Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
“Can you imagine Alayna and Jeremiah being gunned down at school?” Thor said last night. We were sitting pressed together on the couch. He was referring to our friends next door, 8 and 10. We had just watched the tape of President Obama’s speech on the Newtown shootings. I
Tags: grief·grief absorption·Newtown massacre·prayer·Sacred Corner
The holidays are full of traditions and rules, some spoken and some unspoken. But change, which we might call rule-breaking, is always an option. While we don’t all celebrate Christmas, most people in the world celebrate some kind of winter holiday (the word holiday was originally holy day). I celebrate Christmas because I’m a liberal Christian, but
Tags: breaking the rules·Catholic Worker·Christmas·status quo
Today’s post is a follow-up to my fifth most-read post, The Poverty of Hyperindividualism. Incidentally, this autumn marks the fifth anniversary of Diamond-Cut Life! Many thanks to my readers who have posted more than 750 comments on 490 posts, and made my writing a rich, joyful thing. If you subscribe (to your right) you might win the drawing [...]
Tags: baby.walrus·friendship·happiness·hyperindividualism·Maureen Gill
If you’ve landed here at Diamond-Cut Life, the chances are good that you’re a cultural creative. I learned not long ago that I am one. This outside-the-box group is almost 25% of the U.S. population, according to extensive research done by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Paul H. Ray. Here are the main characteristics of cultural [...]
Tags: Cultural Creatives·hippies·Paul H. Ray·Revelle·Sherry Ruth Anderson
I was driving down the Willamette Valley in slanting golden sunlight last night when I heard on NPR that President Obama has come to believe gay people should be able to marry each other. His dialogues over the years with colleagues and friends have helped him arrive at this. Thank you, I thought. I kept [...]
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Just a brief post to note that we finally found a housemate to help us fill up our house and practice community.
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Update on May 7, 2013: Speaking of free, I’m giving away a free copy of my novel, Revelle. 21 Amazon reviews give it an average 4.2 stars. You enter the drawing by subscribing to this blog (to your right). You’ll receive my one weekly post in your email inbox (easy to unsubscribe with a click [...]
Tags: community·friends·loss·relationshipe
I was walking down 12th street in Salem last week when one of the waves hit me, and out of the blue I was crying. I kept walking, pretending all was well, masking the grief even as I welcomed it. Crying lets me feel closer to my mother, who died on March 21. What triggered [...]
Tags: grief·privacy·Sacred Corner
Today’s post is on the lighter side. A reader in Arizona has suggested that I am a hippie. Or, to be more specific, he wrote I am “definitely much more of a hippie” than he himself is. Hmm. His tone was friendly enough, but I’ve been pondering this hippie business, this label, for a couple [...]
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“I am communicating with a certain number of people, and if my music is too dark or in your face for some, or not glossy enough for mass appeal, I’m glad.” That’s a quote from Richard Thompson, one of my favorite musical artists. Substitute the word ‘writing’ for ‘music’, and I feel I could say [...]
Tags: Richard Thompson
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