everyone needs to go out and buy this book. beautifully written. little stories on ways people show love in little ways. i just grabbed it at a local bookstore and could not put it down.

here is some of page 1:

Little Birds

This morning I woke up and was fifteen years old. Each year is like putting a new coat over all the old ones. Sometimes I reach into the pockets of my childhood and pull things out.

When Michel gets home from his shop he said we were going out to celebrate--maybe a movie or the McDonald's on boulevard Voltaire. Michel is not my real father. He grew up in Paris and did a spell in prison. I think he was used to being alone, but we've lived together so long now, I'm not sure he could survive without me.

We live in Paris, and I think I was born there, but I may never know for sure. Everyone thinks I'm Chinese, and I look Chinese, but Michel says I'm more French than bread.

It is the afternoon of my birthday, but still the morning of my life.

i saw a dead man in the street today. my street. man, what a day. when the paramedics showed up, they wouldnt tell us much...but they were assuming he was dropped off on our street already unconscious. this sobered up my day really fast. i used to romanticize death when i was a child--how i would pine away waiting for my long lost love, or i would save someone in action or i would go off to some third world country and die for a cause. i dont know. but as i was standing out there with my landlord under the sun, i thought about the reality of death. how ugly and terrible it is. i thought about the way people can die. i thought about the fact that every person, every homeless person, every harvard graduate, every child, every adult, every family member, every friend does eventually die. why do we spend most of our lives avoiding it. get uncomfortable talking of those who have died. ignore the fact that death is part of living. death can do so much in the way we live. today, as i watched them rip off his clothes, slice off every inch of clothing, revealing all of his parts, i was reminded of the nakedness of our personal lives. there is nothing appealing about our nakedness, only vulnerability, shame, and hopelessness.

our common humanity calls out for spiritual clothing that can cover all of our shame. his name is jesus.

1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

-Colossians 3 

jesus, hide me.