Praxis House

COTA publicity

2006-04-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

OK. So no one probably reads this blog anymore...but in case there is a lurker...

Praxis was mentioned in an article in the Seattle Times! Our original intentions may be long gone, but apprently it's noteworthy, or something. The story appeared on the front page with a large picture from COTA's worship.

Read the article here and make sure you click the "next" button atop the picture for more.

Funny though, that the article wasn't specifically about COTA, but all the photos are from our worship...

[ray] i'm posting again

2006-02-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

so, the honest to god truth is we have ceased being an intentional community. at least, what our original intention was has died a slow death. we all still get along, there are still the occasional squabble about picking up after ourselves rather than after each other, but we generally get along well. the problem is that real life (read that "the drab life") has made somewhat of an invasion on a couple of us in particular.

for me in particular, i have faced some work budget crises a couple of times over the last six months. this has meant that i have had to work more in order to bulk up my paychecks. this means i have had to sacrifice monday nights in order to take work as it comes up. also, lacey has become increasingly involved with a cota/fremont abbey ministry/groove venue music-and-art fest called the round which happens one monday a month, so that keeps her out on monday once in a while. so, mondays have fallen by the wayside and we can't seem to figure out another day of the week that would work in its place.

for the time being, the only intentional part of our intentional community is that we are still living together, we don't hate each other's guts, and we can even find times to do fun things together. i think that, instead, our naive enthusiasm for all that we were going to do and accomplish as a house ministry needs to be redefined or continue to be put on hold, at least for now. i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to put the breaks on for a bit to continue to figure out our identity.

more praxis fun

2006-01-26T16:07:00.000-08:00

well, we aren't doing to good on posting. weekly meetings have increasingly come under attack in this urban world. dodging around work schedules (and for me class schedules) has proven difficult to say the least. so maybe the monday night dinner/prayer time just isn't going to do it for praxis.

so what do we do instead?

karaoke.

yes, that's right. praxis had another karaoke night at the little red hen last night. good times. ray and lacey did a smashing rendition of "i got you babe"--it had jocelyn on her knees with laughter!

advent prayer table

2005-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

So we've had a leave of absence from this blog (does anyone read this?)...it's been awhile since we've had a house meeting, too. But, there's plans in the works to meet this week before Christmas and enjoy some hot buttered rum. Until then...

Here's a picture of the cool Christmas decoration Ray and I set up tonight. Advent candles, white lights, and an icon.

Megan

comment word verification

2005-10-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

OK, in response to spam comments on two posts, I turned on the word verification tool to leave a comment. This means any human can post (and we certainly welcome that!!), but through typing in the letters you see on the screen, it will eliminate the spam crap that advertises for some stupid website sent by evil spambots lurking in the recent posts on blogger...

Megan

an update

2005-10-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

After skipping last week due to two house members being out of town, Praxis House met again last night for our weekly house meeting. The evening was graced with scrumptious pumpkin bread baked by Leah, as well as soup by Leah.

The meeting itself was shorter than some of our other meetings, which was nice. We are still into soy milk, and have agreed that buying bulk at Costco will be to our benefit. Yay for soy milk!

We are gearing up for the Haloween party on Saturday, partly sponsored by COTA. I'm looking forward to it, because I've not been to a party yet at Rosewood Manor.

Other than that...not sure what to write. Blessings...

Megan

fun outings

2005-10-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last week Wednesday was the second outing for the Praxis House...we put on our cowboy hats and boots and line danced our way to Karaoke at the Little Red Hen.

OK, so we didn't go cowboy and we didn't line dance, but Ray, Leah, and Lacey took their turn at the microphone--some of the best entertainment that night! Despite the bar being crowded and noisy, I believe a fun time was had by all in the Praxis House. Good times, good times...

community and soy milk

2005-09-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

One thing I truly love about community and living in intentional community is that there is no one way to live it. There is not a prescribed rule book to say "THIS is what community is, and only this." There are many beautiful expressions and writings, but ultimately it is a journey by those who live it. Praxis House is lived out in us as individuals and us as community together.

At one point in the common journey, we decided to put in money for community food. As it turns out, that hasn't worked for everyone, so last night at our meeting the issue was brought up. Through discussion, we came up with something new to try. Now for me personally, I could actually go further into the concept of community food and time (for example, sharing all groceries and eating together every night)--but I've learned (and am still learning) it isn't so much about me as it is about hearing everyone.

Instead of a list of groceries to buy, we found some very basics that everyone needs and eats that we will buy, thus reducing the amount of money each person has to contribute to the community money. It will be interesting to see how this works. Our cupboards are full as it is, so one of the aims is to eat the surplus of food--hopefully this can happen while we buy some of our own food. Each of us brought with us into this house food that we had on our own, and much of it (especially condiments) still remains. Therefore, we have to use it up. I can just see it now...a feast of jell-o and muffins (two items we have plenty of). Mmmm...

