HeyJaredThe Piecemaker: Musings and Meditations of a Midwest Maker
I write about making, mending, and finding beauty in the ordinary.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
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- Sep 11, 2026
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- Jul 8, 2026
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Much of what we fear makes life worth living (opens the original)
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Something you don’t know about me is that I used to know a surprising number of words and phrases in languages I don’t actually speak. Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, Korean. Those were the main languages of a few of my “regulars” and friends.At the time, I was in my early 20s, working at the Coffee Bean in Claremont Mesa in San Diego, and my coworkers and customers were very much my family. I didn’t know enough to have a meaningful conversation in any of those languages, but I
A change of pace, not place (opens the original)
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I’m supposed to be on a retreat this weekend at Missouri Quilt Star, but I’m fresh out of PTO and my bank account has gently suggested against it. Pretty unfortunate, considering it’s become an annual tradition I look forward to every year.But what’s most unfortunate is how difficult it’s become to carve out time to do the work I love. I mean, I’m an adult. Therefore, I should be able to do what I want, right?<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/
Stains on this social fabric (opens the original)
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This morning I was reading an essay my friend Brian Terrell wrote years ago explaining the views of Catholic Worker cofounder Dorothy Day when the word resolve caught my attention. It appeared in his explanation of Dorothy’s determination not to let the work of the Catholic Worker movement become consumed by debates over abortion and birth control. I believe, for her, the issue was much more nuanced and took away from the fact that there were still wars to resist, people to feed, injustices to c
Everything water reflects (opens the original)
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Last month, I chaperoned my son’s engineering team to the Technology Student Association National Conference in Washington, D.C. They were there to compete in forensic science, robotics, drone naviga… Read more
Thoughts from the South Side (opens the original)
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Maybe it’s in every small town, but in my town of 7,500 people there’s an old habit of assigning character by address. I happen to be a southsider. <img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="938" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FfJp!,w_1456,c
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