January 2011
1 post
8 tags
Peace Is A Choice
It is December 31st and I have reached my goal of making a conscious decision for peace each day of this year. As I spent a part of my day today re-reading the posts for this year I couldn’t help but think how all those small steps transformed my life and maybe some of the lives of the people that took time to read my blog.
This year I have learned so much about people all around me and...
December 2010
44 posts
7 tags
"Swagger"ing Through Life
bradblog:
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing...
2 tags
New Year's Resolution
Less is more. Thinking of the ways this could inform and shape my New Year. Less stress, less spending, less clutter, less fear, less expectations, more peace, more time, more love, more genuine awareness.
2 tags
Tonic
http://www.tonic.com/ Joined this amazing site today! I love it! Peace, creativity and positive news rocks!
4 tags
Authentic Peace
It occurred to me today how different the world might be if we all were authentically living our dreams. What would happen if each person took a good long look at their own desires and said, “Even if I only do it a step at a time, I’m going to pursue what I most want and what I am most afraid of.”? Perhaps doctors would become artists and teachers would become seamstresses.
...
6 tags
National Veterans Art Museum
Christmas is over and I have started daydreaming about the presents ahead…meaning the days opening before me, each a gift with unlimited possibilities…that is Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, as my high school choir teacher would often say. In my daydreaming frenzy I ran across http://www.nvvam.org/ which is an art museum in Chicago that features art work by veterans,...
4 tags
Don't miss the blessing...
The best part of my entire Christmas day was not opening presents or eating tons of snacks, but rather a few heart to heart conversations. Conversations about topics that mattered and that kept spinning through my mind long after the last word was said.
In one of the conversations I talked about when I think of how to describe myself I never think first of teacher, which is how I feed my...
Silent night
A pretty severe sore on my tongue has not only helped me avoid lots of holiday goodies but also made it painful to talk. This forced silence has had an interesting impact on my thoughts, a realization of how much is missed in the understanding of body language and group dynamics when I am in the middle of it verses now being on the sidelines. It is amazing how much can be said without saying a...
5 tags
5 tags
The Perfect Gift
Somewhere along the line I realized that at Christmas time I got the part about who the Savior is mixed up. I felt all this responsibility on my shoulders to find the perfect gift for each person in my life, as if “the perfect gift” would somehow “save” them from….what? I’m not sure but I seemed to feel it was my responsibility, and the totally self-imposed...
“Have compassion for everyone you meet, even when they don’t want it. What seems...”
– Miller Williams (via laurenbolek)
11 tags
Faith Like Potatoes
Have you ever had that experience where something you didn’t seek out keeps being put right in front of you with ever increasing urgency? For the past 5 days in different ways the global orphan crisis has been surfacing over and over. Last night I watched a movie that for some reason I thought was a fictional story based in Australia. Instead it was the true story of a Scottish farmer in...
6 tags
Hope for 147millionorphans
Shh…it is a secret so don’t tell my sister-in-law or mother-in-law, but I am super excited about one special gift I got them for Christmas! I’m sharing this with you because I thought there might be someone special you might would like to order one for. The gift is a product from www.147millionorphans.com
147millionorphans is an organization started by two families that are...
It is what it is
There are two phrases that have helped me achieve peace in the past few days: It is what it is, and All you can do is all you can do. They have gotten me through some major disappointments and frustrations. I quickly realized things would only get better when I stopped trying to control the situation and instead let life take its course. Sometimes life doesn’t take us where we wanted to...
1 tag
“If we’re going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor we have to...”
– Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
(watch it here)
“Sometimes God had to get you through something, in order to get you to...”
– Eddie Harris Jr (via eddieharrisjr)
6 tags
Anyway
This year my friend Mauricio made a movie that had a homeless man that when people tried to help him he would laugh and be mean to them and tell them he didn’t need their stupid help. The homeless character was dying of cancer and it was his way of dealing with it.
A lot of times people don’t stop and help homeless people out of fear, or because they don’t want to enable...
7 tags
Eucatastrophe
Eucatastrophe, a term originally coined by JR Tolkien, means a dramatic event that causes a shift resulting in the ultimate good for the protagonist of a story. My friend Josh introduced me to this word this week and I have been thinking about it since, and about times in my life when Eucatastrophe has occurred, those moments when the rock bottom was hit, when I’ve give up totally, and then...
““A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of...”
Watchbeingblog:
Clint Eastwood and David Lynch Teach 10,000 Veterans to Meditate with Operation Warrior Wellness
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
The filmmaker David Lynch has been a vocal advocate of transcendental meditation for some time now. But I’m quite intrigued with the work that his foundation is doing with returning veterans. The national initiative they are calling “Operation Warrior...
“Dont be bitter, bitter sucks the life out of you. Be better, better gives you...”