So, to my original intent of the post: soy milk.

I'm smiling right now because one of the discussions on what consists of a "staple" that everyone is willing to consume was about milk preference. One of us drinks only organic milk, another prefers skim, while still another prefers 2%...and another soy. Would we just buy our own milks? Would we form "milk alliances" on those who could share preferences?

As it turns out, each of us expressed a willingness to consume soy milk. Something came out of this meeting which wasn't expected. We started with an expression of something that didn't work and asked ourselves, "so how can we make this work?"

The answer: soy milk. hehehe. :)

What an adventure this was and is for me.

[ray] funny music video

2005-09-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

We like big Bibles and we cannot lie.

Celebration!!!

2005-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

I'm finally writing a post, after much goading and passive-aggressive hinting from Ray and Megan because...

Lacey's engaged!!! She came home tonight with a dozen roses, flashing a rock on her left hand. All the girls of the house, including Annie the mutt, are in the living room, basking in the glow of the only diamond among us.

Mawaige, mawaige is wot bwings us togevah today.

[ray] we skipped monday night

2005-08-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

so, lacey's in england at the greenbelt festival with mama k and jossy's in arizona visiting family and bringing back her car that had broken down before she moved to seattle, so megan decided to skip out and do something else with central lutheran church (her other church). leah and i decided to walk down to hale's ales and pick up job applications. we thought it would be fun to work there part-time to help with income, plus it's right here in our neighborhood. can't pass up working at a hoppin' (no pun intended) microbrew pub.

community happened tonight over eating blueberry bagels with nutella spread while phil (lacey's boyfriend) came over to clean lacey's room as a surprise for her for when she gets back tomorrow night, only... her room was a lot messier than he had anticipated. Her room is still messy. i changed a battery in one of our smoke alarms. i felt like i really was the man of the house by doing that. isn't that dumb? :-)

community night

2005-08-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

I know I am loading this blog with posts from me, but if no one else posts, then you'll all just have to put up with my thoughts. ;-)

Monday night is our community night where we come together for food, fellowship, meeting, and prayer (or other spiritual discipline). We created a chore wheel to rotate household chores, one of which is Monday night dinner. Last night I made a Thai peanut sauce (recepie from Holden Village) with noodles...mmmmm.

Our meeting as a community invariably led to the discussion of chores again, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good to continue communication and clarify what we mean when we say "clean the kitchen" etc.

Then we discovered, or really attested to some deeper feelings inside, that although we know each other from Church of the Apostles, we really don't know each other. In other words, there is a surfacy type relationship we have, but the depth of who I am in the midst of community and who are we as a community, is not (yet) there. In every community/group that I have been a part of (first intentional community with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps and then the small group for my chaplaincy internship) it has been pertinent to sharer those deeper hidden parts of self with those whom I seek to relate.

So, as we wish to be intentional about spirituality and praying together, we also wish to be intentional about knowing eachother. Perhaps the practice part of Praxis came a step too early in the journey. May we truly be intentional about getting to know each other and may our hearts be touched in ways we never thought possible.

peace,

Megan

adding users

2005-08-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well...so I just figured out how to add users to this blog. Now I can post and me (Megan) and not as our name, praxis. Whohoo.

[megan] fasting part 2

2005-08-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

We gathered for a delicious meal of stir fried rice and an eveninng in the park at our house meeting on Monday. The park is just down the block and right across from the Oh No Mr. Bill mart...yes, the little quick mart is actually called Oh No Mr. Bill's (see http://www.mrbill.com/ for an explanation about the SNL sketch that it refers to).

Anyway, I digress. We decided to participate in another food fast this Wednesday. I was all geared up for it, and ready to reflect some more on what I am hungry for. However, my chaplain pals and I were gathering that night for a movie. All fine and well...I had a wonderful time the previous week going out for pizza and not eating, but I must confess that this fast I broke early. Reason being is that they surprised me. My birthday was back in June, and was acknowledged in the program--but they decided to surprise me with cake and a gift card to REI!! Well, with pizza ordered and brithday cake in my honor, how could I possibly resist?

But, both times I have had the opportunity to participate in community on multiple levels. Reflecting on the question, what am I hungry for?, perhaps part of that for me is community--connection with other people, connection with creation, and connection with God.

