Due to a complete lack of athleticism or self-discipline, I have always known I was never going to make it in the big leagues as any sort of athlete. My musician friends say I am “tone deaf” and have “absolutely no musical skill of any kind so please for the love of God stop". Based on these evaluations, I have accepted that perhaps a musical career is unrealistic. Arriving at the final frontier for success, any future in politics is out of the question thanks to an intractable social media foot print full of compromising photos and videos of me in various states of insobriety.   Navigating bipolar disorder has been a mostly trial and error process of trying to live a life that resembled how I felt. In doing so, I was lucky enough to find myself at the center of attention. My mission to destroy myself was executed with enough flair, that I danced on the line of pathetic and entertaining. Now, I hardly see myself as the girl in those pictures, glazed eyes captured forever

Cities emerge, but not in a vacuum.  They happen where there are people.  Where people choose to stay stacked on one another despite the inherent limitations of city dwelling.  I write this post from a Paris studio in the 5th Arrondissement.  There's a bathroom, a bed and even a little kitchenette - that's it.  You could pee and cook all at the same time.  Oh, and it's really loud - garbage trucks, Vespa's, and hooligans are a never ending procession - and this is one of the quieter neighborhoods.  A place like this in Paris will go for no less than $500,000 euro.  Why would anyone subject themselves to such cramped living and pay top dollar for it?  Convenience?  Novelty?  Romance? It's all that.  I'm sure of it and at the core of  all that  is one piece we hate to acknowledge - in a city we get more of each other.  After walking through amazing human feats of engineering and artistic expression like Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Pompidou (museum of mo

   The familiar drag of the bar stool announces to no one in particular that I’m here. Again. The bartender has already poured my well vodka soda with lime and holds his hand out expectantly for my card; he knows to keep my tab open. The first sip tastes like communion, I breathe a sigh of relief, settle back in my chair and I am at home, this is church to me. I grew up in church but never felt quite as comfortable in the pews of bright-eyed parishioners dressed in their Sunday best seeking God, as I do in the neon-lit booths of dive bars crammed with mascara stained and sweaty bodies seeking something.    I glance around the bar to see who will play a character in tonight’s story. That’s what I love about bars, nearly all good stories start with, “So (someone and someone else) walk into a bar”- punchline and antics ensue. I realize too late my black dress has slipped up too high on my thigh and my self-harm scars are showing. My face flushes and I jerkily pull it to my knee, keeping

As I look at the skyline of East Village SD in it’s skeletal, gestation state, I am reminded of those signs, painful as they may be, that remind us that we are in fact growing.  They usually involve a lot of noise, there are definitely cranes present but energy is in the air.   1.   The general environment of our life seems loud.    I don’t mean that the decibel meter is actually clipping, but rather there are ideas, experiences and even relationships that seem disruptive.  Often these experiences are inciting growth, but so often we avoid them.  The problem is, growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum, disconnected from life, but happens through connection - connection to ideas, experiences and ultimately the others we encounter every day.  Staying   safe  and   comfortable  will never lead to change, we have to incite change with the noise of a inciting event.   A friend of mine moved out to the West Coast in September.  This decision was an inciting decision.  An inciting decision i

Join us at  Second Sunday  and get to know some up and coming local vendors, enjoy light bites, and meet some really cool people in your community who are developing their own relationship with Jesus. Sunday April 9th 7pm 705 16th Street San Diego 92101