Mindy Audlin's Page

My weekend was destined for LOVE. I was in Austin to officiate in the wedding of a close friend, and LOVE was on my mind. What does it really mean to love someone? What do we really get out of making lifelong commitments to each other?

The answer awaited me in the lobby of my hotel. It was the annual conference for the Texas Parent2Parent network, an organization that provided support and resources for parents of children with disabilities.

It was like walking into a different world. Out mingl… Continue

It was my first semester of college, and my first time away from home. Christmas was just around the corner, but my budget allowed for little more than Ramen noodles and pizza. So I wrote my Dad a poem as his gift, and framed it on green poster board with red ribbons along with pictures of us together that I dug out of a shoebox in my mother’s attic.

It has been tacked up next to the mirror on his bathroom wall since 1988. Every Father’s Day, he asks me to submit it to the local newspaper. He l… Continue

It's been a whirlwind week...

I returned from California with barely enough time to prepare for my next round of travels. First on the agenda was an annual tradition for me: Guest speaker for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards just south of Dallas, Texas.

It was Day 4 of their conference, and the participants had all been up past midnight... many of them hanging out and talking until 2 am. I arrive bright-eyed on Wednesday morning, ready to talk to them about community and being of service. I… Continue

Thursday night, I had the honor of attending the inaugural gathering of The Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment (GATE) at the FOX studios in Los Angeles.

I flew in from San Francisco specifically for the event. As I arrived at LAX, standing in the taxi queue, I secretly fantasized that I would bump into an enlightened celebrity also on their way to the event. I fantasized that I would say hello, ask them if they were going to GATE, too, and they would offer me a ride to the venue… Continue

As I was jogging through my neighborhood this morning, I inched upon two women walking together. “Did you hear about so-and-so?” one asked. Then I heard the gory details of this anonymous person’s latest physical travesty. I sped up to avoid getting queasy.

The focus this week for The What If Up Club is “friendship,” and my encounter this morning has me asking myself, “What is the purpose of friendship? Surely there’s something beyond gossip and commiseration, right?”

In a study done in conjun… Continue