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	<title>LivingSmall &#187; Believing</title>
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	<link>http://livingsmallblog.com</link>
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		<title>Roger Ebert, My New Hero</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/03/roger-ebert-my-new-hero/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/03/roger-ebert-my-new-hero/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[joy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2142</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you haven&#8217;t read Chris Jones&#8217; profile of Roger Ebert in the lastest issue of Esquire Magazine, go there now. It&#8217;s incredibly affecting. I remember my surprise a couple of years ago when I discovered how amazing Ebert&#8217;s written criticism is &#8212; like so many, I&#8217;d thought of him as the thumbs up/thumbs down guy, or as the guy my creative writing instructor at the University of Illinois, the unforgettable Rocco Fumento, used to brag had once been in his class. The U of I and I were not a good fit, and that class summed up many of the reasons why, and so, for years, I unfairly assumed that Ebert too must be somehow second-rate. The idiocy of youth. So when I was trying to learn to write book reviews, I got Ebert&#8217;s books out of the library. If you haven&#8217;t, already, you should go get yourself a copy of The Great Movies or The Great Movies II. They&#8217;re brilliant, enormous fun to read, and a real education in modern movies. He&#8217;s a brilliant writer, who has the unlikely ability to critique a genre while always allowing his deep love for it to shine through. Ebert&#8217;s been all over [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>New Piece at Culinate: Croquembouche!</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/21/new-piece-at-culinate-croquembouche/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/21/new-piece-at-culinate-croquembouche/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:40:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grief]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1251</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My new essay for Culinate was posted this morning. The Croquembouche that saved Christmas (faithful readers might remember): My inner Child — A Christmas to remember : Culinate.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/21/new-piece-at-culinate-croquembouche/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What Killed Jane Austen?</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/02/what-killed-jane-austen/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/02/what-killed-jane-austen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:22:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dead people]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1244</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have a personal theory about Jane Austen, which is that they should  immediately stop teaching her to high school students, and perhaps even college students. Jane Austen can only properly be appreciated when you&#8217;re old enough to have really messed something up, when you know that sick-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling that comes from a truly missed opportunity, when you understand that you can, indeed, really mess up your own life. Then Jane Austen&#8217;s books open up, and become magnificent. That she&#8217;s considered a rom-com writer makes me apoplectic. I&#8217;ve never been that obsessed with biographical detail, but I thought this article in the Guardian was really interesting: Cause of Jane Austen&#8217;s death not universally acknowledged &#124; Books &#124; The Guardian. TB from cattle. Makes a lot of sense to me &#8212; but perhaps that&#8217;s because I live surrounded by lots and lots of cattle.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/12/02/what-killed-jane-austen/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Craig Arnold, 1967-2009</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/05/09/craig-arnold-1967-2009/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/05/09/craig-arnold-1967-2009/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 09 May 2009 18:02:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dead people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craig arnold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poetry]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1020</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Craig and I survived the PhD program at the University of Utah together &#8212; it was a terrible time for me, a program that wasn&#8217;t a good fit, and in general, an experience that taught me that academia wasn&#8217;t a good habitat for me. But Craig, Craig was maddening, a provacateur by nature, but he was also one of the truly kind people I met at Utah. His loss, which is chronicled here at the Salt Lake Tribune, is immense. He was an enormous talent, a poet just hitting his stride. There&#8217;s a lovely rememberence here by his friend Michael Hanson. The best tribute you can give though, is, as our mutual friend Joel Long suggested, to go outside and &#8220;read a poem by Craig Arnold out loud with bravado, like a rock star.&#8221; So today Craig, in my backyard, I&#8217;m sending up my words to you &#8212; although no one will ever read &#8220;Hot&#8221; with the same insinuating tone that you always did. It&#8217;s the best we can do, to keep the poems alive &#8212; for those of you who don&#8217;t know Craig&#8217;s work, we have two books &#8211;Shells (Yale Series of Younger Poets) and Made Flesh. There&#8217;s also [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/05/09/craig-arnold-1967-2009/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>James D. Houston</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/04/20/james-d-houston/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/04/20/james-d-houston/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dead people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Houston]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mentors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=999</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[FaceBook is a funny thing &#8212; I have deeply mixed feelings about it although I do like being in a sort of everyday casual contact with lots of old friends. On Saturday, when I was in between garden chores, I checked in to see what was happening and my old friend Sean O&#8217;Grady had posted Jim Houston&#8217;s obituary in the New York Times. I had no idea he&#8217;d been ill, and was just shocked that he&#8217;s gone. Jim was a tall, gentle man who you could count on to give you a true reading of your work. The very first year we did the Art of the Wild workshop at Squaw Valley, I got lucky enough to do a manuscript consultation with Jim. I had a chapter, maybe two of Place Last Seen, and I&#8217;ll never forget him looking at me across one of those white wire tables by the fountain and saying, &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s a real book. Now all you have to do is organize your life so you can write it.&#8221; There were many many moments writing that book when I thought I couldn&#8217;t do it, and then I&#8217;d hear Jim&#8217;s deep voice telling me I wasn&#8217;t delusional, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/04/20/james-d-houston/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>It&#8217;s a Boy!