Hayden Bixby

If you read my "Easter at Amen Corner" post in April, you might have already guessed that I'm not a person of faith. At least not the formal, organized kind.

I do, however, have plenty of friends from faith traditions I don't share, and we find that a...

I have recently realized that my US passport might be my most essential possession -- especially as I get older and become more convinced that the only reason to earn a paycheck is to be able to buy plane tickets.

I think this philosophy anchors me firmly among a growing...

You might have heard already that President Obama visited my town last week. I confess that I didn't know much in advance that he was coming... I was just lucky. Lucky that I was trolling the Seattle Theater Group's website for 2012-2013 season tickets just in...

The mission of Leadership Snohomish County, a nonprofit group located just north of Seattle, Wash., is to educate and mentor local leaders so that our county can cultivate its own generations of problem-solvers and social justice workers. I graduated from the program last year, and I guess I...

I put my return (and not-insignificant check) in the mail to the IRS Friday, and I have to admit that I'm sad to see another tax season come to a close. I'm not saying I love paying taxes, but I am saying that I love doing taxes.

Please tell me...

I was in Augusta, Ga., this weekend, and Easter took second place only to The Masters in people's friendly greetings and small talk. I was, admittedly, in town because of the tournament, but I didn't attend -- I was merely accompanying my partner, Greg, on his bucket-list adventure....

Every time I see the Seattle Men's Chorus perform, I am moved to tears by something: a poignant arrangement, a graceful dance from the ASL interpreter, one of the anecdotes an individual chorus member shares, mid-show, about his own search for equality or love or both.

Today's performance...

Last weekend, I treated myself to a San Francisco get-away, reconnecting with friends from my Southern California childhood and even bonding, briefly in a crosswalk near Chinatown, with other tourists -- a lesbian couple in matching "Washington is for gay lovers" t-shirts -- from the state I've called home for...

I keep seeing the conversation swirl about "Kony 2012" and the public disintegration of its founder, and I can't help but be torn in my response.

Some thinkers I respect a great deal have come out strongly against nearly everything the Invisible Children organization has set out to do,...

In February, well before any of the Kony 2012 business hit, I attended a non-profit board-development workshop sponsored by a local leadership organization. The event was broken out into sessions, and I selected one called "Telling the Story of Your Organization's Impact." It targeted techniques for...

Much of the work I do for Cura Orphanage happens at 5:30 a.m., before my paid workday begins. My coffee's brewing while the rest of the household is asleep, and I get settled in front of my glowing computer screen to see what news has come in overnight...

We've had a small setback at Cura Orphanage in Kenya, where momentum is typically forward-moving and news is mostly good... and this disappointment has me reflecting on yet another aspect of doing non-profit work: What does failure look like?

In this specific case, "failure" seems too strong a...

It seems like lots of people around me are talking about happiness these days.

My friend Roko made a movie called "Happy," and he and his team just pulled off a global World Happy Day that asked audiences to consider the source of real happiness.

There's...

I rarely check my LinkedIn profile, but when I occasionally duck in, sometimes I find article titles that catch my eye.

Here's one that did: "Forget Networking. How to be a Connector." An introvert at heart, I'm only marginally successful at "networking"; I tend to stick to who...

Last week, I spoke at a local Rotary function, on the invitation of the club president and its International Committee chairwoman. As Cura Orphanage is one of my favorite things to talk about, I happily accepted the invitation, prepared materials for my table display, and gathered thoughts to provide commentary...

A group of local businessmen recently came to Cura Orphanage to make a donation of food, blankets, and, especially school shoes! Any parent in any country knows that children go through shoes at a particularly rapid pace, and we were thrilled to have that expense removed from our...

I am a mother. I have two daughters whose movement through the world causes me to feel, as someone much more poetic than I once put it, as though my heart is traveling outside my body, exposed and throbbing.

I am a step-mother. Well, not officially. But they are part...