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402 days. 402 (plus or minus… mostly minus) posts.

Month: March, 2013

March 31, 2013

Day 127: Happy Day

Admittedly, I don’t go to church much anymore. I really enjoy connecting with the thing that connects all of us, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve enjoyed it more in nature and in meditation than in buildings and through structure. Time may shift me again, but I feel connected and content for now.

That said, I went to church today. The sermon was lovely. I felt welcomed and loved and totally free to find God in my own way.

Below are some sermon takeaways that I’d like to share.

1. Some people go to church once or twice per year because it has a cultural and historic place in their life. I’m one of those people and it’s okay to be a person like me. We’re still welcome.

2. Loving yourself, your family and the good people of the world is not enough love. Loving everyone—the bullies, the hurtful and violent ones, the lost and the mean—is closer to enough. The goal is all love all the time. And love is love, whether or not religion is part of your personal fabric.

3. Everyone thinks they have the best dad. The pastor told us a story about a friend whose daughters were arguing with their friends over who had the best dad (cute right?). The pastor explained that in listening to the recap of the argument, he felt everyone was right. Although the girls had different dads, they could each believe in the truth and best-ness of their own dads. The pastor told us that he believes in the truth of Jesus Christ and can proclaim him to be the one true savior, but that God’s mansion is a huge one, and there are many ways to enter into it. It’s okay to believe in your truth while honoring the truths of others.

4. New life is everywhere, all the time and in everyone. We are new every single day. Take advantage of it.

So, a very happy Easter to you.

Also, happy Passover.

And happy Cesar Chavez Day.

dock and water

This picture always makes me think of “newness.”

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March 29, 2013

Day 125: It’s Time

It’s time for many, many things. For spring, for gay people to be able to marry each other, for everyone to stop using plastic grocery bags and get a couple nice reusable ones (I mean, really…. it’s so easy), etc.

After approximately 47 days of thought, it’s also time for me to cut back on blogging. I hate the encroaching notion that I may have to send crappy content into the world just to follow my own blog-every-day rule. So, I’m changing the rule.

Part of me (most of me, really) views cutting back as a failure. I didn’t even make it halfway to 402 days.

Another, much, much smaller part of me views this for what it really is—a shift in priorities. When I started 402, I had just quit my full-time job to pursue self-employment. I wanted to write, so write I did.

Now, 125 days later, I’m up to my ears in contract work that I love, my friends all have adorable babies and puppies that I want to go visit, and I was accepted into the cast of a amazing show that goes up in June. We start intensive rehearsals in a couple of weeks, and I should probably focus on being a happy and sane employee, cast member, friend and human being.

(My life is not all sunshine and roses—I did lose a mitten yesterday.)

All this is not to say I’m quitting the blog. I’m just quitting the every day-ness of it. There are so many incredibly interesting people and ideas in the world, I won’t be able to stay away for more than a couple of days between posts. Rest assured that I will still flood your email inbox and Facebook feed.

For now, enjoy a beautiful weekend with someone (or a few people) you really like being around. Share some hugs. Punch some shoulders (lovingly).

See you in a few days.

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March 28, 2013

Day 124: The Bucket List

I’ve never made a bucket list before. Now seems like a good time.

  1. Make an extraordinarily good meal from scratch, only out of things I grew myself.
  2. Give up cheddar cheese for one week (could coincide with #1, since I don’t know how to grow cheddar).
  3. Get a tattoo.
  4. Get the tattoo removed.
  5. Find a place where there’s no man-made noise—no cars, machines, airplanes, phones, kids, etc., and just listen.
  6. Name a cat The Freshmaker. It doesn’t have to be my cat.
  7. Learn a foreign language or truly revive that high school French.
  8. Make a grand gesture to the planet that somehow makes it better.
  9. Pay off my credit card (figuring this is a good before-I-die goal).
  10. Teach a kid something really, really cool.
  11. Come up with some better and/or more specific long-term goals.
  12. Finish Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
  13. Meet Oliver Sacks.
  14. Watch the sunrise.
  15. Get up before the sunrise in order to watch it live.
  16. Smile and remember.

That’s all for now. What’s on your bucket list?

Erin's catsThese are my friend Erin’s cats. If they didn’t already have names, one of them would be The Freshmaker.

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March 27, 2013

Day 123: Sheer Joy

It’s crazy warm in the middle north today! As I write this, it’s 43° F. 43! Spring! Everyone is smiling. We live for this. And although our slightly crazed feelings of glee may have more to do with vitamin D than actual happiness, we don’t mind.

In that vein, here are some delightful things that happened today:

  • The Easter bunny mailed me an Easter basket. It’s an enormous glass jar filled with jelly beans and M&Ms. I can’t wait to hide from myself and then find it on Sunday. I have the best Easter bunny ever.
  • One of my smart and funny co-workers tweeted this: “This is 40 (Degrees): Two lonely Minnesotans with cabin fever wear T-shirts outside prematurely … and find love.” Good stuff.
  • I ate an entire tub of hummus by myself. It was delicious. All of it.
  • Brian Boitano nearly died (again) and then revived himself (spring miracle?). I don’t know what happened, but a couple of good shakes to the ol’ fish bowl seemed to do the trick. I’ll keep an eye on him, but he seems as spry as ever.
  • The snow audibly melted. Everywhere I turned, the sound of water dripping, trickling and sloshing filled the air.
  • I thought it was Thursday, realized it was Wednesday and didn’t care one bit. I like my weekdays as much as my weekends (especially in the SPRING!).

pink fish

Brian B., looking good.

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March 26, 2013

Day 122: Whatever Works

I try to steer clear of politics on here, because people become incredibly polarized incredibly quickly. But to me, marriage isn’t about politics. It’s about family—about making a commitment to being a family with another human being.

Here are four reasons I support gay marriage:

1. Marriage of any kind builds community. The U.S. gives families opportunities to care for each other in ways individuals cannot. In this glorious and frightening age of digital connectivity, we should celebrate any two individuals who choose to connect to each other in person and through law.

2. I want my friends to have every legal right that I have, even if some of us never choose to act on those rights.

3. Gay marriage doesn’t hurt anyone (or anything). Traditions live within the individuals who uphold them, not in how many people are included or excluded.

4. I’m nearly certain we have other pressing matters to discuss. Education, health, the environment, economics—no matter where you land on these topics, they seem like a bigger deal than a couple of folks trying to tie the knot.

“That’s why I can’t say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace—whatever works.”
– Boris Yellnikoff in Whatever Works

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