Presbyterian News, Bermudaonion, Gratitude

A few weeks ago, Bethany Furkin of Presbyterian News interviewed me for a story about The Heart is Not a Size and the trip many of us had taken to Juarez.  I was aware of myself talking too much and too fast, and I thought, after I hung up, about how hard a job listening can sometimes be.  I am deeply moved, then, to read Bethany's story, which focuses as well on the great work that Amy Robinson of Pasos de Fe continues to do down on the Juarez border.

I am also deeply grateful this morning to Bermudaonion.  That's all I'll say.

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Wisconsin Bound/Fox Cities Book Festival

I'm Wisconsin bound, and those in the know are telling me that Wisconsin is the place to be. Wonderful people, I'm told. Well-read people. Nice people. I shall keep those goodnesses close to my heart as I travel to Little Chute Public Library, Roosevelt Middle School, Madison Middle School, West High School, Kaukauna Public Library, New London Middle School, Appleton Public Library, and East High School.

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Unbridled Passions (excerpt from an upcoming Wisconsin talk)

I’ve lived my whole life that way—wanting, reaching, exuding, falling, reaching again, wanting more. I was an ice skater as a kid—the one skating fast, the one jumping big, the one who could not control her spins. I left ice skating for track and field—to my mother’s chagrin—and there I wasn’t happy with just the 100 yard dash or the hurdles. I had to compete in the 200, too, and also in long jump, and also in high jump, and also in the relays (not just one but two), and come fall, I signed up for cross-country. It’s not that I was great at all of these events, or even that great at one of them. It’s that I made commitments—wild and huge—to live, to hurt, to want, to try, to transform myself into more than I was.

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