Hugh Hollowell

Hugh Hollowell

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Listening to the universe.

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About a month ago, a friend asked me if I would be willing to renovate their deck, which was in need of some serious repairs and, in some places, rebuilding…

The house

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Some programing notes: I have moved publishing the weekly newsletter from a target date of Monday to a target date of Friday. I go into the reasons behind that move…

Pennsylvania

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I wrote most of this on Friday, and then worked on it on Saturday and was planning to hit send Saturday night, but my ADHD struck and then I felt…

Genius Loci

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In the ancient Roman religions, they believed that any given place had a genius loci, or a protective spirit responsible for that place.  The woods on the edge of…

Eight years ago last night

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When we pulled the U-Haul into the parking lot of the apartment building in downtown Jackson, it was nine at night. When Renee opened her door, the humidity rolled in…

Won't you be my neighbor?

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I am six years old, sitting on the floor of our living room, eyes glued to the screen. The TV in those days was a small black and white affair…

The Magnolia Tree (and a member-only sale)

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Hey y'all.
 
I'm trying something new. I have a lot of things sitting around that I made that are not quite "good enough" to sell to the public. Maybe…

What I want to do.

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Last night I was on a Zoom call with some folks, and I mentioned that when I was in high school in the late 80s, I wanted to be a…

There is no app for this

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It's not there any more, but twenty years ago, there was a tobacco store on Madison Avenue in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. My friend Richard owned it, and he had bought…

F.I.N.E.

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I'm not in recovery for any addiction issue. But I know a lot of people who are. 

For nearly a decade and a half I worked with lots of addicted…

Walking the grass

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Hi friends.
A custom essay just for you today, mostly composed in my head yesterday while cutting the grass at church.

I was interviewed for The Competent Pastor Podcast…

Tiny joys

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Hi all.

This is another piece for the new book. I'm picturing it having several long-form anchor essays, with a lot of 2-3 page short essays, similar to how I…

The little book of self-care

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Hey y'all.
 
Since I almost died in 2017 from burnout, I have wished someone wrote a real-world self-care guide for people who did the front-line sort of work I…

Tulsa

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NB: there is a short update at the end of this piece. - HH

It never would be allowed to happen now, at least not in the same way…

I cannot be me there

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I wasn't friends with Jerry in those days-he was at least seven years older than I was, and when you are nine, that might as well be a hundred. But…

Nothing very bad is going to happen today.

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You are getting this essay because you are a member of the support team that fund's my work. I'm so grateful for you.

People continue to order the book -…

Early Morning

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Hey y'all,
Three four quick things: 
  1. I'm making a page with the archives for Life Is So Beautiful on it as an exclusive benefit for y'all. I can pretty reliably…

A place to tinker

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Hi all! I hope this note finds you as well as it can during this horrible time in the life of our country. I don't have more to say than…

New Year, New Stuff (big update!)

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NB: I have a lot of things to announce on Monday to the public, and as always, you guys get first dibs. 

I'm announcing the existence of my new company…

Solstice

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Happy Solstice, friends. I am so grateful for you that I have  hard time expressing it.  - HH

As I write this, it's a few days before the winter solstice…