Jenna DeWitt (she/her) is a sapphic aromantic asexual writer, editor, and resource curator. You can find her work — including essays, poetry, resource lists, and podcast episodes—at InvisibleCakeSociety.com,on Twitter @Jenna_DeWitt, or Threads @JennaDewitt.
Posts By This Author
ADHD Showed Me I Wasn't a Spiritual Failure
A person holds a fidget spinner. Dzmitry Kliapitski / Alamy via Reuters Connect
If you had told me 11 years ago at my first contemplative retreat that I had ADHD, I would have been skeptical. I was an organized, overachieving Enneagram 3, a bookworm, and a grown professional woman — not a small bouncy boy disturbing his classroom because of his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The problem, I was told by all around me, was that I lacked spiritual discipline. But just a few hours into the retreat on a Saturday afternoon, I had to admit I wasn’t excelling at the assignment of stillness and silence.
Asexual and Aromantic People Are Often Forgotten, But God Sees Us
Design by Tiarra Lucas/Sojourners.
Asexuality and aromanticism describe those whose orientations are often defined by lack and rarity. We’re atypical in that we don’t experience sexual and/or romantic attraction, or when we do, it’s the exception to the rule or under certain conditions. We’re inconvenient to remember — on all sides of the political and religious spectrums.