– Eddie Harris Jr. (via eddieharrisjr)
Time Out
When my kids were little and they were in a bad mood for no particular reason I would tell them to go do something by themselves for a while until they could play nicely again with others. I realized today that this is still good advice, and I can take it for myself. So I gave my grumpy self a time out and watched a movie. It helped, just like it always did for my kids.
4 tags
A Great Cloud
Today I wrote several letters to women that live in the inner city of Mobile, Alabama. Women that need hope, women whose lives are often bruised and battered by the pain that can come with everyday living. It is important to me that they know they are not forgotten, that they know that someone, anyone, even me, cares. I sent them thoughts of peace and encouragement that they are not alone, they...
9 tags
The Art of Social Justice
December 11, 2010
Today my conversations and thoughts seem to keep re-centering around the concept that the purpose of art is to push people to think in new and often challenging ways. That art can and should be used to help us re-think how we view the world and how we can re-new the world. The day started off with my husband talking about his belief that art should make people aware of social...
4 tags
Buckets of Tears
Tonight my husband and I took out a friend to dinner, someone we don’t usually get to spend time with but someone we enjoy talking with. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing we were just looking for someone to hang out with and since we knew our friend’s roommate had recently moved out we thought he might appreciate some company, and a free meal.
This is a good time of the year...
5 tags
Home
Tonight I had a conversation with friends that led to a delightful epiphany about my consistent quandary over what “home” means to me. I have lived in several places for years on end that have not felt like home to me at all and been in a few places for only a few days that I still miss and think of as “home”. There have been places that I have lived in that were extremely...
6 tags
Amber Walker
Amber Walker had to be the coolest and most inspiring teacher I ever had. She was my drama coach and my English teacher when I was a sophomore in high school. Thirty years ago today she threw out her lesson plans and instead led a discussion about the death of John Lennon and the importance of peace.
Amber was like that, willing to go with teachable moments, willing to speak about ideas that...
Up to 18,000 females, including girls as young as... →
jonathan-cunningham:
thedaughtersofeve:
Most victims are foreign, with least 85 per cent of the women working as prostitutes coming from countries including Brazil, China, Lithuania and Thailand. Many victims are lured to Britain with false promises of work in bars or nightclubs only to be sold for up to £5,000, often at airports or service stations, to pimps and brothel-keepers. The women are...
JLgerhardt: Practicing Waiting: How I Deal with... →
jlgerhardt:
I’m new to this whole celebrating Jesus’ arrival at Christmas thing. But I love it. And I love the practice of waiting encouraged during Advent, embracing the tension of almost but not yet.
I read a friend’s Facebook status yesterday about how hard the holidays are this year, her first without…
“Anxiety about the future will never change the outcome of it.”
– Eddie Harris Jr (via eddieharrisjr)
“There are more land mines in Cambodia than there are people.”
– Arms for the Poor: The Global Impact of the Weapons Industry (via latikaaaa)
7 tags
Oh Christmas Tree!
A cold December day, tromping through my life’s version of Narnia, followed by hanging out in a warm cabin next to the cozy fireplace, sipping hot cider while listening to calm instrumental Christmas music; this describes one of my favorite parts of the holiday season: the annual trip to “Wards”, our local Christmas Tree farm to choose a live tree for the holidays.
I love...
Slowing down
Sick day. Day to lie around and think about what I should be doing, or could be doing if I had any energy to do it. Or to think about things done in the past and decisions made. Time to reflect and time to wonder. It is odd how having to slow down makes me aware of how quickly my life speeds by on other days. I have been contemplating ways to change that.
2 tags
My Treasure Chest
Lately I have been dealing with irrational, unexplained bouts of anxiety. As we are going through a transitional year with the potential for many things to change this is somewhat to be expected but it really seems to me to be superfluous anxiety. So my approach has been to slow down and honor where that anxiety seems to be coming from. Right now it seems to be in my lower chest area and it...
16 tags
Requiem for Victor Jara
Artists change the world. They change it by envisioning new possibilities, by speaking out against injustice, by bringing awareness, by making people think. When dictators take over the first people they try to get rid of are the artists. Thus was the case in 1973 for Victor Jara, a musician, theater director, teacher, and political activist in Chile that was brutally tortured and murdered by...
2 tags
A. mazing M. orning
Mornings can be rushed and hectic for me, but today I put some calm music on the c.d. in a room I was going in and out of. It was amazing how my breathing and attitude would change each time I walked into the room with the soothing music. It was a nice way to focus give my day a peaceful start.
The Hours: I just watched Lord of the Rings... →
shellytilton:
…and I really can’t blame Gollum.
If I spent three hundred years in the dark by myself except for a ring that keeps whispering “No, really, it’s just a little hair—well, and your eyes— the rest of you looks fine, I promise…” then I would be wackier than those spinning teacups at the fair.
Which…
3 tags
