You must watch this:



And if you are brave, do watch others. GOOD is doing amazing work, and all with a little research and spectacular design and information passing.

To see what I mean, watch this.



Think about how much information you just got without a single word being spoken.

And one more with no words:

after a morning

of waking up to helicopters buzzing about, reporting a shooting close by - it was nice to have my butt slapped on the way to work by a cute motorcyclist. sometimes when the happening of the world are too much, happenings such as these bring life a bit more joy & laughter. with that, i leave you this poem i was asked to read last night at jazz vespers.

moment vanishing

Now, in the quietude of evening, the dove comes.

It does not flash its feathers, does notmake a sound,

but feeds on what the finches leave behind.

How little it needs.A few hard seeds. A drop of water.

It is late summer. It is always

late summer here. The air is hot and dry.

Brown leaves lie like hands in the yard.

There is no place to turn. No place to stop.

We are hurried along, pushed farther into our lives.

Moments are vanishing all over the earth

as bombs explode, the victim is hooded,

great populations scatter on endless dust roads.

It is too much. We avert our eyes.

We wait like children for the coming of the dove.

And if I were allowed a question,

one question, of the evening dove

who asks for nothing, whose pleasure

is a few small seeds, whose heart I covet,

I would ask, O what will I become?

- Elizabeth Spires

lately i have been wondering this specific question, what will i become. what choices will i make, what words will i speak, what neighborhood will i live in, what love will i make that will become part of the mold that makes up this life i am honored to life. moments are vanishing too quickly & i am in such desperate need of my morning dove.

for the first time in close to a year we spent some time in borders. slowly the feelings related to consumption continue to find a healthy (my hope) niche within my daily life and choices.

today though, to my surprise, a new magazine caught my eye & later captured my heart. i encourage you to take a look and enjoy.

this edition presents (and is) to be one that i needed to engage with. silence.

hope each of you are well.

2 years.

The Rent Party was a huge success!
5 musical sets, mojitos, food & drink, conversation, photography, art & fun!

85 people attended and we raised over $1,700!

money is still coming in--if we raise $2,300 we'll have three months rent!

Sarah provided images for our show, which will all be for sale in various sizes, framed or unframed, during August and at a exhibit closing party at the end of August--with a portion of the proceeds to go to Wicker Park Grace.

we walked away with this one home at the end of the night & are so glad that we did!

for picture of our evening please treat yourself and click here, you'll be glad you did.

p.s. there are great photos here too. way to be jhonathan!

Rent Party: A Skiffle of Sorts

Since my church is not about guilt and obligation, we're trying to figure out new ways to funds our operations than, you know, passing the offering plate. So, we're having a rent party.

July 12th (this saturday!) at 8:00pm
at 1741 N. Western Ave.

In the tradition of those who have laid the path before us, Wicker Park Grace will be holding a Rent Party: A Skiffle of Sorts

Door Fee: $15 (free food and drink!)

Historically, to pay rising rents in neighborhoods that were filing up with people moving north in the Great Migration, folks would ask a few musician friends to play in the living rooms of their apartments, asked a few other friends to make some food and mixed up a little gin in the bathtub.

Charging admission at the door generated cash to pay the rent and a party whose celebratory energy burst from the intimate setting for all comers. Rent parties were a quintessential example of communities of people joining together to work towards mutual benefit.

Wicker Park Grace will carry on this historical tradition on July 12th with an evening of music & art, food & drink, conversation & dance.

Performing will be:

Rob Clearfield & At This Point We Don't Have the Luxury of Silence

Dave Spaulding with The Moves

Ira Gamerman w/ songs from the band, Even So

Michael Mc Bride

Kate Harlson

If you can't come, you can still contribute to the effort here.

We went away.














But we came back.














But we want to go again.














Good food, bad bugs, good camping, bad smells, good weather, good street theater, it was everything that we needed.















And now we have a busy few weeks. Jess is taking her motorcycle licensing class all this weekend, we will be away for the 4th of July, and we have lots of people coming to visit and traveling through.

Be well.

Ride a bike.

Soak up some sun.

it's time.

we're off on vacation this afternoon until the 26th. YEAH! i'm beginning to feel the clostiness of the city. my feet are begging for dirt, my body yearning for dancing in the woods and my soul ready to rest with my beloved by the campfire with a slow moving book to fall into. it's time.

friday night.

i love when jake & i have something to do or someplace to go on friday evening, right after work. i get excited, often not because of what we're doing or where we're going (sorry friends), but because it means that we get to drive to work.

on any given day i despise driving to work. it's too nice outside & truth be told, i've become addicted to my bike. she, my teal trussler, has become a part of me & i enjoy spending time with her daily. but fridays. i really enjoy fridays.

you see, every friday at 7:30am, right on our way to work, is a three to five minute program called StoryCorps, a program of NRP. i look forward to these five minutes of radio each week. i know, with internet i could listen to them all day with little effort. but like most radio programs, there is just something magical about listening to them on the radio. it makes me feel like i'm suppose to listen to them at this time instead of working around my convienence, i do that too often anyway.

