1. Today I was one of three girls walking across campus, and on the other side of the drive was another group of three girls walking together. What we two trios had in common was that each group has lived outside the US. They, in Kenya, we, in Europe. Now we’re in the US for various lengths of time, enjoying the benefits and ease and junk food of it, but our hearts are always feeling stretched across time zones and cultures, and we wonder if we will ever feel at home anywhere. Or know where we’re from. Or if we’ll ever fit in anywhere. I’m thankful beyond words for the high privilege of living outside my birth country for nearly half my life, but it comes at considerable cost. This isn’t the time to talk about that cost, but for now the understanding and kinship of others who share my experience is something I treasure deeply.

2. If you’re hungry for an easy-read, this is a must-buy: Love Does, by Bob Goff. From the website: “A book and a movement about love in action.” I heard Bob Goff speak last week, and it was phenomenal, the way he lives large, and loves big. I will never be the same again, watching how he loved on his audience and told us stories of teaching witch doctors in Uganda how to read and write. “Walk in grace, live in love” was the theme of his talk, and he urged us to make it our mantra when we walk: walk in grace, live in love, walk in grace, live in love.  People won’t know we love them if it just stays inside our heads. We have to DO love. A key word in the book is “whimsy.”  This is the man who wakes up his Sweet Maria every morning with a cut rose from their garden (this is possible in San Diego) and jumped off the dock with his children to wave goodbye to Don Miller, their guest leaving by boat. My favorite story in the book is when he got his children, in response to Nine-Eleven,  to write letters to hundreds of world leaders in order to dialogue with them and send them house keys to invite them to come stay with them. Walk in grace. Live in love. This is the mantra that will change the world.