Chrysalis News

Finding Center in a New Season

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCSeptember 26, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

The change of seasons rarely arrives quietly. It sweeps in with a flurry of uncertainty and excitement—new roles, shifting relationships, unexpected transitions—and can leave us feeling untethered. Whether it’s a seasonal change or a change that we have chosen, or a change that has chosen us, the experience can feel both like the opening of a gift or like standing in the middle of a storm....

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The Quiet Art of Witnessing When the World Seems So Loud

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCSeptember 19, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

There are days when the noise of the world feels relentless—news cycles that churn, notifications that buzz, a culture that rewards the loudest voices and the quickest takes. When everything clamors for our reaction, the quiet art of witnessing can feel almost radical. To witness is to stay present without rushing to fix, to listen without interrupting, to see without turning away. It is an...

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Beloved

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCSeptember 12, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

“And did you get what you wanted from this life?”I did.And what did you want?To call myself beloved, to feel myself Beloved on the Earth.”– Raymond Carver There are certain words that stop us in our tracks, catching in the chest and lingering like an echo. For me, Carver’s lines have always been among them. They are simple words, almost understated. Yet within them lies the deepest human...

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988 Day: “You Are Not Alone”

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCSeptember 5, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

As a mental health professional and one who believes deeply in services for all, ‘988 Day’ is not just a day but a day I feel is important to be noted. So, for this week’s Chrysalis message, I am focusing on the importance and significance of 988. On July 16, 2022, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched as an easily remembered, nationwide number for anyone experiencing a mental...

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Letting Go: The Spirit and Ritual of Zozobra

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCAugust 29, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

Every September, approximately 65,000 people gather in Santa Fe to watch Old Man Gloom go up in flames. Zozobra—a 50-foot marionette, built from wood, wire, and cloth—is stuffed with shredded paper bearing the written worries, sorrows, and disappointments of the past year. When the torch is set and the fire takes hold, Old Man Gloom roars and groans, and collapses into ash, symbolizing the...

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Presence Over Perfection

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCAugust 22, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

For years, I worked diligently to be perfect – the perfect employee; the perfect pastor; the perfect therapist; the perfect partner; the perfect parent; the perfect friend. What I discovered is perfection has a way of creeping into our lives disguised as ambition, responsibility, or care. I so deeply wanted to be the best parent; the strongest and most steadfast leader; the most faithful and...

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Waymarking and the Art of Waymaking

by Rev. Dr. Kelly Jackson Brooks. LPCCAugust 15, 2025 Uncategorized0 comments

Long before GPS and step-counting apps, travelers relied on waymarks to guide them along unknown roads —simple stones, painted arrows, or carved symbols marked their path. On Spain’s Camino de Santiago, the scallop shell and yellow arrow appear again and again, marking the path for pilgrims from all over the world. They do more than direct—they reassure: Yes, you are still on the way....

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Transitions & a Cup of Coffee

I am a big fan of coffee – church coffee, boutique coffee, Starbucks. It does not completely matter to me if my coffee originates from an espresso maker crafted ever so carefully with beautiful artwork showing through the foam from the local coffee shop, or straight from the verismo tucked in the corner of my office. I just enjoy my coffee.

I am also a fan of sharing sacred conversations with those dearest and most important to me over something as simple or complex as a cup of coffee. Conversations that are light and fun that share in celebrations and excitement, and conversations that sit on the soul in a different way. It’s the conversations of life, and laughter, tears, frustrations, broken relationships, and reconciliation. I enjoy a full life of connection.

I find myself this season seeped in sacred conversations embodied by the topic of transitions. These sacred conversations are conversations I find myself having with others as well as with myself. Transitions that include relationship shifts, employment discernment, and faith community affiliations. And yes, these conversations often happen over a simple, yet complex cup of coffee which for me, serves as a reminder of that which is a constant in my life – a grounding if you will to what is present, now.

I encourage each of you to find your grounding – in the midst of simple and complicated and complex conversations which is what makes life so very rich. Seek out those whom you love and care for dearly, and share in this grounding wherever those moments take you.

Grace & Peace,

The Chrysalis Team