An Introduction

My name is Kelly. I live in the Midwest, in a place called “the bottoms” by most, enjoying my early (to mid?) twenties. I live with five beautiful brothers and sisters, including one that I get to call my love and dance with whenever I want. We have 10 hens and some bees.  We fix and ride bikes (Franklinton Cycleworks), grow vegetables for our low-income neighborhood’s food pantries (Franklinton Gardens) and make and install rain barrels/cisterns/sustainable irrigation systems (Rain Brothers). Together with some other irreplaceable friends we make up Jezreel Community, and even more, we know people all across town, state, nation, and world who are part of an even larger and eternal Beloved Community. We are interested in caring for the poor, loving our neighbors better, vegetable gardening, making our own stuff, establishing the kingdom, dancing, meeting new friends, biking around town, and countless other things– like footy pajamas and nonviolence.

My mind is not made up about a terrible amount of things, and I often feel I have trouble articulating myself.

I have some good teachers, and am always looking for more. Among them: Jesus, Gandhi, Tolstoy, Mom, DOROTHY DAY, Suheir Hammad, Thich Nhat Hanh, Richard Rohr, Thomas Dubay, Lee Anne, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, Ammon Hennacy, Cheryl, Abraham Heschel, the Doukhobors, Ed, the Mennonites, Daria Germanovna, the Hens, the Open Door Community, the Good Earth Farm, Lu Xun, Gloria Steinem, Beyonce, Communality, Paul Farmer, my neighbors (oh, my neighbors…) and many more.