Loneliness is as Harmful as Smoking: Why Connection Matters

By Rev. Beth Long-Higgins, VP of Engagement and director of the Center for Abundant Aging  •  November 25, 2025

Years before the COVID-19 pandemic, I attended a conference hosted by the American Society on Aging. One session featured Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, whose research left a lasting impression. She shared a striking statistic: the health risks of loneliness and isolation in older adults are comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. I don’t usually remember numbers well, but that one stuck. And when I’ve shared it with others, the reaction is often disbelief—Really? That can’t be!

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Sound & Silence

By Lisa B. Thomas  •  February 23, 2023

This is the final entry in our “Beyond December” themed blogs.

God's Other Name is Always Surprise!

By Rev. Dr. Bobbie McKay  •  February 16, 2023

I was an ordinary housewife, living in a suburb outside of Chicago with three children and one husband, one dog and a life plan that was not exactly written in..

Fill Us with the Light of Day

By Rev. John Gantt  •  February 09, 2023

It was the eve of Christmas Eve. Fourteen family members were present. Thirty others looked in via Zoom.

Taking My Breath Away

By Lisa B. Thomas  •  February 02, 2023

Sometimes it takes my breath away when I see the capacity for humankind to be unthinking, unkind and cruel to one another. Treating others with disregard and meanness..

Light Breaking Through the Dreariness

By Rev. Ruth D. Fitzgerald  •  January 26, 2023

Want to use these Abundant Aging blogs as a resource for individual reflection or small group discussion? Beginning with today’s blog, you will find questions at the..

Beyond December

By Rev. Beth Long-Higgins, VP of Engagement and director of the Center for Abundant Aging  •  January 19, 2023

Leading up to Christmas, did you, like me, wish for snow on Christmas morning? Could you picture the idyllic scene of the fresh white blanket covering everything in..

When God Becomes Real

By Rev. Dr. Bobbie McKay  •  January 12, 2023

I was at my computer, minding my own business, when Lew walked by my desk carrying a Bible. Lew is my husband and we both worked at home. It wasn’t too unusual to see..

Maturing through Selection, Elimination & Emphasis

By Rev. Dr. Kenneth Daniel  •  January 05, 2023

Within a week of starting a seminary internship in Minneapolis, I was packed into a van with a youth group on an adventure to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Going from the big..

The Baby

By Lisa B. Thomas  •  December 29, 2022

Notes from my journal December 2010…