Laura profile picture

Laura

the host on your tongue is a perfect moon; it does shine inside you; you shine into the room

About Me

"Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I've come;
And I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home."
*****
"Cast All Your Votes for Dancing"
by Hafiz, as translated by Daniel Landinsky
I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.
I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.
But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.
You can stay that way
And even bloom!
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter.
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved
And, my dear,
From the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.
Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.
You are with the Friend now.
Learn what actions of yours delight Him,
What actions of yours bring freedom
And Love.
Wherever you say God's name, dear pilgrim,
My ears wish my head was missing
So they could finally kiss each other
And applaud all your nourishing wisdom!
O keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter
And from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.
Now, sweet one,
Be wise.
Cast all your votes for Dancing!
*****
"So the journey is over and I am back again where I started, richer by much experience and poorer by many exploded convictions, many perished certainties. For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance." - Aldous Huxley

My Interests

being in community, deep talks, musical exploration, Christian theology and liturgy, the humanities and social sciences, the interweb, public radio, ethnomusicology, making music, being a nerd about texas, listening, the global church, social and environmental justice, progressive politics, the gospel of reconciliation, living simply holistically and creatively, subverting the empire

I'd like to meet:

people who will encourage me, challenge me, inspire me, and show me how to live.

Music:

ani difranco, aradhna, j. s. bach, devendra banhart, samuel barber, the beatles, belle and sebastian, andrew bird, björk, vashti bunyan, michael card, the carpenters, johnny cash, the chieftains, cowboy junkies, the danielson famile, claude debussy, the decemberists, donovan, nick drake, bob dylan, ester drang, george gershwin, hem, ida, the innocence mission, iron and wine, jethro tull, madison greene, loreena mckennitt, olivier messiaen, rich mullins, willie nelson, joanna newsom, over the rhine, arvo pärt, pedro the lion, the polyphonic spree, the psalters, radiohead, damien rice, martin sexton, sigur rós, simon and garfunkel, the smashing pumpkins, starflyer 59, miranda stone, sufjan stevens, john michael talbot, rosie thomas, ticklepenny corner, rufus wainwright, abigail washburn, waterdeep, denison witmer

Movies:

10 things i hate about you, amélie, baraka, before sunrise, blood diamond, calendar girls, the constant gardener, crash, donnie darko, edward scissorhands, erin brockovich, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, hairspray, hotel rwanda, mary poppins, monty python and the holy grail, napoleon dynamite, nowhere in africa, o brother where art thou?, once, the princess bride, real women have curves, return to me, the royal tenenbaums, run lola run, saving grace, smoke signals, the sound of music, spirited away, sweet home alabama, water, zoolander

Books:

the bible, the book of common prayer, wendell berry, frederick buechner, roald dahl, annie dillard, madeleine l'engle, c. s. lewis, brian mclaren, henri nouwen, n. t. wright, after the locusts (denise ackermann), how the irish saved civilization (thomas cahill), the man who was thursday (g. k. chesterton), christianity rediscovered (vincent donovan), the curious incident of the dog in the night-time (mark haddon), hinds' feet on high places (hannah hurnard), the ragamuffin gospel (brennan manning), blue like jazz (donald miller), gilead (marilynne robinson), ishmael (daniel quinn)

Heroes:

Jesus Christ, St. Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, ordinary people all over the world who live out shalom

My Blog

shameless plug

Oh, I forgot to mention, a few weeks ago I dusted off the old web design skillz and made Sam a website for her photography business:www.samantharosephotography.comI love looking at Sam's photos; they'...
Posted by Laura on Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:04:00 PST

whew!

Okay, update...Today went really, really well. :)I was seriously more nervous about this children's choir thing than I have been about anything in years. Seriously. There's a reason I didn't study Mus...
Posted by Laura on Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:43:00 PST

Aaahhh...

So, as of tomorrow, I am officially a children's choir director.Wha...??? Aaahhh!!!Yup. I have no idea what I'm doing or how this will go. I am scared out of my mind. I do not "want" to do this. I fee...
Posted by Laura on Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:56:00 PST

homesick

Funny that it's been almost a month since I've last written. I've been pretty busy doing great stuff, but just haven't felt like writing anything down.We're moving very definitively into fall now, and...
Posted by Laura on Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:40:00 PST

summer in the Midwest

I'm sitting here in the living room with Steph and with Miles Davis' The Complete Birth of the Cool on the stereo and a bowl of homemade vegetarian chili, a plate of homemade cornbread, and a bottle o...
Posted by Laura on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:35:00 PST

"hey-ya-hey"...

It's been kind of a big week:- Jason visited last weekend, and it was great to have him here, to catch up and to share my city with him. He claims he'll come back before the Navy ships him off to Flor...
Posted by Laura on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:22:00 PST

summertime and the livin’ is easy

I haven't written here in awhile mainly because I've been so busy just living! This summer has been really fantastic - summer in Chicago is like a non-stop party, seriously. I've been keeping super bu...
Posted by Laura on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:43:00 PST

Mary, Mother of the Streets

Tonight I discovered Robert Lentz's iconography. Me gusta mucho. :)
Posted by Laura on Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:50:00 PST

shadow side

What a craaazy day. And not in a good way, arg. (Actually, arg is an understatement. I've been pretty pissed for most of the afternoon and evening.) The only calm/stable/breathable part was my bike ri...
Posted by Laura on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:37:00 PST

whorish

By far one of the most awful things I've ever, ever heard/read about the Church: "Church Cancels Teen Gun Giveaway". Unbelievable. Obviously, not the fact that it was cancelled, but the fact that it...
Posted by Laura on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:04:00 PST