Okay, thought I’d shoot you a little something to let you know what’s been up.

Last Week at the Abbey
Norooz was a blast last week. Helene brings art wherever she goes, and usually creates a sing-a-long or dance-a-long as well. We had an amazing feast of Persian delights, learned the symbolism of the Haftsin table, and enjoyed an impromptu concert by Heather, who played a Persian flute and violin songs from the middle east. Heather also sang Iranian folks tunes, and Helene sang one from Bulgaria. There were also funny songs for the kids, lessons in being coquetteish (the lion and the lemon!) and even a waltz in the middle of the very crowded living room. A dreamy … {read more…}

It feels womanly, the spring equinox, all nyads and dryads and fertility rites. Maybe the girl’s very girlie request for a pedicure party last year at this time wasn’t so far off after all. (from my journal)

Yesterday was the spring equinox. It was gorgeous here – all sunshine and shirtsleeves and yellow daffodils– picture postcard perfect!

Spring cleaning is a part of Norooz, which we are celebrating this week with our friends-who-love-all-things-Persian, so the girls and I decided to do our preistessy duty and spring-clean the anger altar. First we gathered up all the shards – a whole bucketful! I loved how some of them seemed to break just right – the … {read more…}

1) It’s amazing to me that some people simply cannot see that the Bible was written in a specific time, context, and culture and therefore speaks out of that time, context, and culture. Are the underlying truths held within universal and timeless? Of course. Are many of the specific instructions informed by the culture they were written in? Of course. It’s beyond me that this reality is ignored by so many.

2) I’m not opposed to debate. Debate is fine. Sometimes people are called specifically to debate. I don’t really enjoy debate. I like to be in places where each side is willing to really hear from and learn from the other. Most the time this happens in dialogue, not … {read more…}

A week ago Saturday I went with Rebecca, Charles, Amanda, and Melissa to the March for Marriage Equality. Marches are not all that exciting. It’s something we turn out for so the numbers are good in the newspaper — so our legislators know that there are voices out there which are very very interested in equality … or peace… or what have you. The rally at the end of a march is usually a lot of preaching to the choir — trying to keep everyone’s spirits up as we continue on a long and ongoing journey.

On thing that really cracks me up about marches are the techniques — especially the chants. … {read more…}

I haven’t been writting much lately, but I have been mucking about with my collage projects. Here are a few pages from my first attempt at an altered book. The original title of this 1940’s darling was Nancy Dale Army Nurse. I decided to alter it for my friend Emily, who is an amazing critical care nurse and a spunky hot chiqua to boot. I’ve just learned how to do image transfers so I used a set of Mexican playing cards as an anchoring theme and did four or five page sets using the book’s orginal kitschy illustrations. … {read more…}

Well, everyone, after far too long a time, we’ve got the Monkfish Abbey site up: http://www.monkfish-abbey.org. Rachelle’s blog has moved as well. You can find it at http://www.monkfish-abbey.org/blog.

You’ll probably have noticed the name change from “notes from a truth seeker” to “urban abbess”, as well as the redesign. The wax stamp is by Mike LaJoie, created from a monkfish drawn by Rebecca Dallin. The overall design is a home-grown affair, with a banner graphic taken at our last Fourth of July party.

I have Apache redirects up, so all links to the old blog site should seamlessly take you to the new site. RSS feeds should also automatically redirect as well. If not, you can … {read more…}

Wanna here something comical? Sunday I didn’t have a migraine (first time in weeks and weeks.) So what do I do on Monday? I went to Bikram yoga.

For those of you who don’t know yoga, Bikram is also called “hot yoga.” It’s an hour and a half of intermediate poses — in a 100 degree room! My over-achieving inner voice said, “Hey Rachelle, here’s an idea! You’ve felt good for one whole day. Let’s go get dehydrated!”

What was I thinking?? I made it through the class with just one incident where I did a pose I’d never done before (rabbit) and nearly blacked out from the pain. Other than that I only had to take a break … {read more…}

Mr. Jim (who, btw, has been on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and the Seattle Times in the past week) called me today to do his mentor-y thing. He asked me what I thought of the Gridblog experiment. It was the standard trifecta: 1) what worked, 2) what didn’t work, and 3) what would you do differently. I haven’t got a hold of him yet, but I’ve been chewing those things over a lot the last couple days and here’s what I think.

The Good
I made a call for a gridblog on International Women’s Day. Although I haven’t been able to read all the comments, I have read most of the other gridblog posts, and … {read more…}

Nothing generates comments like a post on gender equity! (At least, on this blog anyway.)

Thank you for all who have commented. The conversation thus far has not sunk to the mudslinging level (which I was very concerned about prior to posting) and there’s been fairly well-heard and well-spoken discussion all around. I really appreciate people dealing even handedly with each other. Let’s keep remembering “your sibling is never your enemy.”

For those of you who have been so kind as to read here regularly, you know that I have been struggling with migraines for nearly 3 years, and that they have been increasingly severe. I have recently decided to go off all of my “abortive” meds (meds you take when … {read more…}

and other round of applause for fellow monkifsher Ingrid Buchan as she tells it like it really is….

The Myth of the Virgin Bride
…..well it is for me anyway.

I’m 27 years old and have absolutely no friends that were virgins before marriage. Even in my church community I’m barely aware of anyone that didn’t have sex before they tied the knot. I, and many of these friends, grew up in church and most of us were told that sex before marriage is a sin, so why do so few actually abide by it.

I read an article in Christianity Today, by Lauren Winner, that stated that 75% of women have sex before marriage and 2/3 of Christian singles aren’t virgins, … {read more…}