Update your RSS and Bookmarks--I'm moving!

*I've moved, and my posts have come with me! Check out my new blog at www.jeffrey-davis.net/blog/*

Well I've finally moved to WordPress. I’ve been wanting to make this move for quite some time, but didn’t want chock up the $40 bucks/year (i know, it’s cheap…even compared to TypePad), plus I was looking for a good excuse to initiate the move. The combination of the new year and inevitable force to the new version of blogger seems like a good reason to do so. I mean, if I'm gonna have to do all that coding to keep this old template in the new blogger, I might as well spend that energy coding a brand new spiffy blog.

Many thanks and a huge shout out to my mom who purchased my domain name and server space from GoDaddy.com for my birthday.

Anyway, this blogger.com blog has become kind of confusing. It's titled, as you can see, “the Gathering”. Whenever someone links me up or quotes me they say, “Jeffrey at the Gathering…”, leading some people to ask, “hey, what’s the Gathering?” The Gathering was the name of a church that me, my wife, and some others were starting around two and a half years ago. When we realized that the vision God had given us of “the church” had nothing to do with an individual “local church”, the blog content shifted but the name did not.

So now I have a space of my own, that can one day be even more than a blog (but that’s another story). I did import all the posts and comments from this blogger blog to my new one, and I kept the counter going at the same number. Please update your RSS feeds for me to http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShadowsOfLove and set your bookmarks to my new url, http://www.jeffrey-davis.net/blog/.

Farewell blogger, you've been sooo great to me, but I'm moving on to another phase of my blogging life. Peace out.

Christmas Eve Breakfast

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A recent tradition in my clan is that my wife and I head to my parents' house on Christmas Eve morning for breakfast and to exchange gifts with them and my twin sis. This year, a great conversation unexpectedly materialized around the breakfast table. Here's a rough transcript (as I can recall):


[something was said about how much money is spent this time of year]

me: My blog bud Sam Davidson, founder of this thing called CoolPeopleCare...

Nana (my grandmother): what people care?

Mom: Cool People Care

Nana: Oh. ok?

Me: ...he started this campaign called Christmas is not your Birthday and reports from the National Retail Federation that 450 Billion dollars will have been spent from Thanksgiving to Christmas and asks what would happen if even 1% of that money went to charity or someone you know personally who needs it.

Dad, mom, and nana: hmm [collectively]

Me: Have yall heard of Product [RED] by Bono?

[explanation of the RED campaign]

Me: ...it would only take 50 cents per day to supply one person in Africa the medicine they need to not die from AIDS.

Nana: I think if it costs 50 cents per day in Africa, it should cost that in America as well.

Me: I agree, but it doesn't. Damn capitalism.

Dad: It may cost 50 cents per day for one person's medicine, but how much does it cost to get it to them? Does it even ever get to them? Do the governments intercept the monetary aid? How much of that goes to "executive expenses"?

Me: Good questions dad. That's why I hate to give money to brick and mortar charities...not all of of the money I give, in fact, probably not much at all, goes to people who actually need it.

Dad: Yeah, that sucks (my paraphrase)

Me: A buddy asked me a question back in the summer that went something like this--what if every human on the face of the planet were aware of and lived life through the perfect Love of Christ that is within them? What things would we not need?

[puzzled and introspective looks]

Me: My thoughts exactly, lol...let me get us started, we wouldn't need welfare, borders, governments, armed forces, ...

Dad: No offense son, but that's a Utopian dreamworld, why spend time thinking about that?

Me: Because I believe dreams can come true.

Dad: [head snaps around with bewilderment at the previous comment, followed by a look of apprehensive excitement]

Mom: [yells down from upstairs] Yall ready to come open presents?


That was a great covo Nana and Dad. I hope to continue it further. What do I want for Christmas? That aforementioned "Utopian dreamworld".

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Sam Davidson, Love, utopia, dreams, Product Red, Bono, AIDS, Africa, Jeffrey Davis

All the Rage-less

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Be sure to snag a copy of today's "All the Rage", as my "irl" and blog bud Sam Davidson's revolutionary CoolPeopleCare is featured. If you can't get to a place where "All the Rage" is distributed, you can read the article online. If you've never made your way over to CoolPeopleCare.org, then be sure to go check out this site devoted to bringing about a social revolution through five minutes of caring. Live life through love not through rage.

Oh and hey Sam, thanks for the fried pickles and Boddingtons at Dan McGuiness the other day. Good times.

