Now That I Have Your Attention…

The Pilgrimage

…as if wanting you to buy and (gasp) even readmy book weren’t enough, I would also like to alert you to this other way I have of telling stories. Actually, I don’t even tell them. I help you to.

On Thursday, 8 August, I will be starting the fourth iteration of the personal development and spiritual formation class we offer here at the Pilgrimage, Stepping Into the Story.

Have you ever suspected there was something bigger going on than what shows up in your Facebook feed? (Or, say, your blog reader?) Have you ever wondered if you are or could be part of a bigger story?

At The Pilgrimage, we support the idea that there is a bigger Story, and that while God is the main character, He is inviting you to join Him in it. Not only that, but we’re operating with the hypothesis that, if you…

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Celebrate with Me!

Approximately eleven years ago, my first book, Trees in the Pavement, was released to the world, courtesy of Christian Focus Publications. Today, even though the book itself has been written for almost as long, Favored One hit the websites. This time, though, Notes on Pilgrimage, the new publishing imprint of the Sanctuary at Woodville, is the publisher. You can order a copy directly from us if you contact me here. (Yes, we’re not currently set up for one-click sales, so you will actually have to interact with me, but there’s so little interpersonal contact when shopping these days, don’t you think this is better?) If you like one-click minus interpersonal, though, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the other usual suspects are also carrying it.

There are some things to be said both for and against “self-publishing” and versus traditional publishing–some of which I have said, for better or worse, many years ago on this very blog. I might regret some of what I said, but not all of it. I myself have read some self-published works which are quite dismal–but also some others that are frankly astonishingly good. I think that publishing is a pretty goal-consistent initiative for the Pilgrimage, so I hope this one won’t be our only book. It will probably help if lots of people buy and read and review and like it, too, by the way. Hope you enjoy it! I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Available!

Everyone.

Favored One is available for pre-order!

It publishes a week from tomorrow. You should probably get on that.

Don’t forget to come to the book launch in September, too!

Frozen Avocado

So this one time I googled “can you freeze avocado?”

This other time, on the basis of the results and the fact that I had too many avocados to eat before they went off, and avocados are mad expensive here these days, you guys, I froze an avocado.

But I think the answer really meant to be, “You can freeze anything. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”

I was going to post a photo, but I don’t want to gross you out. You’re welcome.

Proofs!

Made ya look…

The Pilgrimage

The book proofs have been approved!

Both digital and softcover books will publish on July 16. Book launch party at The Sanctuary at Woodville on September 21. More details to follow.

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Too Early for This

If you and your colleagues were ad photographers of room-fragrance products (candles, oils, bowls of tree bark and cinnamon, say), would you be pot-pourri-parazzi?

Dandelions: Weeds, Food, Clothing

Last night we had four friends join us here at the Old New House for dinner (there’s a story about that, but I wasn’t blogging here when it happened, so you’ll have to read that story over at The Pilgrimage) and I made a salad. Salads, and mostly nothing else except sometimes canned goods, are pretty much my culinary specialty. Good thing my Paul can cook.

Anyway, so there were dandelion greens in the salad. That I had pulled out of the yard a few days before, washed a leaf at a time, and stored in the fridge. They sure perk up iceberg, let me tell you. One of our guests, in particular, was fascinated. “Which leaves in here are the dandelions?” he asked. (There were also nasturtium leaves in there, which don’t look anything like dandelion, but if you live in the city and don’t typically pay attention to what’s growing up through the cracks in the pavement, I guess you might not realize. Plus both types were cut up in the salad.) Someone else asked, “But…aren’t dandelions a weed?”

“According to somebody,” I said. “They’re also super nutritious.”

Then today, eshakti (a women’s clothing site which fascinates me enough that I keep clicking on the links, but not enough that I have yet purchased anything there) invaded my Facebook feed with the following image:

 

https://www.eshakti.com/product/CL0060676

Because phones are creepy spies and at this point I don’t even care who they’re spying for–I resent it. That is why this particular eshakti image was posted on my page. (I know eshakti posts in my feed because I keep going there. But I doubt they would have known to send me a dandelion dress image before last night.) In case you are also from the city or from a country that doesn’t have dandelions, those are dandelions. I wouldn’t buy this cut of dress but I kind of love that a dress exists that has giant dandelions on it. I also think it’s hilarious that nowhere in their link does eshakti identify these as dandelions. The dress is described as “floral embellished.” In fact, if you google “dandelion dress,” this image will not appear. (Well, maybe it will after I post this.)

So now I’m wondering who’s playing the joke. And, I suppose, whose cover I’m blowing. Do the people at eshakti not realize these are dandelions either? Did some designer think this up and decide to see if they would buy a design of a giant weed (or vegetable, depending on your perspective) covering half of a dress? Or does eshakti know full well, and they’re doing a social experiment on what type of individual will wear weeds on their weeds (other than the smokeable weed)?

Definitely people who are pro-dandelion. If that dress style (and price) looked comfortable to me, I’d totally go for it.

Dandelions really are versatile.

Nostalgia

I’m feeling a little nostalgic, The Readership. We used to hang out–kinda, in a virtual, internety but free-exchange-of-ideas kind of way. I don’t blog very often anywhere anymore, and I have realized that in the process of not, I have in large part lost touch with a lot of the people I was hoping to engage with at the Pilgrimage. We used to talk about stuff over here.

A friend of mine who started blogging around the time I first did says that the Blogosphere has changed and there isn’t as much community here anymore. Is that true, or did we both just lose momentum in it? If I started blogging here more regularly again, would you come back? Could we talk?

And/or, if I posted the same posts at the Pilgrimage that I post in private groups for the Pilgrimage, would you read them and engage them?

Everybody, Everybody!

Since no one talks to me at the Pilgrimage landing page, and this post in particular needs some input, here you go, The Readership. I love you!

The Pilgrimage

(I’m pretty sure someone else came up with this song–as an actual song–first, but Homestar Runner is the one who introduced it to me, so he’s getting the credit.)

The third best compliment I’ve ever received (after the time my Satanist clergy friend from the Living History Museum referred to me, non-hostilely, as “Jesus-Jenn”–and then gave me a Psalms calendar and a hand-made wrought iron fireplace trivet for Christmas, and the time one of my African American friends and I were hanging out and she was really into the story she was telling me and almost used a sort of vernacular that only African Americans are entitled to use with other African Americans, paused, laughed, and said, “Oh! I forgot you weren’t black!”) was a bit more recently, from a childhood friend/acquaintance of mine who has been spiritual-directing and coaching for much longer than I. One time she responded to…

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