donald miller's interview with cnn...

Read it here.

(And according to Don's blog, he doesn't smoke. I don't mention that because I care, but because some of his fans might. And I don't want to be misleading.)

hokey pokey is coming april 1...

Hey friends. I'm looking to begin getting word out about my next book Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life's All About. If you'd like a PDF-copy version of the book for review, email me! All I ask is that you mention it on your blog or web site or MySpace/Facebook page during the last week of March (don't worry, I'll remind you!). Anyway, I would love to get as many people as I can talking about the book. I'm excited about this book and I would love to know your thoughts about it... so... please, help me get the word out... pretty please... I have a baby on the way... :-)

my mom did this layout of Emma, one of her grandbabies

My mom's blog...

sixpence none the richer is back

From Leigh's blog...

"...I met up with Matt [Slocum] (Sixpence band mate) for coffee. He got married back in May and had been in Italy for 6 months. I was looking forward to seeing him and hearing about their travels! While he was away, we had both been thinking about the band and what we had all those years and what we took for granted. We were missing each other and the gift that I believe God gave us- I knew before that the two of us were more powerful than one of us alone, but it was becoming more obvious as time ticked by. We realized we were on the same page and decided to make Sixpence None the Richer records for the next 2,000 to 3,000 years!!!! Seriously- as long as we can :) We are in the middle of making an EP right now that will be available soon! We also have a tour planned beginning in April. Yay!!! These things started happening almost immediately after we decided to start up the engines again. Amazing! I am so thankful and excited for the future. There is a Sixpence myspace page in the works and many details to come about the tour, EP etc very soon..."

mitt, mitt, mitt...

bless his heart... poor clinton is tuckered out...

thank you...

american idol's simon

I loved it when he looked at a contestant and said, "You know what? I would love to be you for one hour a day. Maybe for two." What a beautiful comment to say to somebody.

It was charming.

quote

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson

just words

I have so much to be thankful for. My beautiful wife. A baby on the way. Amazing friends. A family that loves me. The fact that I enjoy my job.

But I'm going through a season when life feels more difficult than I think it should feel. The struggles in my head seem bigger right now for some reason. I keep blaming it on the fact that I'm currently writing about my childhood, which means I'm opening old wounds that I believed had healed long ago. But now, I'm realizing they haven't as much as once thought.

And indeed, that could be it.

...

I feel small at the moment, perhaps a little meaningless. Maybe I'm getting a small taste of what King Solomon felt when he wrote Ecclesiastes. I relate some to his story: Depression. Confusion. The questions. Doubt. Addiction. The stuff in between.

Perhaps feeling small is a blessing in disguise. Maybe I'm getting ready to learn something or maybe I'll just eventually open my eyes to a new grace that I hadn't experienced before.

Or maybe I'm just in a one of those moods where I can't seem to get out of my own head long enough to see the all of the joy that comes from that list of blessings in the first paragraph.

For now, I'm trying to take the advice of a friend. "Relax, Matthew, relax," he said.

"And trust."

olan mills...

My wife found this blog the other day. It's a collection of old Olan Mills Studio shots, which are hilarious by themselves. But combined with the blogger's comments, I've been laughing all weekend. Underneath the picture of the two guys at the Southern Baptist Convention, the blogger wrote: "Gene had always secretly wanted to lay hands on Chet."

Enjoy.

12 weeks. words can't do it justice.