Serving Up 2018

A sign from Steadfast Love.
It's time to slow down

Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.
Alice Walker

2018 flew by quicker than a first serve from Serena Williams. And, just as it is staring across the net at the greatest athlete ever, it was often hard to see clearly enough to return what Life delivered. 2018 was a blur of travel and recovery, often resulting in some form of illness. Like a grinding loss in the finals of a Grand Slam event only to gear up for the next tournament.

2018 was one gigantic, exquisite privilege to soak in dear friends and spaces, old and new, all over the country from Southern California to Seattle to Atlanta to Charlottesville to Philly to Minneapolis to Denver to Oregon. And back again. And down for the count again. Sustainability beckons in 2019. That's a promise, not a threat. Like mustard seeds, superlatives sprouted up along the Way. We offer this 2018 recap of mosts, firsts, worsts and bests from our Journey.


Most intoxicated more-than-human friend(s): the buck eating Juniper berries in our backyard (Bend, Oregon).

Most adorable mini-human friend: nephew Mason (Big Sur, CA).

Best sunrise: Detroit, MI (on the way into the Manna Meal soup kitchen).

Best afternoon summer getaway: Bishop Lake, Michigan.

Best seat at a wedding: Chris and Alyssa Dollar (San Clemente, CA).

First time we risked arrest in a nonviolent act of civil disobedience: May 14 with the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (Lansing, MI).

First time we got arrested: May 29 (Tom) and June 4 (Lindsay).

Best nonviolent direct action that we didn't get arrested in, but got to support friends who did: blocking the QLine (M-1 rail line) with the Poor People's Campaign on June 11 (Detroit, MI).

Best Snow Storm: Early February with our guest host C. John Hildebrand (Ypsi, MI).

Saddest snow story: the death of Robert, a man who was braving the streets in this tent during two weeks of single-digit weather (Detroit, MI).

Best Tradition: the Good Friday Stations of the Cross walk--38 years and counting (Detroit, MI).

Best Sporting Event: the UC Irvine Anteaters defeating Eastern Michigan in Ypsi (the post-game analysis with Coach Ryan Badrtalei was even better).

Greatest Insurgent Artist: the Yarn Bomber (Ypsi, MI).

Worst stretch of sickness: From October to yesterday (all over the U.S.). Thank God for Cait De Mott Grady's famous white bean & leek soup!

Most profound theological conversation(s): Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute (Oak View, CA).

Holiest Ground: Ebenezer Baptist Church/The King Center for the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (Atlanta, GA).

Best Tree: the glorious Gingko on the banks of the Huron River (Ypsi, MI).

Best (solo) spiritual practice: Lindsay writing daily meditations to Claire Grady, who was in federal prison for her role in the nonviolent Kings Bay Plowshares action in Georgia on April 4.

Best (communal) spiritual practice: weekly lectio divina circle, where personal and political reflection, warmth, truth-telling, and vulnerability flowed like water (Detroit, MI).

Pictured below: some, not all, Lectio participants caught on camera at other gatherings (from top to bottom: Faith & Resistance gathering, Hammtramck, MI; Ruth's garden plot at the Ypsi Land Conservancy in our neighborhood, Ypsi, MI; post-direct-action fellowship at Buddy's pizza)

   

And still, the undisputed Champions of the World: the women of We The People of Detroit.