Well, we’re trying to take off for Pasadena. I was invited to a Fuller/Allelon consultation of some sort. I believe it has to do with updating seminary education for the postmodern era, but truthfully I’m not entirely sure. There were a lot of interesting folks on the invite list, so though I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be to the discussion, I thought it would be good to go and get in on some thoughtful conversation from some really sharp minds.

While we were trying to pack (the whole fam is going) Catie jumped off my bed and impaled her leg on a big fat bamboo KNITTING NEEDLE. I had to pull at least an inch of the needle out … {read more…}

Guest post by my hubby, Paul. It’s long, but you need to forgive him. He doesn’t get out much.

We got dressed up last night (Rachelle looked good) and went to the U2 concert in Seattle. Great show. Low key; the flash of ZooTV is gone. Interesting but simple stage, with these giant screens made of light bulb curtains.

In Bono’s campaign to bring attention to the problems in Africa, they did mention World Vision, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Data, and the One campaign.

Bono is loony. At one point he was crawling—slithering even—down the elliptical runway through the audience. He pulled three people onto the … {read more…}

Sorry. I don’t have time to blog. I have to go see U2.

Karen’s got some pics up from Rise, the Easter vigil/party we participated in. Paul and I set up a confessional based on Post Secret. Folks anonymously posted thier confessions into a secret ballot type box. Later I hung them up on clotheslines. Every once in awhile someone would go up and pass them through a shredder that hung over the dance floor. So the falling party confetti from the shredder became a sort of absolution.

3:45pm….

I don’t know what could be cuter than a little pink tutu hanging over the edge of a tire swing while the ballerina’s hair whips around so fast you cannot even see her laughing, freckeled face.

7:10 pm….

Unless it’s a little girl running about making flower soup on the front lawn, while dressed in only a belly-enhancing pink leotard and a walrus mask fashioned out of a paper plate.

We went on a Women’s Retreat last weekend. It’s surprising how easy it is to plan a retreat when there are only five of you. Everyone sprang into action, each taking on a meal, or preparing snacks. Fiona gathered up some thoughts and activities from The Artists Way. Tonya threw Zoolander. Everyone remembered their swimsuits. It was easy, and womanly, and well…great!

Being with these women so effortlessly reminded me of my first big event as an ordained minister at the big church – a women’s retreat for 50-80 people. We had to have a planning committee and a host of consecutively running workshop and activities –everything from yoga to … {read more…}

4-6-05

I’ve been thinking about the nature of sadness. It’s is a slippery viscous thing – sliding away when one expects it to be present, clinging to you when no actual cause is within reach. Whenever something terribly sad happens in my life, my wise, well meaning mentoring lovies advise me to be attentive to the sorrow, to sit with it as needed. And I do, usually. Only it’s never as deep as I expect it to be. It’s never, very…well…timely.

Today I am inexorably sad. Why, you ask? Well, because last night I found out that I am knitting wrong.

Apparently I twist and untwist my stitches oddly. “It’s the Eastern technique, you see,” explains my knitting teacher, “as opposed to … {read more…}

I got to play with the apostles at COTA’s Mission Shaped Learning Party yesterday. My topic for the tour was art/liturgy/worship. I ran out of resource handouts, so for those of you who wanted them, here they are posted as promised.

Oh, and I know y’all will have other resources that I’ve forgotten to include. So deposit them in the comments, will ya?

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Looking for resources? Just start clicking around and you’ll find a passel of ‘em. Just a few reminders from someone who’s traveled this road a bit:

Context, Context, Context. Please, please, please don’t just download something that “worked’ for somebody else and project it onto your wall. Remember who you are as a community and who you are endeavoring … {read more…}

We’ve had a name change lately, and as much as I love our ThPM logo, it’s time for a new look. We need a monkfish. A monkfish with a sense of humor…and a tonsure…and maybe prayer beads. So if you are a graphic artist, or a connoisseur of all things comic, or even if you just like to doodle, give it your best shot and send us a monkfish. We’ll pick our favorite and send the lucky winner 100 bucks as a “thank you.” What do you say?

So here’s what you need to know:

1. Monkfish are funny. They have big mouths and enormous heads and one of those

… {read more…}

People often ask me about Paul. What does he do? Is he just waiting with baited breath until Monkfish is big enough to “support” us and he can quit Microsoft and start pastoring? What’s his role at the Abbey?

1) He’s a program manager (PM) in DTUE at Microsoft. Ask him what he does and he’ll say “I tell people to program stuff for a program for programmers.” You won’t get anything else. It has an air of “I could tell you…but then I’d have to kill you.” But really, his job is just so specific that it’s hard to explain. I’ve actually seen him explain it to other Microsofties only to have them go, “Ohhhh…suuure.” Indicating that they … {read more…}