[ray] sumner house in portland

2005-08-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

day one of me and karen's (mama karen, cota abbess) apostolic journey to portland, oregon to visit our sister church, the evergreen community.

evergreen seems to be really cool and down with being church in fresh new ways, too. i guess their pastor, bob, met karen at an emergent conference in january, so he's been asking karen to come down for a while. i tagged along because, well, i can, :-) but also i was really interested in learning more about evergreen's 3 intentional community houses. karen and i are staying in one of the houses tonight, sumner house (a little jealous because they have much bigger space and the house is much nicer). but i'm jumping ahead of myself.

karen and i pulled into portland (only 3 hours south of seattle!) around 10:30, and after about half an hour of driving around confused and lost, and a couple of phone calls to one of our sumner hosts, justin, we arrived at the concordia ale house in the northeast district. a couple of the sumner people and a few of the girls from one of the other houses were all there to welcome us and ask us a zillion questions. i was excited to find out that sumner house has only been in existence about as long as praxis, so we're both kind of setting foot in strange uncharted territory. sumner house is just in the process of getting a blog set up so hopefully i can get a link for them eventually to add here.

as part of this trip is to be a vacation for karen, we plan to worship with the evergreenies in the morning, do lunch with them at their cool worship spot, the lucky labrador (yes, they worship in a pub!), then head out to check out multnomah falls and do a little hiking around there. the evening will be spent checking out an arts community space called the doug fir (gathering ideas for our fremont abbey arts center), then head out on the town to the crush (one of the new hot gay clubs in town) most likely. monday's agenda: mama k is having a day spa treatment while ray is dropped off at powell's bookstore downtown (THE largest new and used bookstore in the pacific northwest, it's totally crack). after k is done at the day spa, we head back home. a very quick trip to portland but one that is filled with excitement and faith renewal at seeing how god's working down here with our extended family.

wiped out, as i did the driving down to portland and the jack in the box burger and fries i chowed on in olympia are sitting heavy on my tummy. grrrrrowwwl... time for bed.

[megan] my fast

2005-08-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

I have fasted before, thus I have thoughts and theological reflections about fasting, but for now I will relate my experience this past Wednesday.

For the summer, I am doing an 11-week unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Swedish Medical Center (essentially, CPE=intense internship as hospital chaplain). It is draining work both clinically visiting patients and internally working on personal growth, but I was focused on participating in this fast, being aware of my own health needs.

Once a week, there is a chapel service at each of the Swedish campuses (three within Seattle). I walked in on Wed., unsure whether I was going to take communion or not. Celebrating the Eucharist is important to me, and yet I contemplated abstaining because of the fast--what would it be like to intentionally abstain from this holy meal? Conversely, it is Christ's real presence...body and blood. I am dependent on God to sustain me. In the end, I did take Communion and felt very much a part of the worshipping community; it was the only "meal" I ate during the daylight hours.

For lunch, my small group had planned to take our supervisor out to lunch for pizza. I participated in the community without eating the pizza (which later would become my meal after sunset to break the fast). In doing this, I found drawn into the conversation and presence of my peers and supervisor rather than sidetracked--for too often I do not listen well to others when I eat or I stuff my face so fast to get to the conversation that I miss the taste and enjoyment of the gift of food. What a blessing it was to experience conversation and later intentionally appreciate the abundance of food we have in this country.

I look forward to more fasting experiences in the Praxis community...

peace,

Megan

[ray] fasting blues

2005-08-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

so, i have a confession. we were all set to do a sun up to sun down fast on wednesday and i totally blew it! i completely and utterly forgot to do the fast with my housemates! i'm so lame! LOL. and here i was all jazzed about doing it, then the first thing i did that morning was get up and go out to pasture and powergraze!

i realize that there is no special power or favor from the lord in fasting, but there is a certain element of grace and empowerment in doing it, being hungry before god and hungering for god. i feel like doing this fast all together will be unifying and strengthening for us, if all of us can remember to do it.

p.s. i even wrote a sticky note and put it on the fridge that said "reminder for wednesday: fast from sun up to sun down." *buries face in hands*

fasting

2005-08-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned for more to come about fasting and our experiences surrounding practicing the fast. I will personally post my thoughts, and hopefully other members of Praxis House will, too.

peace,

Megan

community chores

2005-07-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

I was reading back to what Ray wrote on 23 June about our intentionality...and the last one sticks out to me:

each of us has a chore duty that rotates. our chores are not just meant to be who takes on which responsibility just so that everyone has a shot at every chore for fairness' sake, chores are also a way of practicing service and also a tool for bringing us present to the here and now.

I don't always remember that when I'm doing a chore. Sometimes I'm in a hurry, sometimes I'm lazy...indeed to think of cleaning the house as a service to others is difficult for me to practice.

Today, however, that piece of our intentional community is being exercised as we prepare for houseguests this evening. We are inviting the COTA community into our space for the first time since our inception in early June. There will be food, fun, and a house blessing. This is truly an opportunity to clean as a way of service and open our space as a way of hospitality to our larger community of faith.

blessings,

Megan

[megan] introduction

2005-06-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

OK, so it seems that Ray and I are the only ones posting as of yet. But to give a little intro on me:

I am a 25 year old graduate student at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. I am studying for an MA in Transforming Spirituality (essentially, I'll be a spiritual director) and just completed my first year. I am a candidate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for Diaconal Ministry.

