Amy Sander Montanez, D.Min., LMFT, LPC

09/26/2025

02/21/2024

https://sites.google.com/view/faithathome/seven-last-words/seven-last-words-father-forgive-them

I was honored to be one of seven contributors to this set of essays published almost 10 years ago. It is being re-published by this Lent and I will publish each of the seven on Wednesdays. May it be a meditation for your Lenten discipline.

German expressionist Edvard Munch, Golgata (1900, oil painting, The Munich Museum), downloaded 1/21/2021 from Wikiart.

01/05/2024

So beautiful and true.

2023 was a hard year for millions of people, and the advent of 2024 will do nothing to change that fact. But for a couple of millennia, that midnight tick of the clock has given us a ritual moment to imagine rebirth for ourselves and our world—and imagination matters.

No matter how world-weary I become, spending time with infants or young children rekindles my spirit. In this treasured photo, my granddaughter Naiya takes me to the growing edge of her world by explaining one of its many mysteries. Her eyes are wide with wonder, her hands alive with speech, and her expression says, “Grandpa, I'm going to keep talking until you get it!” (FYI, the topic was important: little-known facts about turtles.)

I’m following Naiya intently for many reasons: I love her, every child deserves respectful attention, and kids remind me that the world is full of wonders that jaded eyes will never see. The burdens of adult life are real, but they are not the whole of reality. Only by seeing the world’s magic as well as its misery can we create a reality that will serve our kids well.

So I'm heading into 2024 with an aspiration to “get it” by looking at life thru the eyes of a child—while using my adult awareness and power to do whatever good I can. Buddhists call it "beginner's mind,” a vital corrective to the cynicism that comes when we allow harsh realities to darken our imaginations and diminish our energies. It's a way of looking at the world that makes fresh starts possible at home, at work, and in politics.

As we move into the New Year, I’ll be reflecting on what Howard Thurman calls “the growing edge” of my life. What is yours? May 2024 be a year in which we grown-ups find new life in ourselves to help make a world fit for the children. In that spirit I wish you and yours a creative and engaged New Year!

UPDATE: The granddaughter in the photo emailed me last week, asking if I would check out her college application essay. Time flies!

[My 10 books are at http://tiny.cc/4bgivz AND http://tiny.cc/5rcmuz.]

08/04/2023

What choices are you making today?

07/04/2023

Maybe that flag is at half mast... Maybe it’s on the way up... Maybe it's on the way down...

Wherever the U.S.A. is in its journey as a democracy, the next steps are in our hands, the hands of We the People.

I stand with the late, great Molly Ivins who said, “I do like the idea of supporting democracy and think we should try it—especially here in the U.S. of A.”

I wish everyone a thoughtful Independence Day!

04/09/2023

Happy Easter! Practice Resurrection!

When I was a kid, Easter was all about dyeing hard-boiled eggs and trying to score more candy than my sisters. Today, I experience Easter as a gutsy, in-your-face affirmation that life will overcome death. In a world where power clings to power by threatening us with death, Easter says, “Life will always have the last word.”

We become agents of life when we refuse to stay silent in the face of Ukraine and other genocides, George Floyd, America’s gun madness, January 6, deceptions that undermine democracy, and political misleaders who talk like mob bosses. The Easter response to all of that is a simple affirmation of faith in action: “We shall overcome.”

Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto” wasn’t written as an Easter poem. But it’s full of clues from a poet-prophet about how to live in the spirit that keeps hope alive:

• “Every day do something that won’t compute.”
• “Love someone who does not deserve it.”
• “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
• “Go with your love to the fields.”
• “Lose your mind” to throw the authorities off-track.
• “Practice resurrection.”

Every wisdom tradition I know includes a springtime celebration of the fact that life has the power to transcend death. Whatever your faith or philosophy may be, my wish is that you will cherish the gift of life, live it to the hilt, and practice resurrection in private and public. In the spirit of “L’Chaim!”, I wish you Easter hope, power, and joy! And if you can score some candy today, go for it!

[Poem from Wendell Berry’s http://tiny.cc/mi36vz. My 10 books are at tiny.cc/qocmuz AND http://tiny.cc/5rcmuz.]

12/15/2022

I have hesitated for several days now, thinking, praying, reading. I am not sure I can say what I want to say correctly, without hurting someone’s feelings, without stepping on some toes. I am not even sure I am gifted enough with words to write accurately what I believe deep in my core. I am…

10/27/2022

Listen now (72 min) | An urgent conversation with Professor Julie Ingersoll