Nov 18Dear Harvard CommunityShame on us. Dear Harvard Community, Rumi tells us “raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” Here is my rain: My name is Ariel O’Donnell. I am a first year MDiv student at Harvard Divinity School. At the beginning of this term, I…3 min read3 min read
Nov 12The Cost of My OilMeditations on the Price of our Presence For the last four months I have been attending my first year of Divinity School. I have met gorgeous souls, warm and soft and wise. I have had wonderful conversations, sat in nourishing classrooms, and had my mind enriched profoundly in this short…2 min read2 min read
Feb 21Knocking on Harvard’s DoorContemplations on applying to Divinity School I wanted to publish this piece now so that it is fully honest and not overshadowed by whatever my admissions decision is. In January 2023, I applied to Harvard Divinity School (HDS). In February, I was notified that I was invited for an interview…4 min read4 min read
Dec 21, 2022Grandmother’s ChuckleContinued Meditation from https://medium.com/@ajko/waking-up-b0804d136460 Love chuckled “where you have always been. Eden. Home. Here. With me. You never left.” And I opened my eyes. I wept. I got up and walked with Love. // I opened my eyes, because I recognized the chuckle. I wept, because Love embodied to this body was before it. I got up and walked with my grandmother.1 min read1 min read
Dec 20, 2022Waking UpIt was a liminal path, that opened to the forest. Neither dusk nor dawn, but both. Into the clearing I entered. There was a collection of kindle in the center. From the trees, figures started coming forth. I knew each one. Doubt Faith Hope Shame Hate Grief Anger Happiness So…2 min read2 min read
Feb 23, 2022Faith and HarmFinding Divinity in Our Capacity to Tend Wounds. I have spent my life finding G-d among the Darkness. It is quiet there, calm in a way. It is a terrifying peace. A difficult solitude. As a child, I had difficulty understanding why we didn’t pray for “demons”. I was surrounded…3 min read3 min read
Feb 15, 2022Healing After HarmNavigating the fallout after abuse in a radical nonprofit It has been over two years since I resigned from my post at a nonprofit I fervently believed in — and continue to believe in. In these last two years, I have struggled through silence, shame, emotional distress, and eventual acceptance…11 min read11 min read
Feb 9, 2021Thoughts After Pesach 2020I am a Jew. I am a Jew who wasn’t raised in a Jewish home. Nor were either of my parents, or their parents, or their parents. Judaism in my family was left in the dark a very long time ago. If my grandmother had not told me her stories…6 min read6 min read
Feb 5, 2021The Person Who Suffers from Narcissism, Deserves Empathy TooWe live in a world that is obsessed with the narrative of the Narcissist and the Empath. The feeler and the one who supposedly devours all emotion. But, I want to discuss this narrative in a more intimate way. We all have the capacity to be both. I have been…3 min read3 min read
Jun 2, 2019The Great, Compassionate UndoingHealing From Abuse That Did Not Begin With Your Abuser Abuse is an ancestor. It is a living, breathing infection that festers through lineage for generations. It is a parasite. One that always knows which host to occupy. And there is only one cure to this sickness. You. If we…Abuse5 min readAbuse5 min read