Currently I am in a summer unit of being a chaplain intern.

I love to run, I play the clarinet, I can speak German and I love to travel.

[ray] monday evening

2005-06-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

we're off to a good start! jocelyn ("jossy") and megmeg whipped up an awesome mexican fiesta, plenty of laughs over 80s hair bands ("you give love a bad name" by bon jovi was the overwhelming favorite as well as tweeking a few time-honored favorites, such as "pour some [chicken broth?] on me" by def leppard). it's really funny to look at 80s hair band lyrics and realize how melodramatic their lyrics are ("shot through the heart..."!). ahhhhh... memories. growing up in the 80s was totally tubular and all but i don't want to ever go back to it.

we also opened up our devotional time by taking turns reading sections of the introduction to celebration of discipline by richard foster. a couple of remarkable and important thoughts from the text:

when the disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people. we take explicit commands and use them to imprison others. such a deterioration of the spiritual disciplines results in pride and fear. pride takes over because we come to believe that we are the right kind of people. fear takes over because we dread losing control. (10)

it's so funny how people's first reaction when i tell them i live in intentional community is, "oh, sounds like a cult, that's kinda weird." yeah... it IS kinda weird, it's very unconventional anyway, having a certain degree of accountability to a group of people and them to you. most would think, oh, there must be a lot of control issues that will come up with 5 people trying to live in some crazy utopian type of commune (*chuckle*), but really the opposite must be true: there is a certain degree of control that we must surrender in order to live out our vision successfully. where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom; i pray that the spirit will blow and be poured out on each of us in this house.

foster goes on to say: our world is hungry for genuinely changed people. leo tolstoy observes, "everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself." let us be among those who believe that the inner tranformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort (11). only by the grace of god! i am so spiritually unruly it's not even funny. i'm like napoleon dynamite when it comes to being a disciple; kind of a dufus and quick to be on the defensive. what i really want is to really experience change in my attitude, to exhibit more of the fruits of the spirit, to really see others with the eyes of jesus, to be able to speak truth into peoples' lives with grace and authority. but none of these things can come from me until i am molded and shaped into the image of christ.

oh man-n-n! :-/

[megan] hello

2005-06-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well, this post isn't going to be as awesome as Ray's. But at his urging, I'm signing on to say hello to the blogworld. Someday in the near future, when I am more insightful, I will write a longer post about...something...yeah, like about the community...yeah. That's all for now.

Megan, aka megmeg

[ray] what we are being intentional about

2005-06-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

we agreed that every monday night is our house night for business, dinner, and worship together.
the last monday of every month, the entire cota community (and anyone else) is welcome to join us for dinner and worship as a way of nurturing community togetherness.
having a common rule or order (like monastics have, except shorter! lol) is valuable to us.
we will be using two texts as our primary monday night devotion: celebration of discipline and spiritual classics as we journey through the classic spiritual disciplines together.
we will be intentional in seeking ways for the spiritual disciplines to take root in us, grow, and flow outward in service to others, as "faith without works is dead" (james 2:20).
we will be intentional in seeking ways to live out ideas of social justice (more to come).
"iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another" (proverbs 27:17). we exist to know each other, be known, be vulnerable, take risks, and love each other as we journey together in becoming more intimate with god.
we all pitch in to pay for and share our grocery items.
each of us has a chore duty that rotates. our chores are not just meant to be who takes on which responsibility just so that everyone has a shot at every chore for fairness' sake, chores are also a way of practicing servic and also a tool for bringing us present to the here and now.

i'll start...

2005-06-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

...only because i'm awake at an ungodly hour anyway, so here you go.

i'm ray, the token male in the house. i'm 29 (i accidentally started typing 28, but my birthday was back in march; i think this is a symptom of the early onset of old age). i almost feel like writing an introduction is kind of canned, like an online personals ad. so here you go:

hey sugar, did it hurt fallin' from heaven like that? well, let me ease your pain with a good book, or perhaps a trip to the movies, a weekend get-away camping/hiking, chilling with tunes on the hi-fi, and long walks on the beach by sunset. (consequently, i'm terminally single. wonder why...)

by day, i'm a mild-mannered sign language interpreter (i think my job description actually states that 50% my time is spent in my car stuck in traffic). i hope to get my national certification out of the way within the next year, for obviously completely unselfish reasons like a pay increase. :0) By night, I'm working on an online MA through northwest nazarene university in spiritual formation.

ok, time for bed, i'm falling asleep here. zzzzZZZZZZ!

2005-06-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

MORE TO COME...