Sitting here on the couch with Diane, drinking SAMbuca, and enjoying a rare moment of peace. Our house is always full of people at this point. We have 4-8 extra people staying here as part of the Voices movie. We love the activity though it sometimes seems like we’re running a hotel. 

    The peace tonight fits with the  pattern of the whole day… I’m happy to say that almost nothing of any importance happened today..  I can’t begin to describe just how nice that is for me now and then.   Gabe’s at camp, Max was at work on the movie. I went to work, came home, took Diane’s yoga class and helped fix dinner for the 5 or 6 kids that were hanging around the house..

That’s it.  It would almost feel normal if our lives weren’t so fundamentally turned inside out…  Oh Sam……

   One interesting thing I was thinking about today was the effect that this blog has on my life.  3 times in the last 24 hours.  I’ve been talking with someone and they surprise me by knowing everything I’d been up too.. though I hadn’t seen them in nearly a month.. For example.. my friend Vicki at the cafeteria asked me if the food I’d grabbed was vegan.. For a minute I couldn’t figure out how she’d known about that since I hadn’t seen here since before the 4^th…

Vicki has a SamStone on her register !

Or our friend Cody showed up at the house tonight and dropped into a conversation about stuff going on in our lives.. even though I hadn’t spoken with him really since last fall.  It’s such a funny asymmetric form of communication.. I don’t know what anyone else is up too, yet everyone knows everything I’ve been up to.  It’s kind of like being an exhibitionist.. but for a good reason.. (I think ) .

 

 On a related topic, I spent about 20 minutes responding to a questionnaire on Grieving and Healing from  team at the University of Ultrecht in the Netherlands.. not sure how they  found me, but they’re  doing research on what seems to help individuals coping with devastating loss.  This is the 2^nd survey I’ve done for them.. and this one devoted a large part to the role that the internet plays in healing., There were many questions about the use of grieving chat rooms and resource sites.. but none about the power of blogging and other social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook.   I was able to point them at some of the stuff we’re doing with MySpace.. and the SamStones.org web site. I hope that somehow working with these folks will  allow us to share what’s ‘working’ for us with others.

   Well. That’s all I have for tonight.. like I said.. not much happened today.. and I’m so glad !  Gnite all.. gnite Sam !

 

-jc

 

 

ps. I’ve just learned of two really interesting charities that I thought I’d pass along to folks.. My friend Uwe turned me on to a group called http://kiva.org . Kiva is a ‘micro-financing’ site that allows folks to help make small micro loans to folks in the developing world who need capital to build their livelihoods. It’s a really cool idea.. check it out..

 

The second is http://www.familiesinvietnam.org/    This site helps support families living in poverty in Vietnam. My friend Val adopted tow kids from Vietnam and recently quit IBM to go work for this group.. She’s over there right now working with some of the sponsored families.   She has a big heart !