By the time I was 15…

… I had lived in seven cities in six states. Sometimes I had lots of friends and sometimes I had no friends. I said goodbye to people I loved and met people I never thought I would.

… I had lived in two countries, one of which is one of the wealthiest and most Christian on our planet (the U.S.) and one of which is the poorest and most… voodoo? on our planet (Haiti).

… I had gone to five schools - two of them were private Christian schools and three of them were public schools.  

I have three brothers and there aren’t many things that the three of us agree on. In fact, there might not be anything we all agree on.

I only say all of that to say this.

Even by 15, I had lots thrown at me in terms of perspectives, ideas, and experiences. One thing I had no doubt about was that it was a big, big world. There were parts of that fact I hated and parts of that fact I loved. But, I can also say this: if you were someone or something who tried to make the world smaller (or formulaic or contained or stereotypical) I tended to be much less interested. If you were someone or something who tried to make the world bigger (or more brilliant and full of wonder and diversity and wildness and beauty) well… hello.

After doing a number of jobs I eventually became a pastor. After being a pastor for about 10 years I finally realized that my own religion - even as big as I was trying to make it - was still making the world small. I quit the church and religion.

I still love talking to people about wonder and infinite… about smiling, quitting, stoping, risking, going, leaving, relaxing, running, creating, changing, and just living. 

I live in Seattle and I’d absolutely love to chat.

There’s more if you want more.