sarabeth jones

← → the help 19 Aug '11 As I walked into the movie theater, I thought: I shouldn’t have come without a black friend. I quickly brushed it off – the gathering happened quickly, the white women with me were good friends. Good people, dedicated to the idea of racial unity. It wasn’t that I intentionally excluded anyone black, I just wasn’t intentional about including anyone black. I glanced around the room. Groups of white women, groups of black women. Not one group had both. It was the opening night of The Help. I settled into my seat, ate some popcorn, checked my twitter feed one last time. I noticed…

← → © 2011 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. design: go team! 2 Mar '11 Recently, a precious friend asked me to design a logo for her relay team for the upcoming LR Marathon. I said yes immediately, knowing that JoBeth has a wonderful sense of style and would be great fun to collaborate with. We were off and running, with the name Team Fancy and a little bit of French inspiration. I won’t lie. I was as excited as a kid when I realized the Eiffel Tower makes a perfect A. And for my Paris-loving friend, I knew that was going to be perfect. The shirts came in the…

← → © 2011 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. outside the box 30 Jan '11 Yesterday, in the gorgeous sunshine, we got some sweet cardboard out and hit the slopes. It was, for lack of a better word, SUPERFUN. You can see what it felt like RIGHT HERE. This is one of those times, admittedly, where I get a little overly proud of my family’s ability to fend for ourselves, fun-wise. I mean really. A big hill, some cardboard, some good friends. Roll with it. We all went down at least once. Whether we were kids… Or just kids at heart. Older ones helping the littles… until they were ready…

← → © 2011 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. this may be when I get the crickets 12 Jan '11 I’m about to do something I never do, at least here on this blog. I’m asking you to come to church. I’ve never done that here, at least not that I can recall. I rarely do it in person, either, because I don’t want to be that person. The one you want to avoid. The fact is, most of you that read this blog probably go to church with me already. But some of you don’t. This invitation is for all of you. Whether you go to church with me,…

← → © 2011 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. this flame 6 Jan '11 What do we do when the loss is so great? When it is felt so keenly? When there is nothing we can do, nothing we can say to fill that void? I rage and cry. I say no to this event. It cannot be. I stumble my way through a prayer. I try to remember. I try not to make the mistake of despair. I look to others. There are those who do not hesitate, but wade right in, no matter the cost in tears, discomfort, time. I try to follow. My hesitation is great. There…

← → © 2010 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. thanksgiving therapy 25 Nov '10 There are years when being grateful is easy; when the drop-down list of answers is long. This year does not feel that way. Instead, it feels like I cannot find my list at all, cannot see my way to it. Not because of any one great tragedy, but because enough minor things are clawing at me, clamoring for my attention. So, this Thanksgiving, I will choose to be grateful. Before I go anywhere else today, I will refocus. I’m going to play a game my friend Alison loves. In no particular order, here are a few…

← → © 2010 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. here's your one chance, fancy… 5 Sep '10 Friday before last, I got to tour the new (fancy!) Kroger Marketplace out on Chenal Parkway. (Full disclosure: I was invited by a Kroger PR person, I had a great time and was plied with wonderful samples of food, including sushi. Which makes me like Kroger a lot. I also left with a bag of goodies to bring home. Yum!) While I decidedly have mixed feelings about large grocery store corporations, several other people I knew were coming, and it sounded fun, so I went. And I’m so glad I did. One of…

← → © 2010 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. cooked 17 Aug '10 All of the images in this post are Whitney Loibner’s, except for the very last one. Lovely, aren’t they? I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them. Pablo Picasso My husband loves that quote. He gave it to me several years ago and I put it in my office. Mostly because he gave it to me and I knew he’d be looking for it the next time he came in. It struck me at the time as being a very Bryan Jones type of quote. He loves the new; he’s…

← → © 2010 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. central 9 Jun '10 For those of you playing along at home – I’m not trying to go into overdrive with 2 posts in a row on the same topic – it’s just that I realized last night when writing this post that I had never published the post you’re about to read on my personal blog. For some reason, I just posted it on our church’s. I want it here, too – so, some similar thoughts, but some different angles too. I originally wrote this in May of 2009. After our staff went through Talk It Out, we decided we…

← → © 2010 Sarabeth Jones. All rights reserved. black and white 8 Jun '10 I am unsure about writing this post. I usually don’t write posts where I try to put forth a view, argue a point, because I think for those kinds of things to be effective, you ought to be able to back up things with statistics and studies. I am good at neither.  But here’s what I know. For the past 15 years Bryan and I have been a part of the same church. A white church, mostly. There were a couple of African-American families, and a few black kids in the youth group. We are…