Jennifer Szweda Jordan-Media

09/19/2025

Pastor, birder, author, podcaster Courtney Ellis - Author on how grief can turn people into bird watchers.

Hear our full conversation at: https://open.substack.com/pub/wehopefulpilgrims/p/look-up-to-hope?r=5gfo3f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/23/2025

I'm celebrating Ukrainian and Polish people, and their traditions that carry on despite all. Read and subscribe!

Christ, cookies and crayons not bombs

08/21/2025

As autism diagnoses rise, politicians are pursuing cures and weighing special ed funding cuts. It all makes a Pittsburgh mom's award-winning new book as urgent as it is delightful.

On Weds., Sept. 17, I'm hosting an event featuring the author of Watching Sarah Rise: A Journey of Thriving with Autism. That's Jennifer Celeste Briggs. We'll be at Fig Tree Coffee at 6 pm.

I'll interview Briggs, as well as an inclusive education teacher from St. Anthony School Programs. Fig Tree's owner, Nick Kelly, will also talk about the shop's mission-driven business.

We Hopeful Pilgrims' paid subscribers can attend for free. For non-subscribers, the cost is $20. For this night only, Briggs has discounted her book to $15 and will sign copies. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.

Watching Sarah Rise was published through She Writes Press.

Autism Treatment Center of America

Hear from award-winning author of Watching Sarah Rise: A Journey of Thriving with Autism.

08/15/2025

Living briefly without a car affords opportunities to appreciate the world's beauty, as well as to notice what life is like for those who live this way all the time.

Wandering and pondering close to home

08/10/2025

Let’s make empathy again—with bingo!

Care for yourself and others for the win

08/01/2025

Here are three great techniques to nurture hope!

This week I interviewed an author who writes and speaks about hope--weaving together neuroscience, positive psychology, theology, and engineering. Meet Anne Kertz Kernion! She also creates greeting cards and We Hopeful Pilgrims paid subscribers get a 10% discount through Thursday (https://cardsbyanne.com)

https://wehopefulpilgrims.substack.com/p/nurturing-hope-within

04/25/2025

Are you a writer trying to get into your groove? Start tonight! London Writers' Salon is hosting a 24-hour sprint. Come for one hour or all that remain until tomorrow afternoon.

What could 24 hours do for your writing? Kickstart a project, recommit to your writing, finish that draft — alongside thousands of writers from around the…

09/06/2024

Experienced a Pittsburgh writer’s dream tonight… Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company produced August Wilson’s play “Radio Golf” in the backyard of his home! Gorgeous night.

07/19/2024

For all you writers ✍️ and creators out there. Words of wisdom from Carl Sagan shared at today's Writers Hour London Writers' Salon

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

– Cosmos

07/15/2024

Just bought a piece of wall art for my home dining room. It reflects a story that greatly resonates with me. It happens just after Jesus' Resurrection. Two people are walking to a place called Emmaus and very involved in their discussion about the challenging news of the Resurrection. Jesus shows up and walks with him and dines with them. And then... departs just as they realize it's Christ. It reminds me to be aware that whoever I'm walking with, having difficult conversations with, or eating with, Christ is there. If I'm not paying attention, I might miss the grace of the moment.

The icon is called The Road to Emmaus, prayed into being by Sr. Marie-Paul Farran, OSB in Jerusalem. Sold by Conception Abbey Altar and Home altarandhome.org/

07/13/2024

Love sharing goodies from a visit to one spiritual home Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center Sisters of the Humility of Mary with residents of another spiritual home, Emmaus Community of Pittsburgh.

04/29/2024

Well, Hallelujah! A young man with performed front and center in this Gospel choir. This Calvin University group kicked off the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing Festival I attended recently.

There was no mention about how 'special' this group was to include him. It was just inclusion that should be--and I think is-- becoming more common. Can I get an Amen?

More posts coming about this wonderful event.