OSLA Graduate Spotlight: Four Questions and a Blessing — Rev. Ava Schlesinger
A monthly spotlight celebrating One Spirit’s kaleidoscope of alumni – each a prism of lived experience, reflecting radiant, raw, and beautifully human expressions of sacred action and service.
My name is Rev. Ava Schlesinger. I am a 2012 graduate of One Spirit Seminary and former board member and 2nd-year dean. Each month, I’ll turn the lens of curiosity toward a graduate whose work reflects One Spirit’s vision to: “inspire and advance the evolution of sacred consciousness in service to individuals, communities, and the earth.”
To launch this series, I’ve been invited to begin with my own story. I will do my best to humbly, openly, and honestly share a little about my own One Spirit – choose-your-own-adventure experience. It is a journey, probably much like your own, weaving my lived personal and professional experience with a desire to be of purpose and service in this profoundly complicated, and sacred, human life.
What first called you to One Spirit?
At the time, I had just finished a two-year respite from a decade of clinical social work, most of it spent with adults healing from childhood sexual abuse. I had been completely burned out, but I was beginning to feel ready to reengage with work in some way. My daughter had just left for Oberlin College to study world religions and began sending me her papers to edit. I was fascinated and somehow lit up. I wanted to study, too – not to get a degree or become a minister necessarily, but to explore the language of meaning and metaphor her writing had awakened in me.
I began searching for programs, but every M.Div. or doctoral program I found felt too Christian-centered (I identify as Jewish), too bound by a tradition that didn’t quite fit. Then, almost by accident, I stumbled upon One Spirit. With few expectations and a lot of excitement, I began my first year of seminary.
My first year was goodish, though marked by ambivalence. One year under my belt and I could hardly use the word God in a sentence without cringing. I nearly dropped out after another student at the first-year intensive asked why I would be there if I didn’t have a deep and abiding belief in God. I remember feeling gutted – maybe they were right, maybe I didn’t belong, echoing a lifelong sense of not quite fitting in. Rev. David Wallace, who happened to be in earshot of the conversation, turned to me after the other student left and gently offered his wisdom. He suggested that if I wasn’t sure what I believed, then I was actually in exactly the right place. We spoke for a while – eager to have more of this kind of conversation, I chose to stay on for year two.
David ended up being my second-year dean, and under his guidance and companionship, I began to understand that the word God – a word I had always resisted – was, for me, interchangeable with the word Love. That realization reshaped so much of what had become a barrier to surrendering to what I have come to understand as God. One Spirit had gifted me with language and meaning for what I had already been living; for this I will be forever grateful.
Do you identify as a minister in the world?
I really do, but it might surprise you to hear that what I am doing is tattooing. Just as Covid was lifting, I longed to get off Zoom and be in the presence of living, breathing people. In the recesses of my mind, I remembered that I had heard about tattoo artists who were tattooing areolas and nipples on people who had lost their own due to cancer, trans-affirming top surgery, or other surgical procedures. Before I was a social worker, I had been an art director, and I had this wild idea that this would be an amazing intersection of my training as an artist, trauma therapist, and minister.
I will tell you that the learning curve was much steeper than I expected, but I refused to give up. I have been a tattoo artist for about four years at this point. I fully see my work as a ministry of touch, trust, and transformation – a continuation of what I first learned at One Spirit: that love is the Divine at work in the world. I have a mission to offer this service to anyone who wants it, using a sliding scale which makes it affordable and accessible to all.
Each session is a collaboration, a sacred exchange between my client and me. Whether I’m restoring an areola after breast cancer or trans-affirming surgery, camouflaging a scar, or creating fine-line art that marks a personal milestone, the work is always about helping individuals find a sense of healing and wholeness. It’s a ministry of presence as much as of skill. I listen, breathe, and move slowly, allowing this artistry to become a language of healing. For many, the process becomes a quiet ritual of reclamation – body, story, and spirit realigned. In this space, the sacred isn’t lofty or distant; it lives in the ordinary, or rather, extraordinary moment when someone looks in the mirror and sees their beauty, grace, healing, and wholeness reflected back.
Where do your personal experiences intersect with your capacity to serve?
About nine months ago, this question stopped being a soft background rumination asking me to live into my work with consciousness and presence. Just as I was finally ready to concentrate on marketing and networking with the hopes of building my tattoo practice, my 33-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Everything in me shifted – my sense of time, of purpose, of what really matters. The very work I do for others – helping people reclaim their bodies after trauma and surgery – suddenly became the work I was watching my own child prepare to need.
There’s a wound that opens when you love someone who is suffering, and at the same time, there seems to be an ancient knowing that rises to meet it. My capacity to serve has grown right alongside my heartbreak. The empathy I thought I understood has deepened into something bone-deep and raw. Some days I think I should just close my practice, and other days it feels like I am in exactly the right place at the right time. If inclined, please add my daughter Brianna to your prayers… it would mean a lot.
My daughter’s journey has stripped away any sense of separation between my life, my work, and my very existence in the world. I’ve come to a brand-new understanding of the illusion of separateness – there truly is no ‘other.’ I know I’m supposed to appreciate this awareness, but sometimes the illusion feels easier, even comforting, and I find myself longing for it to return in all its misunderstood glory! This experience has been a very difficult part of my journey, both professionally and personally.
At this juncture, I am giving myself permission to allow time and space to intersect with my plan to focus on building my business; I am honestly and authentically (perhaps for the very first time) not attached to the outcome. My intention is for my tattoo studio to flourish as I aim to serve, but it’s also OK if that is not how the story unfolds. I surrender.
What do you hope future ministers learn from your journey?
I would love to inspire a living, breathing notion that you don’t need to fit your ministry into a box someone else built – especially if you feel as if what you have to offer isn’t good enough, important enough, or traditionally ‘ministerial’ enough. I believe that, especially right now, the world needs ministers in boardrooms and at protest marches, behind the scenes and on the front lines.
We are needed in tattoo studios, art studios, kitchens, hospitals, animal shelters, courtrooms, and classrooms – you get the idea. Truly, we need to show up anywhere and everywhere where love, courage, authenticity, and vulnerability move the needle toward love, peace, and connection. I believe with all my heart that the light we carry from One Spirit is infinite; it never fades, even when we feel we aren’t ‘doing’ enough – it simply bends and refracts, finding its way into the world through the diverse, creative paths our divine energy chooses.
If you could offer a blessing to your fellow One Spirit graduates/students, what would it be?
May your work find you, even when you feel lost.
May you remember that ministry wears many disguises – a brush, a spreadsheet, a prayer, a meal.
May you trust that what you offer matters, even when no one’s watching.
Thank you for taking the time to read this first offering of Sacred Refractions. My hope is that something in it touches a chord, reminds you of your own unfolding, or simply lets you feel a little less alone on this wild, sacred path. The beauty of our One Spirit community is that the light and love keep moving – bending, shimmering, and finding new forms through each of us.
If you’re a graduate or student of seminary or ISCC whose work in the world reflects that light, and you want to share your story, I would love to hear from you (contact me: beautyandgraceink@gmail.com) so that we can discuss spotlighting you in the future. Sacred Refractions is meant to be a living conversation – a collection of stories that show how ministry continues to take shape in every imaginable place and form.
With love and curiosity,
Ava
P.S. If you or anyone you know might like more information about paramedical tattooing, areola repigmentation, or scar camouflage, please visit my website at https://www.beautyandgraceink.com/ or Instagram @beautyandgraceinknyc.