</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/21/its-a-boy/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/21/its-a-boy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:50:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domestic life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/21/its-a-boy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My dear friend Nina, she of the miracle-twins who restored our collective belief that things might work out in this world, has had her fifth baby this afternoon. The first boy! He&#8217;s a big beautiful healthy boy, and she&#8217;s just fine, and now I&#8217;m slightly crazed to be here in Montana while they&#8217;re all in LA. Yargh. And I have to say, as much as I love her four girls, my &#8220;fake children&#8221; as I like to call them &#8212; it&#8217;s a very girly house over there. I&#8217;m sort of psyched to have a boy to play with &#8212; I&#8217;m famous among those girls for my inability to do hair. I came from a family of seven boy cousins to me and my one girl cousin Jennifer &#8212; I thought I was a boy until I was about ten. So a little boy! What fun! I just mailed off an outfit. A new president and a new baby. What more could we want from a week?]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/21/its-a-boy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Yes We Did!</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/20/yes-we-did/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/20/yes-we-did/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/20/yes-we-did/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We are flying the flag today for Barack Obama, for the restoration of the Constitution of the United States of America, for the revival of the American Dream. I hate crowds, but there&#8217;s part of me that now wishes I&#8217;d somehow managed to go to DC. What a day. What a miraculous day. I have a staff meeting that starts just when he&#8217;s supposed to take the oath and I think that I&#8217;m just going to have to call in late. I can watch the speech on TiVo, but I need to see, in real time, that this actually happens. That it&#8217;s real. I really have no words to express how proud I am of America. How thrilled I am that the long long shadow of the Reagan revolution, a shadow that has fallen over my entire adult life, might now be lifted. That selfishness disguised as individualism might no longer be the norm, that working for the collective good, that working to raise those who among us who are least able to help themselves might once more be seen as a civic duty, that millions and millions of little children will see that yes, we can. The waterworks are [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/20/yes-we-did/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Books of the Week: Home, and Gilead</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/15/books-of-the-week-home-and-gilead/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/15/books-of-the-week-home-and-gilead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:18:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/15/books-of-the-week-home-and-gilead/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Part of my decision to get rid of most of my cable service grew out of my resolution these past few months to turn the TV off in the evening. I spend my working days plugged into two different computer screens, where I&#8217;m working, emailing, IMing and generally being bombarded by electronic communications. It&#8217;s insane. Last summer was the beginning of my escape from the TV &#8212; I spent most evenings outside, in the backyard, with a fire in the firepit reading a book by the light of the Coleman lantern hanging from the apple tree. It was bliss. Now it&#8217;s winter, and the wind is blowing 40 miles an hour and I&#8217;m hunkered inside, but still trying to wean myself off the screens and remind myself that not only was I once a novelist, but that I love reading novels. I wanted to write because I love to read, love that feeling when you&#8217;re deep inside a book, inside another consciousness, inside another life. And so, a resolution for the new year, a book a week, and a review a week. What I find alarming is how difficult it is to sit down to a book after spending my [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/15/books-of-the-week-home-and-gilead/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Around the World with Chris and Debi</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/14/around-the-world-with-chris-and-debi/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/14/around-the-world-with-chris-and-debi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:18:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[other]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/14/around-the-world-with-chris-and-debi/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My lovely friends Chris and Debi Lorenc have gone off on an adventure worth reading about. Chris and I met in a workshop during the very first year of the Art of the Wild workshop at Squaw Valley. I was workshopping the very first chapter of Place Last Seen, and Chris was working on a luminous manuscript about the Santa Cruz mountains as an ancient spiritual site. He&#8217;s a beautiful writer, and he and his wife Debi are spiritual people in the deepest, sweetest sense &#8212; true seekers. I love them dearly and their dispatches make me kvell on a regular basis. They posted a new entry this morning in their fabulous blog, Red Egg Gallery. They&#8217;re in the middle of reinventing their lives, on a pilgrimmage to find artists who practice with real heart and soul. It&#8217;s a beautiful story&#8230; one I think you all will like.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/01/14/around-the-world-with-chris-and-debi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Day of the Dead</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2008/11/03/day-of-the-dead/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2008/11/03/day-of-the-dead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:41:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Believing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dead people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/2008/11/03/day-of-the-dead/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week at work was just insane &#8212; hence the dearth of blogging &#8212; and I spent most of the weekend in recovery-mode. I was so knackered that I totally bailed on Halloween &#8212; went to bed at 8:30 that night. But I did manage to pull together a Day of the Dead altar this year. I was in Chicago for the anniversary of Patrick&#8217;s death, and it&#8217;s been one of those years. My friend Jim lost his beloved Mari (and Isabella lost her mother), David Foster Wallace&#8217;s suicide hit me hard, there were two deaths on my dog walking route &#8212; Karen, who killed herself and Harold, who died of old age. And so, it felt like a year that needed an altar. I bought a lot of bright flowers (although I couldn&#8217;t find marigolds which are traditional) and set out some candles and pictures and lit some incense as an offering. Then Saturday night I just sort of hunkered down with my Beloved Dead, and watched Truly Madly Deeply &#8212; my favorite  movie about grief (which come to think of it. Anthony Mingella is one of the people we lost this year). It&#8217;s such a wonderful movie &#8212; [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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