jeshuahayden

Dancing at the Depot

How do you feel about change? Do new experiences fill you with fear or with excitement? Are you a Luke Skywalker, gazing out across the desert behind your uncle’s moisture farm and wishing you were someplace else (maybe pulverizing the forces of evil, or just going to Toshi station to pick up some power converters)?Continue reading “Dancing at the Depot”

All-Time Favorites: Sigh No More

What music takes you back to your middle school / high school years? Whether it was punk rock, hip hop, or even (horror of horrors!) the soundtrack to High School Musical, we all carry soundtracks of the past with us. Some songs fill us with nostalgia, reminding us of bright memories and the adventure ofContinue reading “All-Time Favorites: Sigh No More”

WANTED: Just as We Are

What makes a story resonate with us? Why do certain books, movies, and pieces of music have the power to fill us with longing, to make us cry, or to overwhelm us with joy? In my experience, the tales that have moved me the most have been stories that artfully depicted things that were deeplyContinue reading “WANTED: Just as We Are”

All-Time Favorites: Light for the Lost Boy

I first heard Andrew Peterson’s music when I was in high school. I remember listening to the album Counting Stars and being struck by the quiet beauty of the music and the thoughtful poetry of the lyrics. As someone who loved literature, I was stoked to find words that seemed like they’d been carefully crafted to engageContinue reading “All-Time Favorites: Light for the Lost Boy”

Sucker-Punched by Beauty Ninjas

On an overcast day, I sat on a step by my family’s deck, looking out at the tree line past the roofs of nearby houses. I’d been sitting there for a while when I looked down to my right and saw a bird sitting on the step next to me. It looked like a sparrow,Continue reading “Sucker-Punched by Beauty Ninjas”

All-Time Favorites: The Ragamuffin Album

If you could get everybody on planet earth to check out one work of art – whether it be a book, a movie, a piece of music, a painting, or a replica of a famous monument made out of dry pasta – what would you share? For me, the answer comes quickly: that work ofContinue reading “All-Time Favorites: The Ragamuffin Album”

What We Do When the Lights Go Out

What are you afraid of? On any given day, the list of reasons to be worried can seem overwhelming. Sickness. Debt. Loneliness. Failure. Political injustice. Death. We navigate a landscape of murky shapes and looming shadows, picking our way through the charred rubble of past losses, heartbreaks, and catastrophes. Bewildered by what we’ve encountered andContinue reading “What We Do When the Lights Go Out”