The other day I was checking the Homicide Blog when I noticed the banner at the top of the page showed a happy couple enjoying a beautiful sunset in an ad for the Ritz Carlton. What a crazy juxtaposition. Things have been fairly quiet lately in our neighborhood, though some areas immediately surrounding us have… Continue reading There are children here
Category: South Central
Thirteen
Thirteen people were murdered this weekend in Los Angeles (the L.A. Times offers details on eleven of the slayings). We have all noticed an increase in activity lately in our neighborhood: sirens, screaming, the pounding of helicopters that hardly ceases…”Do you know what was going on last night?” is a common question between neighbors. Meanwhile… Continue reading Thirteen
Food for thought
Ed Gilbreath writes an excellent blog, and his post today includes a collection of interesting links I would recommend. One is to an article discussing the gentrification that is happening in my old neighborhood in Portland. Our recent visits to our old neighborhood and church have surprised me by how very much the neighborhood there… Continue reading Food for thought
“to the end of the earth”
Doug came home from work Friday night feeling sick, so he crashed on the futon while I put the three kids to bed. It’s a bit of a circus getting the three into their beds, and that is with two parents. It is much harder to do it when there is only one of us… Continue reading “to the end of the earth”
Our new baby!
We hadn’t even noticed that our little hummingbird family had returned to the nest on our front porch, and all of a sudden we have a sweet new baby to celebrate! We missed the early, really fuzzy-tiny stage of this little one, and she already looks awfully grown-up. When Mercy names something, she will often… Continue reading Our new baby!
A cry for renewal
Last Thursday, one of our very close friends here was robbed on the street. She has a baby the same age as Elijah and she was pushing him along in his stroller when two men ran up from behind and grabbed her purse off her arm, tipping the stroller over in the process. Thankfully, baby… Continue reading A cry for renewal
Cleaning up
So last night at the gas station, my friend David (who lives under the freeway) told me that things were tough right now for him. He said that the cops were really hassling him a lot because of the upcoming elections. I wondered at the accuracy of his observation and considered how incredibly active the… Continue reading Cleaning up
Not feeling it
The helicopters and sirens have been going all morning. I am aware of the ways this makes me edgy, in general, with my kids. As my anxiety increases, my patience shortens. I don’t think the solution is to just ignore and pretend there is nothing the matter with the fact that police and emergency vehicles… Continue reading Not feeling it
Too few
I saw my brother last weekend, and he told me that thirty-two people had been shot in a single weekend in Chicago. Due to the dramatic number of shootings in such a short amount of time, the shootings received significant media attention. The reality is, had only a handful occurred, it is likely that no… Continue reading Too few
Where we dwell
I spent Sunday’s worship service helping out in the nursery. At one point, we headed outside to let the kids play on the playground and I stayed in the covered area with Elijah. It was an unusual worship service that focused on prayer, and a few youth had opted to hang out in the back… Continue reading Where we dwell