Last week I mentioned our niece's visit. It's been a fun week having her around! God bless her for not minding that we don't have an extra bed and that all six of us would be sharing one bathroom. She's been a good sport. Even when it rained almost every day (which we loved, but she, being from New York gets plenty of that weather all the time!)
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| making the most of the rain |
Still, the girls managed to get in plenty of fun...
Austin's non-sunny sunrise from Mt. Bonnell:
to sunset from Congress Avenue bridge (along with 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats):
I'm so glad my daughters have cousin-friends. Some of my best friends growing up were cousins. Knowing that you'll always be connected is a beautiful thing.
Also, last week, I told you our backyard neighbors were planning a housewarming party / slam poetry performance. Y'all, it was A-MAZING. Seriously.
So, I'm a complete novice to Slam Poetry. And, it's entirely possible, I'd only thought of it as a caricature to serious poetry. Um, not any more. We spent an hour sitting in our living room after the performance trying to make sense of what we'd just seen and I think one of the best connections my son made was that it was like watching a band perform with voices, gestures and poetry rather than instruments, lyrics and choreography. Yes.
Our neighbors and their team are headed off soon to the National Poetry Slam in Boston and we wish them well.
Here's a video performance of one of the poems we heard from our neighbor and one of his teammates Saturday night: Broem
Links from my online reading this week:
A Human Scale Future at Front Porch Republic: "In fact, there is good reason to believe that in the near future we will be compelled to think in terms of scale whether we want to or not."
Authentic Mobility at D. L. Mayfied: Sometimes moving toward need means bringing rice to hungry families and accepting a chilled Coke from them. Sometimes it means going to Disney World and accepting the gift of family.
Change Wisely, Dude by Andrea Palpant Dilley at Faith & Leadership (Duke University): My friend Andrea has some advice for church leaders trying desperately to attract and retain young people: change carefully and wisely. What young people say they want in their 20s is not necessarily what they want 10 years later.
The Zimmerman Verdict and the Resurrection of the Old Jim Crow at Sojourners: I found this article important in helping me understand the "stand your ground" self-defense laws in Florida that helped the jury acquit Zimmerman. Lord, have mercy.
Our Greatest Collaborative Work at Shannon Newby's site: This may be the absolute sweetest welcome to a new baby that I've ever seen. So happy for the Newby family!
Tomorrow we get in the car and drive this:
Packing like fiends today. Also, making playlists for the 25 hours (driving non-stop, thankyouverymuch).
One of the first orders of business will be a trip to the Big Apple. Here's a little appetizer for our BFF city (camaraman for this video is the former student of one of my human BFF's)
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A beauty and grace-filled weekend for us all, dear ones.
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