I still suck at this...

I always forget to update this thing!

Gathering around the unhewn stone
Oh to be back in Philly again. Rolling into town was a good feeling, full of butterflies in my belly and the whole nine yards. This was a really great gathering. Good topics. Good speakers. Good friends. I feel like I learned a lot and made a lot of important connections and perhaps more importantly some old re-connections. Its amazing to me how much buzz there is right now about anti-civilization within the young Christian radical community. I find it exciting and hopeful, though its hard to say where it will go. I overheard a lot of "I kinda agree, but..." types of conversations, which I think is good. This is a hard topic, and one that needs a lot of exploration with our lives, in our sacred texts, and the world around us. It must be a prayerful journey together, because advocating for the collapse of everything is advocating for the death of much (and consequently life for many other things). What part we can/should participate in this as followers of Jesus is one that requires a great deal of reflection. Nekeisha has a good summary of the conference here.

It was also really great to visit my friends and old community mates over in Camden, and go to Mass at Sacred Heart. It's really wonderful to return to places where so much growth and wrestling with life and understanding has happened. Being in Philly and Camden also made me realize how many people I love and miss because I never get to see them anymore. I just don't have the same sorts of connections here in Detroit that I do in the other places that I've lived.

The U.P.
Oh fall in Michigan! Upon returning from Philly, I fulfilled a hard promise that I made to my sister: several days of exploring the woods and waterfalls of the upper peninsula. By hard promise I mean joyous adventure! We went to Pictured Rocks, the Porkies, the Keweenaw, and a few other places. It was beautiful. Most of it was still peak colors for fall, though some were a little past peak. We got to go to the tiny town of Calumet where my dad was born...and the topic of the Woody Guthrie song "The 1913 Massacre". This song is a favorite for sure, so it was kinda neat to go there. I found it online with lyrics if you're interested.

Its funny to me how much people rave about tahquamenon falls, because a lot of the falls that we went to blew them away. I havent spent a ton of time up there, and it was my first time going to the north west portion of the UP. I loved it, and I'll definitely go back some time. I'll be posting some pictures soon.



more updates soon...