Purpose and history of this blog:

The inconspicuous start to this blog was in June 2010.  Here I am, nearly three years later, penning the first post.  Apparently I was not too keen on blogging in the intervening years.  Huh.  If you know me, perhaps you can guess why.

I set up this blog back then for a silly reason.  I wanted free books, and one of my literary friends at Georgetown Law, Josh Lake, told me I could receive free Christian books if I reviewed them on my personal blog and on a commercial site.  I received my first free book in the mail, never fully read it, and never reviewed it.

Now, here I sit, in the progressive(?) MidWestern city(?) of Des Moines, Iowa, feeling like I've been re-born.  What I mean is, for the last 3-ish weeks, I have not had to work or go to school, mourn anything extremely deep and personal, study for an intimidating exam, or anticipate an imminent up-rooting to another locale.  This has not happened since I was, well, 5-years-old (to my best calculation).  And, man, this season is a gift.  I pray everyone in the world would have the gift of a slowing-down, evaluative time, knowing full-well that it is generally the privilege of few who can afford it.  I salute you, oh-once-hated BigLaw, for providing my husband with a handsome salary and freeing me from the tyranny of the urgent.

I thought I would give you, lovely reader, a sneak-peak into my eventual substantive posts.  I love to read and think about what I read, and I love to max out life's greatest potentials.  I have rarely put words to a concrete "life statement" but, thinking off the cuff, I would say I hope my life is continually marked by prayerfully thinking through life's deepest hurts and questions, and loving people and the good in the world as zealously as I can.  So, currently, I am studying church history (post-Jesus to present day), reading/listening to Bleak House by Dickens, seeking to be the wife God calls me to be, thinking about the role of vocation and women in society (in large part thanks to Dorothy L. Sayers) among attempting to grow and invest in the relationships I have (and love), scattered across the continent and world.  I have hopes to write type-written letters to many of you readers, but in the meantime when I don't, and for my personal reflection, I think it would be beneficial to write out what I am learning/processing.  No worries if mis pensamientos (my thoughts) are too verbose or frustrating to continue reading.  However, if my writing provokes questions or teaches you something new that you'd like to discuss, drop me a line.  I may be anti-Internet in word, but here I am- using it in deed!

Peace and good beer (currently imbibing Shift),
Joy