January 2014: Hosted Feast with Shea in Wilmette for the first time. Tried not to freeze to death in the coldest 4 months on record. Ever. February 2014: Saw Queenie Pie at the Harris Theater in Chicago, had a wedding…
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Through some source I can no longer remember, I added “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande to my Goodreads list, and snagged it from the library right after they purchased it. I’ve been telling a lot of people about it and…
“God’s greatest gift to man is that of intellect, or understanding… …How grievous it is to see how man has used his God-given gift to frame instruments of war, for breaking the Commandment of God “Thou shalt not kill,†and…
Last night I looked in my fridge to see what I could make with the ingredients I had. I whipped up some mashed potatoes and carrots, then realized I had some ground turkey meat defrosted in the fridge. So, using…
Chicago has been angry and confused recently. Thunderstorms, dark skies, rain, cold weather, mixed with warmth and sun. I had to wear my wool winter coat today and…
I was born in Minnesota. I’ve been coming to the land of 10,000 lakes for my entire life but I have never made it to the Minnesota State Fair. This year I decided that it was our opportunity, since my…
Somehow we are compelled to share, express…it makes us human. I am not sure how I can find words for this last year. I am sitting on a plane, arriving back home just in time for my one year wedding…
It has just been a lot recently. A lot of things, a never-ending stream of scheduling and travel and mostly fun things and a few not-so-fun things, and it was getting to the point that I was resenting my calendar….
Last Wednesday was a bit nerve-wracking for me. I took my CMP (Certified Meeting Planner) exam and found out right away that I passed! Within a few hours, something that I had been trying to do for years was over. I…
There are some amazing things happening at Nineteen Months, since my friend Caitlin took over as Writing Editor and we changed up a lot of stuff, including the site design. I’m so happy with the direction that it is going…
We saw a red-winged blackbird attacking a hawk, protecting its territory. It seemed to be winning. We played golf with pine cones and sticks, and stood on a stage with no audience but our own words and thoughts. We are…
As a kid, I watched Bulls games with my family, mostly because Michael Jordan was playing and the Bulls were the hottest team out there. We are not a sports-watching family (thank God) so that was the extent of it….
On Friday night we had one of those moments where we had no interest in going to the grocery store after work, so we considered the options in the fridge and decided to make do with what we had. I…
do not dwell on this darkness this depth of winter in the heart there is such wonder on the other side of it do not hold on with shaking hands and screaming heart there is no redemption there. the chilling…
When I started my new job last fall, I was assigned to a (very nice, shiny new) cubicle on the southeast corner of my building, right next to the Chicago river and facing Lake Michigan. I know, really lucky. Somehow…
This was a chaotic year. A very good one, but I feel like I haven’t really stopped moving. In January 2013, Shea and I took our first trip together, driving to Minnesota to visit family and friends in sub-zero temperatures….
Woke up to snow falling softly and it has continued all day. We have all the blinds open, watching the silence deepen and people slide by, bundled to their eyes. We made crepes and bacon and coffee and juice, we…
Had some serious high school music nostalgia hit me when a Bush song came on the radio tonight. I didn’t have access to a lot of stuff other than what was on the radio (and no truly cool friends to…
Don’t look too closely at the mirror Shy away from the picking and the choosing The farewell sighs of youth We cry and wail at the slightest things We look so closely and then we fall Don’t look so closely…
Happy Autumn, everyone! (Even though it is 40 degrees in Chicago right now)
The whirlwind hasn’t stopped. My brain is trying to rapidly absorb all of the information I need to learn at my new job. Coming in at a higher level means learning all the things very fast. When you add in…
As I continue working with young women within our Ruhi Book 2 study circle, I am reminded of this quotation that encourages women to elevate their level of conversation. How do we do this among ourselves? “Confirmations from the kingdom…
Dear Blog, I haven’t written since July, which is very unlike me. Then again, this summer was pretty unprecedented with travel for the 114 Baha’i Youth Conferences and getting married in the middle of it all. A few weeks ago I…
I had a plan to write all sorts of blog posts recently. And then…well, I had to dive into the 4 youth conferences I’m working on and then something else really big happened in my life and suddenly it was…
I normally don’t go so long without posting on my blog (over a month?!). I can’t even begin to summarize the last few weeks and months. Here are a few things that have been keeping me busy. In no particular…
Work is not all about serious things. My coworkers and I get up to various (mostly harmless) antics sometimes. Laughter helps with so many things, since it can be very demanding around here. We merely took advantage of an opportunity…
This morning I woke up to the sounds of a thunderstorm raging against my windows. I woke up before my alarm, so I lay in bed, trying to wake up by checking emails. Unfortunately my coordination is not the best…
“O thou maidservant of God! Every woman who becometh the maidservant of God outshineth in glory the empresses of the world, for she is related to God, and her sovereignty is everlasting, whereas a handful of dust will obliterate the…
Most of the time I don’t write about unpleasant things here. But something happened just now that left me shaking so badly that I had to pull into a parking lot and write it down. I was driving in Lincoln…
At the end of Ruhi Book 1 every Sunday night, we read a story about a Baha’i that served in extraordinary way. It started out as a way for the young ladies in the study circle (they’re aged 12-15, some…