A brave, uncensored, virtual playground for spiritual leaders of all ages, gender expressions, sexual orientations, belief systems and experience levels are invited to come play with us! On Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings, we come together to collaborate, support, and inspire each other to change the world–for good.

Wanna see if I”m coming to your city? Check out the schedule below! Hit me up if you’d like to meet up for a coffee or lunch.

Sunday, April 7th - Las Vegas CSL

Sunday, April 14th - Celebration CSL in Falls Church, VA

Sunday April 21st - Raleigh, NC

Sunday, May 26th - Ahiah CSL, Pasadena, CA

Check out next month’s newsletter for an update. Or if you know of a center in the area that may be interested in booking me, hook me up!

I spent most of Black History Month arguing with country music fans on Facebook about how Beyonce’s entrance into the genre spotlights how black artists are typically excluded. But I also traveled to Charleston, SC to use my voice to advocate for marginalized people in Centers for Spiritual Living communities around the world.

Spirit woke me up in the middle of the night with a call to launch the #BestDayEverMovement on January 1, 2021. Twenty days later, my family was hit with devastating news. I never stopped living each day as the best day ever. But the lawsuit that followed prevented me from posting about the movement on social media.

The day of my wife’s surgery on her broken wrist AND elbow, Spirit gave us exactly what we needed. The perfect bingeable TV series. The description was intriguing: “Non-binary millennial Sabi – the youngest child of Pakistani parents — navigates love, career, and family.” We stayed up all night watching the first two seasons.

The reality of being in a committed relationship with someone I feel spiritually linked with has a lot more depth beyond the pomp and circumstance of ceremony and Hallmark greetings. A healthy marriage involves deep healing, and that work is not shiny or pretty.

Since 2020, the Fourth of July hasn’t been ringing true in my heart. It began in June of that year, when a conversation about race blazed throughout the country. I was suddenly hit with the realization that I’d spent my entire life trying to conform to a standard of whiteness that I could never reach. This quality had been passed down from my ancestors, who made this decision for their own survival. In one moment, I finally understood that assimilation was no longer required of me. For generations, my ancestors advocated for my right to freedom. In 2020, I was inspired to allow my authentic self to shine through and live the life of freedom I deserve.

While smoking a blunt and playing Candy Crush, it hit me. It’s AMAZING that we could roll a blunt in front of our employer during a spiritual service where I served as host. No one thought twice about it. In Oklahoma City, I hosted an open, affirming and safe space to ask the question, “What is God?” in the middle of a queer bar. This is the vision of Spirit Uncensored, brought to life.

I shouldn’t be surprised that Spirit nudged me to reconnect with my dad on the day before I am set to lead a virtual event called, “Peace Begins With Me”. My father and I haven’t spoken in years…we only connect via email. The last email I received from him was last July, and it’s been sitting unread in my inbox the entire time. He’s been doing his best to make peace with me, and I refused.

Spirit Uncensored was “supposed” to be a monthly event. Before we started, it became clear that we were building a spiritual community. “I wasn’t trying to be a minister,” I said. “I’m a TV executive! I don’t have time to run a spiritual center and lead a spiritual community.”

I didn’t watch Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle. I didn’t know anything about it until after it aired. But that’s when I started to see hate speech about biracial people circulating across social media.

The chaos at the Capitol building is a symptom of the gaping, festering and unhealed wound in America. The stark difference in law enforcement’s preparation for today’s electoral college confirmation and a Black Lives Matter protest is notable.

The purpose of the #BestDayEverMovement is to inspire each one of us to live each day expecting to experience the best day ever. This intention still requires us to identify and heal our trauma. So my mother and I are leading a nine-week book study on The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson.

In 2016, I wrote a blog called #LoveWins to respond to the election of Donald Trump. I was very careful not to offend Trump supporters in that blog. For the last four years, I’ve been silent about my own feelings about Trump because unity is very important to me.

Choosing to be the change we wish to see in the world is easier said than done. Have you ever tried speaking up for love, oneness and peace while living through a global pandemic and a civil rights revolution in a seemingly politically divided country? Many of you know that it’s possible, but not easy.

Then the Civil Rights Revolution started. I was in the middle of applying for three different TV writing fellowships, facing deadlines in the same weekend that LA was on fire. In the month of May, I wrote two new comedy scripts all while balancing my full-time job as a TV executive and my unpaid job as a senior minister. I didn’t have time to give the revolution my attention. I had shit to do. 

At last year’s NextGEN retreat, I was introduced to Shit-Talking Karen. Now that I know her, I can catch her whispering her fears and anxieties in my ear. I’ve gotten my power back. Listening for Shit-Taking Karen has led to the discovery of another voice in my head. I call her Rev. Karen. These voices in my head may seem like the crazy ramblings of a minister gone mad. If it helps, I just read Playing Big by Tara Mohr. Mohr describes these voices as the “Inner Critic” and the “Inner Mentor”.

As a half-black, half-Jewish lesbian, I thought I had a pretty clear understanding of what it’s like to be a minority in America. Then an uprising started and knocked me off of my high horse. Each of my identities comes with its own challenge. In 2011, my wife and I got married in Chicago and traveled to Iowa to make it legal. The irony was that Iowa was the one place where I most felt unwelcome.

After spending time in reflection on #BlackOut Tuesday, I realized it’s time to share some of my story with y’all. Nine years ago, I moved to LA to become the next Norman Lear. I still haven’t seen the inside of a TV writers room. For two years, I had several UNPAID internships. One of them required a 40-hour work week. I was expected to work for free, but I wasn’t learning anything. 

We’re having a conversation about race that we’re not used to having. We’re all uncomfortable. We’re ashamed of others’ actions and we’re ashamed of our own. As a global community, every version of “normal” has been disrupted. Some of us are having an easier time coping with it than others.