no direction home?

(painting: i am a visitor here i am not permanent, by ashley brown, oil on canvas)

in celebration of warmer weather and crunchy leaves, i went walking to the mailbox down the road this morning in typical ashley fashion...brown hat, old lady sweater, moccassions with the string that ties at the shins, and a cup of coffee in a cup with blue and red flowers on it. while crossing the street and nice elderly couple pulled up to the stop sign in their rather large and markedly upper middle class car. the man politely rolled down his window and the following ensued...
Elderly Man: "Excuse me ma'am, are you homeless? do you need a place to stay?"
Ashley: "No thank you, I'm fine."
Elderly Man: "Are you sure?"
Ashley: "Yes, I'm sure. Thanks anyway!"
while some might take this to evoke a slight stupification or change in wardrobe, i laughed...all the way to the mailbox and then back. my day was made. (though admittedly this doesn't give me a very good case for keeping my "bum coat" my parents insist I exchange for a better one come christmas.)

I Wouldn't Miss it for the World

a few thoughts in the last weeks...always ask for sprinkles, i'm not above playing with kids, i'm not above playing dodgeball and telling bad jokes, its hard to say what i really mean to say when there's so much at stake (but i think im getting better), having black and white film in your camera during peak fall season is not advised, practice silence, i work harder at making christianity look attractive than living like a child of God, i must learn a bob dylan song for my next show, i must watch newsies immediately in light of the recent bus/subway strike in philly, it smells like winter alot sooner in pa than in north carolina, i love flowers and fireplaces and furnaces, all of which are in my room, i can tell you all about it, i can tell you why i doubt it, and why i still believe (pedro the lion)

"Sun Shines and Leaves Blow"

i spent muh of this weekend watching leaves make their glorious, silent descents into puddles. it signals more than just the coming of autumn. i remember how the leaves changed their colors last year and the year before that and i remember, and maybe more so, the people i shared the watching with.
i spent time this weekend with friends ive met on sundays at church and next to fireplaces and dosing off to banjo tinkering and good books. but in these celebrations, i realize the seperateness of lives spent between work and church and where i live and feel at points like a shabbily constructed model airplane where the pieces have a hard time working together. so im making this a hope for my time here, that i learn how to be one person instead of many and how to be myself in many situations. ...i have become all too good at trading truth for false unity. so i think this change looks something like listening more, demanding laughter in regular doses, and loving my brothers and sisters with the honesty and transparency they deserve. autumn is my favorite time of year.

Don't You Write it Down, Remember this in Your Head

Top Ten Reasons I Enjoy Philadelphia

1. our mail comes in through a slot on our door
2. wawa. (no not water)
3. a few miles down the road is hiking trails, trees, and creeks...a few miles the other way is philadelphia.
4. windchimes
5. you can't be a comfortable christian when you're out of the bible belt
6. my records fit in a sealed up fireplace
7. plenty of diversity
8. i help lead worship at a church where there are regular doses of songs from pedro the lion and sufjan stevens.
9. chainlink houses with red doors and peeling, brightly colored paint
10. a very big porch

Take Me Back to the Start (A Brief Summary)

I work at a residential home for severly traumatized kids. On their bad days, they can kick and spit and punch and do a good job of showing us that they are hurting and terrified children. On their good days, they forget their abvout living in survival mode and just remember how to be children. I spend time there during the evenings, which means I work with the kids as they eat dinner, take showers, draw pictures, and sing songs. The best part of my job; getting to read them stories at bedtime. (Right now I'm in the middle of Bradley the Bear and the Great Swamp Monster....its a mystery book.)
I live in a house thats very old and very large with lots of wooden floors and sealed up fireplaces. I'm cleaning out a room in the basement with decent lighting and woodcutting table to do art. I come out of the basement looking like a chimney sweep after finding many long forgotten treasures, like broken colored pieces of glass and old pictures. While I'm working on that space, I've been able to enjoy a bit of contracted work with murals and people's houses. I've been playing a good bit of music around at coffeeshops and cozy candlelit bars that are especially nice when it's raining out. I'm also helping to lead worship at the church I've found, www.liberti.org. I enjoy Philadelphia and constantly need prayer for my ability to love people well, at home, at work, and on these streets.