New Blooms
Heather Casimere shares words of gratitude as she approaches Commencement, looking back on her time as a student and turning toward a new chapter.
Heather Casimere
An author and artist from the San Francisco Bay Area, Heather Casimere is a second-year MA in Theology & Culture student at The Seattle School. Prior to finding herself a transplant to the Pacific Northwest, Heather spent five years in New York City falling in love with Brooklyn. She recently completed her first collection of artwork, and has plans to revise her novel once she figures out this whole graduate school/adulting thing.
All Posts
Abba, Father
Heather Casimere writes about her complex relationship with her father—in all its beauty and all its pain—and about what that is teaching her about the God she calls Abba.
New Foundations
Heather Casimere looks back on her journey to Seattle and the work of deconstruction that comes before growing new foundations.
All the Stars Are Closer
Heather Casimere writes about how Black Panther opened up space for her to visualize, celebrate, and draw closer to who she is and where she comes from.
Playfulness
As we pursue hard, meaningful work and wrestle with challenging realities, Heather reminds us that a little bit of childlike playfulness can go a long way.
Afresh
As we continue to settle into 2018, Heather Casimere writes about how the Pacific Northwest’s wildness renewed her desire to pursue the work of healing and growth.
Intentionality of a Cargo Ship
My paternal grandfather was a great man. He was a flawed man, of course, but he was great. Broad-shouldered. Brown-skinned. Staunch-faced, yet quick to grin. He loved strong. Faithed-wide. One of the things he was, was a longshoreman. A few weeks ago, I attended a play with some friends. It took place in the old […]
Holy Anger
This fall, I began my fourth of six semesters at The Seattle School and simultaneously found that many expectations of where I’d be at this point in my life were fully falling apart. A year ago, I’d left behind a community of warmth, color, sunshine, and acceptance for a place that often felt ambivalent towards a brown (stranger) surrounded by mostly white (people) and gray (skies).
Resilience and Honor
In an email discussing this month’s theme on Intersections, the word resilience came up. As I pondered the words I would present for this month’s blog post in response to that word, it became apparent to me: who more readily embodies the word resilience than the black woman?
Belief in Times of Chaos
In times such as these, to believe in a good God can be a hard thing to “do.” It’s easy to fall back on nihilistic, cynical thinking when we are faced with the seemingly hopeless condition of the world. Sometimes life can be so full of hardship and disappointment that it influences the way we find ourselves believing.
Relinquishing the Reins for Promises in the Forest
What does it look like to relinquish control of our own lives and let the Spirit lead us into adventure and paths unknown? Here, Heather Casimere, a second-year MATC student at The Seattle School, reflects on the process of knowing God’s presence in the thick of the forest. Following the Holy Spirit leaves me more […]
The Things We Inherit
Self-awareness and a deep willingness to keep learning are both necessary to risk the kind of action that leads to meaningful change. Here, Heather Casimere, reflects on the complexity and cost of wrestling with her own identity as woman of color during the wake of Charleena Lyles’ death. The past few weeks have been challenging […]