Mark Scandrette

The last thing we did in Seattle was going to a park overlooking the city and then getting a cup of coffee at Cafe Fiore. Very robust yet smooth flavored espresso. Both the espresso and the drip coffee had what I would describe as a foamy mouth feel.

We drove in bumper to bumper traffic from Seattle to Portland– to visit our friends Paul and Elizabeth. Paul is a Greek Orthodox priest serving a large parish in Portland. We always enjoy comparing notes about faith. Paul and Elizabeth grew up Evangelical Christian and after four years at a Baptist College decided that the ancient path of the Greek Orthodox tradition fit their sensibilities better. While we are together we often talk about the differences we find between the traditions we were raised in and what now makes sense as a spiritual path. I think alot of it has to do with personality. It might be easy for someone like me to look critically at more traditional or all american expressions of faith– as if people who find themselves in that realm have a more syncretistic relationship to culture. And yet how much of my own spiritual quest is marked by my particular personality? We all fit the archetype for something.

We weren’t in Portland long, but did get a chance to visit Powells Books– a bookstore covering an entire city block. They still didn’t have Ken Wilbur’s A Theory of Everything.

It was a long drive home. I spent the morning in the car planning our family budget for 2007– noodling with the numbers and trying to figure out how to be the most intentional and sustainable about how we manage our finances. I use to attend more closely to these things, but haven’t been as fastidious in recent years. We’ve been talking about money in our community and sharing our incomes, expenses and budgets. More people cried the night we talked about money than in any other meeting I’ve ever participated in. People embarrassed about debt or wealth– and lots of questions about how to relate to money. Should we act like it doesn’t matter? I believe that attending to one’s financial life is an important dimension to the spiritual life– noticing patterns of need, provision and abundance. I tend to feel like I am never quite comfortable about money. If we don’t have enough I worry. If we have a surplus I feel guilty. I do think it is helpful to talk more openly with one another about earning and spending.