*Yes, I know that "All the Rage" isn't named to reflect a position of hate with the word "rage". The play on the word just worked for the title and topic of my post...*

Technorati Tags: Sam Davidson, CoolPeopleCare, All the Rage, Nashville, love, social justice, Jeffrey Davis

The Hermitage/Mt. Juliet Non-Franchise Coffee Solution

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Four words: BILLY GOAT COFFEE CAFE! This joint is my new favorite haunt and I am actually sitting here right this moment as I write this post. For, well what seems like forever, I've been looking for a non-franchise coffee house with, fancy this--good coffee, a good vibe, with reasonable prices on the east side of town. Well my friends, this is it.

My wife and I came in Saturday night for the first time, after dinner at Logan's Roadhouse here in Providence Marketplace with some friends. We met the owners, Judy and Gunnar, who shared with us the story of how the idea behind the Billy Goat Coffee Cafe was born (including where the name originated, but you can read about that on their site).

Now for more details about the Billy Goat. You can find it to the immediate right of the west entrance to Belk in Providence Marketplace. The billy goat logo bids you welcome as you walk through the double glass doors and into the warm and friendly atmosphere of "the goat". Providing this soothing ambiance is foremost the friendliness of the employees that greet you; then a room full of decor in mocha, chocolate, and black; marbleized concrete floors of the same color palette; a big, marble-clad fireplace; and bistro sets, armchairs, and a leather love seat. There is even a huge wooden divider that can be slid shut, closing off a small section of the establishment for conferences or meetings.

The menu is cleverly created in the billy goat theme, even using "kid", "nanny", and "billy" in the stead of small, medium, and large. Another signature difference is the availability of cafe bianco. This is a milder espresso than normal, finishing with the note of something like a Butterfinger Bar, quite tasty indeed. The non-coffee drinkers may still want to visit "the goat" and find their way to the "un-coffee" section of the menu. Not an after 10:00am coffee drinker? That's ok, stop in and try one of their gourmet sandwiches (with chips and a pickle), the soup of the day, or dessert. If you want something to eat with your coffee in the morning, grab a bowl of cereal, bagel, muffin, scone, or turnover.

Before I share some pics of the establishment with you, let me also say that though it may sound like it from this post, Billy Goat Coffee Cafe is not paying me for the positive publicity. I truly do love this new little place and wanted to give a shout out to an up and coming local business that fills a HUGE hole in the marketplace here on the east side of town.



Technorati Tags: Billy Goat Coffee Cafe, Coffee, Mt. Juliet, Providence, Jeffrey Davis

Far From the True Feelings of That I Speak

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I came to again realize this morning that so often times I do not live, even through my writing, in the true reality that I feel exists beyond the realm of most people's awareness. Too often, as someone I love dearly has gently and recently noted, my posts here are cynical and condescending in nature. Ashamedly I admit, this is too true. However, such realizations have led to another great question in my mind. Does the failure to "practice" what one "preaches", in whatever percentage of the time, diminish the authenticity of the belief itself?

This morning I had a meeting at the Frothy Monkey on 12th Ave S and, of course, decided to stay for a bite to eat, some coffee, and to start on a book. So there I was, sitting on the deck surrounded by pets getting their picture taken with Santa (courtesy of Agape Animal Rescue) as I cracked open C. S. Lewis's the Problem of Pain (that I received last Christmas). In the introduction, Lewis writes:

"When Mr. Ashley Sampson suggested to me the writing of this book, I asked leave to be allowed to write it anonymously, since, if I were to say what I really thought about pain, I should be forced to make statements of such apparent fortitude that they would become ridiculous if anyone knew who made them. Anonymity was rejected as inconsistent with the series; but Mr Sampson pointed out that I could write a preface explaining that I did not live up to my own principles! This exhilarating programme I am now carrying out. Let me confess at once, in the words of good Walter Hilton, that throughout this book 'I feel myself so far from true feeling of that I speak, that I can naught else but cry mercy and desire after it as I may.'"

And so I echo those words of C. S. Lewis and Walter Hilton. Many times I may not speak and act and live in the Love that I believe is the true reality, but I believe it still. My only hope is that I will gradually transition to spending more and more time in that true reality, while spending less and less time in this false reality of difference, separation, selfishness, and hate.

Technorati Tags: C. S. Lewis, the Problem of Pain, reality, love, Frothy Monkey, Agape Animal Rescue, Jeffrey Davis