The 15th Day of Community: Russell Holloway

You must get all kinds of interesting reactions when your name on Twitter is @LuvStomp.

Russell Holloway is a registered mental health counselor in private practice at the Port Orange Counseling Center in Port Orange, Florida. He and his wife are the parents of two boys. He enjoys multi-sports racing, hiking and reading.

And he has a heart for the homeless, the hurting – and for God.

Until just a few days ago, his blog was called Bullets & Butterflies. He’s opened a new space online called Give Peas a Chance (I love the pun; I told him he should also try to visualize whirled peas, like the bumper sticker suggests.)

What does he write about? Hearts, mostly. Take a look.

• Notes from a friend’s work at a homeless shelter when it’s cold in Florida (“Just Look”).
• The importance of intimacy (“Make Love Not Porn”).
• “If you go to church long enough you'll get your heart stomped on. With people involved, it's a given” (“Pretend Perfection”).
• And how his own heart was changed after listening to a speech about African-American history being American history (“American Made”).

I’ve never met Russell face-to-face, but we’ve traded tweets, emails and DMs. When I read his blog posts, I find understanding, compassion and gentleness.

You should, too.

Update: Russell says that he's going to stick with Bullets & Butterflies only.

(Last month, a number of us participating in the “Twelve Days of Community” - see the button at the top right - sponsored by The High Calling Blogs. The purpose was to highlight the blog or web site of someone other than ourselves during the season of Advent and Christmas. I liked the idea so much that I’m going to continue to do that -- highlight a blog or web site of a person whose thoughts and writing have had an impact on me and others.)