StoryCorps (this is not the same link as above) is special though. listening to intimate sories shared from those who both do and do not believe they have something to share, something to give, something to tell. it's a beautiful five minutes of listening to stories that many wouldn't identify as those that matter. but when given the time to listen to, i often find that these stories are often threads of those same stories hidden within that help me to remember that those little stories do matter. those are the stories that make us who we are and how we love and live.

who wants to meet for dinner next friday night, right after work?

an accidential beautiful find

by Frank Wick

thank you.

jake just called grandma for a moment. see how she is doing. ask her a couple questions. inquire about the status of neighbors & community kids. the usual.

you have to know, grandma is the center of our block. present always like eddie, she is often available through her presence to those who need her love the most. those who often have no place to go and kids who have lost imaginations.

ethan, jermaine & andre's grandparents live next door to grandma with only a chest high wire fence separating them. throughout the summer the boys are known to play ball and "accidentally" throw &/or kick it over into grandma's yard. in the past, because they have not been the most pleasant munchkins in how they ask grandma for their ball back she often times lets the ball sit. sit as the boys look. hoping & wishing for mercy.

she'll often times let it, the ball, wait in the yard a day to teach in a somewhat passive way to use appropriate language in how they ask for things. today was different though. she shared that the boys threw the ball over the fence. they then promptly asked, "grandma, can you please give us our ball back." she did. and then it happened. they said "thank you." they said thank you.

grandma shared, "i knew it was you two who taught them that."

i'm not sure it was, but there is a part of me that hopes for our influence to have caused them to learn how to say "thank you". if so, i can leave chicago knowing that the world is a little better. i guess that's all that we/i can hope for. that wherever we leave, whenever we leave, whomever we leave, they & it will be a little better when we leave. just a little.

a good discussion is happening here.

i would really appreciate hearing any thoughts you have.

here or there.

May.

Toward the conclusion of April I shared with Jake, “I feel as though we have been so loved this month.” So I made it a goal to track throughout the month of May who we have spent our time with, what we would do, etc. A little task for the month & was I ever surprised and grateful as I gazed upon our calendar yesterday, the first of June. Every day, with the exception of two weekday evenings, were willed with love & time spent with our neighbors and extended community. Picnics with friends, gatherings & outings, coffee dates & motorcycle rides, friends from far away staying over, dinners and rides out and about as well as within our home.

With the shining intensity of May Jake & I found ourselves more in dialog about community and what it was that made May so delightful and engaging. I know, I know, it's a hot topic to discuss. Living in community, concepts of community, community development, community reconciliation, community outreach... It presents as though one of the newest topic of discussion within religious circles: how to develop & engage in community. New nonprofit organizations over the last decade have been popping up with mission statements and visions hopeful of conveying a new message of community. Educational programs regarding community development have been increasing in the number of students applying and studying how to engage underdeveloped communities toward a better way of living. People of natural privilege & religious beliefs have been challenged and encouraged to relocate and assist in restoring under-resourced communities. Opportunities to live in community and learn better how to love others through a relationship with God have been increasing and are beginning to have an influential effect on the lives of young adults and how they are choosing to carry our their lives with God & Christ.

I am a product of these schools of thoughts and am forever grateful of their influence in my life. These programs. These teachings, beliefs, guides, examples. They were/are the outlets that brought me to the place of understanding more how I believe God intended for us to live together and live within. These resources were the tools, I believe, used by God to change my natural school of thought & practice. Through affirmation, conversation, mediation & immersion over the last five years I have been encouraged more than ever before to be the love, I believe, God intended for me/us to be.

Last night I had a really rich and affirming conversation with a new friend. A friend I hope to keep around for a long time. She shared how often times she feels as though we (society) take simple concepts and ideas such as community and intellectualize them into methods and tasks, books and essays, process and conclusions. She continued to share that often times she struggles to be a part of these conversations and struggles to make natural relationships that God intended for us to develop organically into means to obtain some end goal of community.

I struggle with not making a set of rules for myself & I most certainly often times find myself working more often on the side of religion rather than spirituality, judgment rather than perception, education rather than experience, rules and regulations rather than balance and flexibility. So I understand what this hopeful good friend is saying. For I too am guilty of making natural and organic desires of God into educational concepts and processes with end goals. But I feel like I'm not alone in this. Because when I engaged in these programs we always had tasks to stretch us and were encouraged by our stakeholders as to by look at what an end goal would look like. For most nonprofit organizations there has to be end goals and objectives stated in order to receive money to carry out dreams of how to develop and enhance their stated mission or vision, most often to the benefit of community. It's the world we live in. It's how we obtain money to serve others. It's how we get people behind our passion: we give them an end goal to look forward to, a set of objectives of how we're going to get there and the stated change we hope to see in the world through carrying out the goals, tasks, objectives. Wow – that exhausted me to even think about and I write up this stuff for a living (goals, objectives, ect.)

This is the thing, this whole religion, judgment, education, rules, regulations, should have, could have, would haves becomes addictive. Really addictive. Community is one of those “things” in my life. Something that over time turned into all of the preceding adjectives that started to blanket the nouns. The grandma's, Eddie's, Destiny's, Edgar's, those who are without homes, those who are without financial gains, those who are without. Pawns in a game of obtaining something I disguised as community.

