Donald Miller's Blog, page 140

Lucy's Blog Pt. 5 – How to Love and be Loved

Every so often Lucy, my dog, will take my blog for the day. It's nice to get a break, honestly. I think she has some wise things to say. Here's Lucy's most recent blog:

I pretty much like everybody. I don't like them instantly, though, but if they show the slightest bit of niceness I like them immediately after and I like them a lot. When somebody first comes to the door I bark at them to let them know this is where we live. I set very clear boundaries. And then I get so excited to see them...

Lucy's Blog Pt. 4 – How to Love and be Loved

Every so often Lucy, my dog, will take my blog for the day. It's nice to get a break, honestly. I think she has some wise things to say. Here's Lucy's most recent blog:

I pretty much like everybody. I don't like them instantly, though, but if they show the slightest bit of niceness I like them immediately after and I like them a lot. When somebody first comes to the door I bark at them to let them know this is where we live. I set very clear boundaries. And then I get so excited to see them...

The Context for Spirituality is not Spirituality

I don't read very many books about faith. And I don't listen to very many sermons about faith. I've not known exactly why for some time, or at least until lunch yesterday. Those books were fine (I may have even written one or two) but they didn't seem to be very applicable to my life. And it's never actually helped me to "work on my spirituality or my relationship with Jesus" either. What has helped me is finding myself lost in the woods and calling out to God, looking for wisdom in the...

On Writing: I am a Skeleton with a Penis at a Typewriter

For years, my favorite poet has been Billy Collins. I've shared his poetry before on this blog. As I've helped Lucy write her blog, we've warmed up our writing minds with poems from Billy. He helps me engage my heart in a way that isn't too sentimental or affected. Anyway, today I came across this old poem called Purity and it's one of my favorites. It's great advice for writers, too. It's about coming to the typewriter completely vulnerable. And not fake vulnerability like the hacks, the...

CNN.COM and David Gentiles

John Blake at CNN has spent about a year or so on an article that hit CNN.Com today. He was certainly one of the more thoughtful interviews I've ever done, if not the most thoughtful. John and I sat down in Atlanta last Christmas, and have talked several times since. I assumed the story got lost, but John kept thinking about it, and mostly he kept thinking about David Gentiles, my old mentor who died last year. John would call and say "I feel like I knew him" and "There just aren't many guys ...

Lucy's Blog Pt. 4 – Thoughts on Having a Body

I can tell by the way Don puts on his socks whether or not he is getting ready for work or whether we are going for a walk. His head is down when he's getting ready to write. His head is up when we are going for a walk. That's how you know. I lay in bed until he puts on his socks. From the time he gets up in the morning to the time he puts on his socks can take half an hour, which is fine with me. I sleep late. I roll over on my back and put my paws in the air and feel the wind from the...

Win a Trip for Two to Portland for the Living a Better Story Seminar

You and a friend can win a trip to Portland for the Living a Better Story Seminar. Simply write a blog entry telling us about the kind of story you want to live with your life and how you think the seminar might help. Then submit a link to that blog entry in the comments on this page and you are officially entered. Here's a video with some more info, then the details of the contest are spelled out below. Good luck!

Living a Better Story Blog Contest from Donald Miller on Vimeo.

You and a...

Lucy's Blog Pt 3 – The Terror of Learning Right from Wrong

The carpets were like grasses and the cold concrete floor was like river rock. The moon through the windows at night was like an alien eye, and the couches were like bounce houses. The plants were like forests, and you could get behind them in the corner by the wall and lay on your back and look up through the canopy out the window and you might as well have been born in a jungle.



There were furry, bouncy, rolling animals that moved like magic across the floor, rolling fast up to walls the...

Lucy's Blog Pt. 2 – How to Get Some Sleep at Night

For the next several blog entries, my dog Lucy will be taking over. She will also be answering questions in the comments. I'll check back in soon after I've completed a project that needs focus. Thanks so much for understanding. Best, Don.

This is how I take a nap

If the kitchen I came from was the world, where Don lived was the cosmos, or bigger than the cosmos, it was all the material that existed and there was no boundary to it. There were walls in the house but you had to walk forever to...

Hello My Name is Lucy

For the next several blog entries, my dog Lucy will be taking over. She will also be answering questions in the comments. I'll check back in soon after I've completed a project that needs focus. Thanks so much for understanding. Best, Don.

Me at Seven Weeks

I came from a litter of Labs and I was the only brown one. My brothers were all black, and we lived in the woods by waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. We lived in a cabin and we lived in the kitchen of the cabin. We lived on a blanket i...