Helene sent me this is an email this week. It seems sort of low-brow to use a show as irreverent at Boston Legal to make an essential political point, but the writers of BL really get it right here. Go here to listen to an impressive bit of writing, thinking, and acting.

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…}

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…}

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…}

i put it all away today.

-the storyboard for the ‘zine i was hoping to have up by spring

-the supplies for the art journal class i was trying to teach at Fremont Abbey

-the file for my writer’s group

-the business cards for the publishers who had approached me about writing a book

-the plans for a spiritual direction practice

all of it is in a file box, like the kind they store evidence in in tv crime shows.
evidence that i once had a life that was bigger than pain. but now pain dominates, and everything else gets put on hold.

it’s all i can do to move through a day, take care of my family, be present to my children.

i can’t … {read more…}

I bashed up the minivan AGAIN yesterday trying to get out of a tight parallel parking spot on the very steep Capital Hill. The reality is I am just not a good enough driver to manage a minivan in the city — the car is too big for city driving and parking. We also got hit by someone in a parking lot (an SUV by the looks of it) a few weeks ago so the taillight/bumper damage I did yesterday has been addeded to the three panel-dents and scratches from the hit and run.

Suffice it to say we are going to take a bath on this car (it’s only two years old) because we have to trade it in … {read more…}

It’s been raining for 26 days straight in Seattle. But one day, for a few minutes, the clouds broke and it looked like this:

Bob Carlton over at The Corner has gathered up the usual bang up collection of Top Five posts for 2005 from various bloggers. Do go and give it a gander. Top Five at Bob’s