Envy Apartment

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...

get elephant's newsletter Part 1 of a 3 part series inspired by Pema Chodron and her book , When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times Part 1: The Fall Apart Heart “Funny how a heart shatters all at once, seems like it should make a sound” – The Weepies. The broken heart is an eternally human story ; it’s a rare bird who makes it through life unscathed. Even though I am, admittedly, somewhat of a relationship oddball, this story is about an unremarkable heartbreak: just an ordinary broken heart that also happened to change my life. I’ve had no shortage of test flights. Over the years, I’ve created every kind of relationship entertainment; uncommon fondness, major infatuation, distracting lust, or try-to-force-the-too-big-foot-into-the-too-small-shoe kind of relationships; one after another – a seemingly endless cycle of optimistic trial, and all-too-familiar error, all the while wondering if this is what the fuss is all about. I’ve noticed my pinched laugh when bum...