So I stopped. I stopped forcing interaction and remembered times in Morocco when Jake, Cory & I would take walks around Midelt, sharing, speaking and enjoying the company that we would encounter as we walked. There was no driving distances, scheduling times, arranging meeting places, etc. It just happened. I miss this. But even then, I was a slave to end goals and means of how to obtain them.

It's at this point that I wish I was able to present some magical process of how I came to embrace letting this go, letting go of the need to follow rules to obtain community. But I don't feel like I have a process to share. I just had to let it go. I had to embrace that I am powerless over the condition of impaired community living that we rest and engage in. I had to let go of the insanity of always wanting to follow a system to obtain community. I had to make the decision to let God be God and be intentional about being part of God. I had/have to learn to simply love without all of those adjectives that have become misdemeanors that have taken me further away from God and God's Beloved.

So I think for now I'm done "learning" and am simply going to try to love in whatever way presents itself through life. Who knows, maybe in the meantime we may stumple upon this whole community thing that so many people are taking about and experience another May.

p.s. read this and maybe this entry will make a bit more sense. he has a way of making things make a little bit more sense in life.

some things just don't line up.

it's everywhere.












the food crises in chicago.

mari just called.

she shared the news regarding the death of kaylanie & destiny's dad. she shared that they were taking it hard. she shared that kaylanie is having panic attacks, she had always been close to him since she had a couple years with him preceding his time in prison during the girls early years. destiny is stubborn. she won't show her emotions until she decides it's time. the funeral is on monday.

i can't help but echo some of the same sentiments which my friend beth expressed earlier today: the challenge of continuing to really struggle with all of the pain in this world... i can't really make it all line up.

it never does. except when i'm with you - my spiritual community & support, those who express God & Jesus' love with beauty & grace, peace & fluidity.

Go out into the world in peace.
Have courage.
Hold on to what is good.
Return no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted,
Support the weak,
Help the suffering.
And in all these things
Take courage in the Holy Spirit
Who nourishes and makes us whole.
May the fire of God's blessing
Burn deeply within you and
Shine brightly upon you,
Now and always.

Go in peace.

A Long Week
Ramon Chaparro

I want to give the world a foot massage
“Take a load off,” I’d say
“You’ve had a long week”

I want to buy backpacks for crack babies
Teach them E=mc2
Sing them the theme to Fat Albert
Show them the correct dosage of sugar for kick-ass Kool-Aid
Tell them their mothers’ addictions
Were not predestination, were not bad luck
But just were
And they are free to be
Someone’s solution instead of the symbol
Of someone’s problem

I want to host a banquet
For the orphans of Gaza
The widows of Darfur
Pile the tables high with falafel
And kisra with bamia
Fill glasses with crystal water
Mugs with guhwah, chai, and goat’s milk
Raise a toast to their fallen loved ones
And send them to down-filled beds
For a night of rest
Without the sound of Kalashnikovs
I want to tell them they are no longer refugees
They are Mustafa and Jamilah
And they can call someplace home again

I want to give prosthetics to the war children
Of Kabul and Mazar and Kandahar
Watch them play soccer and basketball
Their new limbs gracefully awkward
Their war dreams lessening in intensity
Their eyes losing their haunted cast
Their steps unfettered by the fear
of land mines in the sand
I want to tell them they are worth more
Than sodomy and poppy seed
That they can write their own history

I want to comfort everyone everywhere
Share and bear their joys and sorrows
Whisper with prophetic imagination
Of a new world with old roots
A melancholy tale with an uplifting end
When he and she, you and me
Can love with reckless abandon
Others more than ourselves

But today, I drive by the man
With his cardboard sign
My windows rolled up against the sunny day
A dollar bill snugly ensconced
In the folds of my wallet
And I sing with Mahalia,
His eye is on the sparrow

i should really be working.

a couple new finds:

global rich list

consumer consequences

the gospel of consumption

quick up-date

the girls biological father was killed yesterday afternoon.
another close neighbor was diagnosed with cancer of the voice box.

there have been lots of sirens have been heard lately. it's summer.

two weeks ago i watched a boy get his arm dismantled by a bus while his friends ran away. shootings present to be a daily occurances while my clients are attending funerals at a record high. both from natural causes (asthma attacks, heart disease, diabetes and cancer as well as a number of various other biological reasons) and environmental causes.

the sirens continue. two weekends ago there were over approximately 30 shooting & close to ten deaths in the city of chicago. one weekend.

the sirens continue. jake was speaking with a friend about the rise in crime & violence. with knowledge and opinion jake wshared his belief that it presents to be that this increase in violence as happening just when the summer is beginning. his friend replied, "i don't know if i buy that. i think it's just that people who are poor are just frustrated."

my client's are dropping out at a rate like i have not experienced thus far. none killed that i know of but two are in jail, two most likely out using, two i put into residential treatment and one has moved out to an outer-city location with a housing program that assists women & children in housing and collateral support. another one of my client's just found out she is positive for Hep C too.

this is only the beginning.

another police car just made their way west on armitage. from a block away their sirens are so loud.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

p.s. read this