A community of friends who pool their money to meet the needs of people they know. That is what Common Change is all about. And that is the non-profit that my wife, tbV, and i work with and have been for the last year and a half. Almost every time we explain the concept to people and they get it, it excites them and they want to know more. But many people in that boat [...]
If only this was just a fun cartoon and not a too startlingly close depiction of how too many people view life... [For a different 'Pearls before Swine' strip looking at the finely honed insult of "Just being honest" click here] [For a 'Pearls before Swine' strip focusing on that much maligned Facebook practice of The Poke, click here]
i am busy reading this poetry book which was a gift to me by a friend i have only met online and know through friends of friends but his gift of words and wielding them to weave and create and display and be creative is at the same time obvious and captivating here is a second one that really resonated with me [maybe cos i am all that kinds of crazy myself]: [from the book, [...]
Michael Toy is one of my imaginary friends, you know like the one you had as a kid, that you were convinced was real. Except that this one really is. No seriously, you gotta believe me! Although his last name even suggests that i might have trouble convincing anyone of that. 'Imaginary' in that, though we have been 'friends on Facebook' and have at least 30 mutual friends [most of whom i actually real-life know] [...]
One of the most powerful passages from the book i am busy finishing at the moment, because it will start with laughter and end in tears. Such a powerful read: I suppose that the number of homies I've baptised over the decades is in the thousands. Gang members find themselves locked up and get around to doing things their parents didn't arrange for them. Homies are always walking up to me at Homeboy Industries or [...]
"I'm not sure what God's will is for my life!" i hear this a lot, or some other version of it. And i have spoken about/written on this before, but feels like a good time to bring it up. YES, YOU NAILED IT, GOD WANTED THAT BABY TO GET SICK AND DIE possibly the worst scenario this plays out in is when someone gets an incurably disease or a person dies and somebody who is chatting [...]
i posted this a few years ago when i had a Weekly Mash blog going on, but thought it was worthy of a place on Irresistibly Fish as it is one picture that never fails to make me smile a lot and usually laugh out loud [which is unusual for me - normally an inside laugher] i hope it might have that effect on some of you. you know as a child, many well-meaning adults [...]
If i was sharing every chapter and excerpt i enjoyed from ‘Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion’ by Father Gregory Boyle, which i have been reading and really being deeply moved by, then the whole book would pretty much be in here. But i am wanting you to get hold of the book and so am only sharing a story or a passage from every couple of chapters in the book. There is some [...]
Once again, the punmeister Stephan Pastis of Pearls before Swine fame is giving it his best and poor innocent Pig is taking one in the head: [For another Pearls before Swine Pig + pun combo, click here] [For a whole list of some of my favourites, click here]
A third extract from ‘Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion’ by Father Gregory Boyle, which you should clearly be able to gather by now i am adding to my 'Books i would love for all my friends to read' list so just do it already. So brief background to this short piece is that Father Boyle works predominantly with gangsters and ex-gangsters through a number of different businesses that fall under the banner of Homeboy [...]