Posted in Living In Community on Jul 16th, 2007 No Comments »
I couldn’t resist this article about the gunman who raided a D.C. area party, only to be thwarted by kindness when one of the party-goers extended hospitality to him. An incident that started with a man holding a gun to a 14-year-old girl’s head, ended with hugs and bewilderment for both parties involved: After the [...]
Posted in Living In Community on Jun 19th, 2007 3 Comments »
[edited to further clarify this a quality I strive for, not something I have already achieved.] Thinking more on the theme of hospitality, I made a connection that it doesn’t necessarily have to be something you practice within your home. The more I think on it, the more I’m understanding hospitality to be a state [...]
Posted in Grieving, Living In Community on Jun 18th, 2007 2 Comments »
I’m feeling weepy this morning, with a lump in my throat that is ready to burst into emotion at the first sign of lowered defenses. Perhaps I am hormonal this week, but on this Monday morning – the first time I have slowed down enough to process since returning from Minnesota – there is much [...]
Posted in Living In Community on Jun 6th, 2007 2 Comments »
Our pastor is preaching through the book of Nehemiah, which is about the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Jews had survived many years of exile. This week I was particularly struck by the celebration that took place after the wall was completed and the city was rebuilt. All the people gathered in the center square [...]
Posted in Living In Community on Jun 5th, 2007 3 Comments »
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about hospitality. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it so much that my mind is going in fourteen different directions, so I’m not sure how this post will turn out. When Bryan and I were courting (nice old fashioned word, eh?), one of the main things we discussed was [...]
Posted in Blog Stuff, Living In Community on Mar 29th, 2007 3 Comments »
On Monday evening (April 2) I will be participating in a round table discussion as a panelist with a group called The Kindlings. The topic is online community and whether it can be real and engaging to those involved. I’m very honored to be participating, and I hope it will help me flesh out some [...]
Posted in Blog Stuff, Living In Community on Mar 12th, 2007 8 Comments »
I’ve heard of other blogging groups getting together for meet-ups in the area, and thought it might be fun for the Friends of This Pile (heretofore called FoTP) to have a local Meet-Up as well! Are you interested? I’d love to meet you in person (those I don’t know already), and I think it would [...]
Posted in Blog Stuff, Living In Community on Mar 6th, 2007 No Comments »
If you’re anything like me (read: narcissistic), The Truman Show was the movie that made you want to smoke a cigarette when it was over. I could have made millions had I capitalized on my vivid childhood imagination, for I had envisioned ‘reality tv’ long before it was even a whisper in the womb. There [...]
Posted in Living In Community, On Writing on Nov 14th, 2006 3 Comments »
This is what I love the most about living in a walkable community – being The Regular. I walk into the Coffee/Wine Bar near my house and Charlie the Customer greets me, asking me how the book is coming along. He says he admires me for my consistency in setting aside time to write. The [...]
Posted in Friendship, Fun Pile, Living In Community on Sep 27th, 2006 4 Comments »
Posted in Friendship, Getting Things Done, Living In Community on Aug 24th, 2006 8 Comments »
We had so much fun last night – changing diapers in shifts and taking turns as the tickle monster – that it got me thinking about other ways to share the burden of otherwise isolating or mundane tasks, making them a bit more fun. For instance, before Thomas was born I had an ‘errand swap’ [...]
Posted in Friendship, Living In Community, Things, Zoe on Aug 9th, 2006 7 Comments »
Posted in Bryan, Getting Things Done, Learning, Living In Community, Video on Aug 9th, 2006 1 Comment »
Posted in Friendship, Learning, Living In Community, Zoe on Jun 29th, 2006 2 Comments »
The church I attend encourages congregational participation in the worship experience by providing opportunities for our congregants to share original poetry, responsive readings, essays, and personal stories during the course of the service. You’ve seen some of my projects, but I wanted to share another. This past Sunday a friend shared her story of faith [...]
Posted in Bryan, Living In Community, Things on Mar 31st, 2006 No Comments »
I feel so recharged right now. By the time Bryan gets home on Thursday nights I’m so exhausted from the week that I collapse into bed and nearly fall asleep before he does. (I say ‘nearly’ because I swear he’s half asleep by 9:30 regardless of where his physical body is located. Actually lying down [...]
Be warned: what you see here is not my best work. It is what Anne Lamott describes in Bird By Bird as a series of “shitty first drafts.” Blogging dragged me kicking and screaming out of creative constipation by getting me to actually write. So I do that. A lot. Without worrying about every word choice or comma placement.
Want to know more? Read my full About Page.
"Sanity Hacks of a 