sweet white desk and she is showing me the...

Created as the February 12, 2021 drash, or sermon, for Congregation Ner Shalom. The image refers both to the idea of a hungry mob,...

"It is never easy to relinquish the safe harbor.”

How absolutely astounding, she thought. Being an artist is confounding, and so lovely. Look what I’ve done, she thought,

the ravaging of this creek I learned to love as I walked for my health and joy is what COVID has done, destroying what was.

My former husband, Lee, slowed down in every way by Parkinson’s Disease,  lives in a nursing home where I visit him once a week, and...

Or maybe that’s not enough. Maybe the affirmation should be: “I’ve come into enough money to solve all the world’s problems and establish...

I’ve begun a new venture: a part-time revival of the strategic communications consulting practice that helped send Seth to college while...