Hugh Hollowell

Photo credit: AbbyLadybug

One of the writing gigs I do is reviewing books and writing blurbs for “Christian” oriented books. One I am currently working on is Fields of the Fatherless, by Tom Davis. A beautiful book, I was particularly taken by the introduction by Steven Curtis Chapman, a Christian recording artist. In the introduction to the book, Chapman talks about his family’s decision to adopt a daughter from China back in 2000, named Shaohannah Hope.

In the introduction he tells what his wife said said about Shaohannah:

“When they handed me Shaohannah, God was more real to me in that moment than He ever had been. It about knocked me down!”.

Shaohannah died last night, ran over in her own driveway in a horrible accident. And the person who ran over her was her own brother.

The pain the Chapmans are feeling right now I cannot begin to imagine. The pain their teenage son must feel and live with, knowing he killed his sister… I shudder even thinking about it. More than anything today, I pray for the Chapman family to be able to sort through the pain, the anger and the despair and know that they are very loved.

I believe that if God could have prevented this, He would have, and I believe that Shaohannah’s death grieves Him in ways I cannot fathom and I know that one day, when the dream of God is fully realized, when things are on earth as they are in heaven, wrongs like this will be made right. I will just be glad when it gets here. We are hurting, creation is groaning, waiting for that day.

• @kitch Sinnerman (the long cut) by Nina Simone gives me chills every single time. #
• Morning, tweeple! #
• @DaveTaylor Yes. I got redirected. good job on real life debt 2.0 #
• @jeremysallen Howdy. did you get the notice about @lovewins? #
• @banskinator I can be witty before coffee, but it is not the way to bet. #
• @jeremysallen focus, young padawon, focus. and branding, and @lovewins is (or should be) larger than just me. #
• @jeremysallen rocking awesome. this whole working for a living thing could work out for you… #
• did the @twhirl upgrade and reinstall… will see if this time t works better for me… #
• @rosevines is that on the web? I tried and tried and finally gave up. #
• Retweeting @jowyang: Zappos pays employees $1000 to quite their job after training (to weed out the bad apples) http://tinyurl.com/5cqnx6 #
• @rosevines sorry. I meant will the article be on the web. I never could get my install to work right. #
• @ink_slinger re: selfpromotion.com…1998 is calling, and they want their website back. #
• My birthday is in like 2 weeks, and I just found a grey hair in my beard. #
• @leewhite yeah, but not sure I can fake the wisdom thing… #
• @eMom ROFL. To quote Garth Brooks, “I am much too young to be feeling this damn old”. #
• @dtraleigh There you go, thinking that it is all about you, when obviously, it is about them and their need for revenue. #
• @dtraleigh dude, ads drive me crazy. I am right there with you. #
• @jeremysallen that is what 2.5.1 looks like #
• @eMom did you see this: http://tinyurl.com/58lx86 #

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Twitter / lovewins: The twiter account for my work with homeless and urban poor of Raleigh. 

Job replied, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

• @jefftippett RE Obama’s VP, some are saying Ted Strickland (Gov of Ohio) looks good. #
• @bledsoetech I have done some minor edits (spelling, etc) and done some low level url spam (I know, and I have repented) but nothing major. #
• @bledsoetech rofl, really. #
• At Morning Times, in my old seat, with a view of the street and a big ass coffee. All is right in the world. #
• It feels that way. It has been at least a month since I sat at the Times and got work done. #
• The woman at the table next to me is spouting randomness, loudly. #
• She has dropped the F bomb about 5 times… #
• @DiMambro Brazilian Girl, English Muffin… globalization! #
• @jeremysallen What exactly are you and Jeff doing in the shower? #
• @jeremysallen yeah… Renee took a better one the other day, but I have not done the editing, etc. yet. #
• For some reason, the downtown post office hates me… #
• arrrrrgh! (thank you, I feel better now.) #
• @jeremysallen check your email #

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When I moved to Raleigh from Memphis, I had several Memphians who treated me as a traitor for leaving.

I love Memphis. I really do. But I love Raleigh too (even if they do their ribs funny). The attitude, the vibe is different here. There is a feeling of hope here, a feeling of possibility.  It is not just me. This city dreams. Look at this:

Murders in 2006:

Raleigh: About 20

Memphis: About 200 (!)

Yes, Memphis is bigger, almost twice as big. But not 10 times as big.

I have adjusted well to living here in Raleigh. The weather is nice, the people are friendly and while they don’t eat real bar-b-que, overall the food is good. However, last week I had a huge, overwhelming feeling of homesickness.

I smelled honeysuckle.

I had commented several times on how I had not seen any honeysuckle here. Back home, it is everywhere. Last week, however, I almost fell off my bike when I saw (and smelled) a whole fence row full of it.

My favorite honeysuckle memory: I am about 12 years old. My friend (and virtual sister) Jo and I are out exploring and we decide to walk up Gatewood road to see the pond on the Thompson’s place. Mind you, we had no fishing equipment, but just seeing a pond had to count for something. Anyway…

There was a stretch of maybe 200 yards where both sides of the road were lined with honeysuckle. The smell was a lot like heaven, and Jo and I were sucking the honey out of the flowers. We never did make it to the pond that day; we were captivated by the honeysuckle.

I know I have not been real consistent with my blogging the last few weeks. It is not because I have had nothing to say, but simply because I have not really felt like saying it.

So, anyway, I have had these fits before, and will no doubt again in the future. For the time being, know that I am well, I am loved, I am busy and I miss you all.

Last night, I joined Reunion.com. They had a simple form where they offered to scan my address book and tell me if any of my contacts were also members of the site. No big deal, all the social sites do this…

However, what I did not know, because of a poorly worded website, was that if you were in my inbox and not a member of reunion.com, you were going to get an email, from me, asking you to join.

Not Cool.

So, last night, over 1000 people got a spam email from me, asking them to join this site. I had no idea it was going to happen, and I am sorry it did. I am posting it here, because I don’t want to send another mass email, apologizing for the previous mass email.

Sorry. I will try to be more careful in the future.