The Wisdom of an 11-year-old

Yesterday afternoon at Feed My Starving Children I had the most wonderful privilege of meeting a boy who taught me so much more than I have learned in quite a long time.

I was talking with a boy who was helping to scoop ingredients into bins.  This was his 6th time volunteering at Feed My Starving Children.  He said that now he had done just about every different task volunteers can do except running the machine that seals the bags of food.  (Volunteers need to be at least 18 years old to use the sealing machines because it is a piece of electrical equipment and has a heating element.)  I asked the boy how old he was, sensing that he was really eager to do the sealing and I hoped I would be able to tell him he just had to wait a few years.  He had recently had his 11th birthday.  We both did the math in our heads to figure out that he had 7 more years to wait- quite a while.  I said a few words to console him and made sure he knew that even though he couldn't seal the bags he was still doing a lot to help and I was grateful that he continued to come and volunteer.    

And do you know what he said next?  It caught me completely off guard- I underestimated the wisdom and hope of an 11-year-old.

"Hopefully by the time I'm 18 we won't need Feed My Starving Children."

He said this with such confidence and hope and trust that it was clear to me that this wasn't just something he was saying in passing or joking about.  He was serious.  He fully and completely believed that it was possible that Feed My Starving Children and other similar organizations might become obsolete.  He believed it was possible to end world hunger in the next 7 years.

My adult mind immediately jumped to thinking about the reality of the world, the reality of the millions and millions of people around the world who are starving, the reality of the enormous amount of resources needed to end world hunger, and the reality of all the other injustices in the world that are just as huge and seemingly impossible to fix.  I didn't want to destroy this boy’s hope, so all I could say to this wise and hope-filled boy was, "I sure hope you are right."

I learned so much from that little boy.  

I learned that you have to continually look forward and imagine what the world could be.  We all need to seek and hold on to a vision of what a just world will look like.  And we need to dream big.  The boy didn't just think we could end hunger some day down the road.  He believed we could end hunger in 7 years- I haven’t met or heard of anyone who has such audacity as to believe such a huge goal is possible.  It is this vision of creating a world without hunger in 7 years that motivates this boy to volunteer (and probably donate some of his allowance) to do what he can to end hunger.  

I learned that we all need to do what we can and not worry about what we cannot do.  The boy was indeed disappointed that he couldn't seal the bags, but he certainly didn't let that stop him from doing everything he could do.  He worked hard (doing as much work as some full grown men) and worked with a smile on his face- excited and happy to do what he could do to help.  He knew that he by himself could not do everything needed to end world hunger, but he knew that he could do something and he set out to do that very well.  I don’t know for sure, but judging by his enthusiasm I’m guessing that he has talked with friends and family and encouraged other people to come join him in volunteering.   

I learned about hope.  Even with such a huge problem, this boy had hope that something seemingly impossible is possible.  In the six times he had been to Feed My Starving Children he had seen so many other people working along with him to provide food for starving children.  He knew that when people join together to do something, wonderful things happen.  

I learned that I really need to stop underestimating kids.  I work with a lot of kids who come to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children (roughly half of the volunteers are kids).  In reality, the kids are the ones that are often the most excited and passionate about volunteering.  It’s often the kids who drag their parents along to FMSC and I’ve overheard more than one kid ask their parents how much they are going to donate.  Adults might be able to write a check or hand us a credit card to swipe, but kids often bring in baggies of change to donate which was probably much more of a sacrifice than what the adults donate.  Kids choose to have their birthday parties at FMSC and ask people to donate rather than give birthday presents.  And kids have asked some of the most insightful questions and said some deep and thoughtful things.

I do hope that Feed My Starving Children will become obsolete in 7 years.  I will hope and pray for an end to hunger over the next 7 years.  But I know that this won’t happen without a lot of work from a lot of dedicated people.  Over the next 7 years I will continue to do what I can to end world hunger and to inspire and enable others to also do something about world hunger.

And if 7 years pass and Feed My Starving Children still exists because there are still starving children in the world, I hope I can be there to see that boy use the sealing machine for the first time.  I hope and pray that the world will not wear him down, that he will continue to have the wisdom and hope he has today, that he will continue to do what he can to work toward a more just world.

May we all have the hope of an 11-year-old, believe that a better world is possible, and have the courage to do what we can today to bring about that better world.

Left hanging

Over the past few months I have only used a clothes dryer on a few occasions.  I first thought I might want to try doing without a clothes dryer for a while in early April.  We had a few of those days where the weather was warm and sunny and I got really excited about hanging clothes up to dry outside, but then it quickly returned to the cold and it rained for weeks.  Meanwhile, the dirty clothes piled up in my closet while I waited for a sunny and warmish day that was suitable for hanging clothes up to dry outside.  Finally, the weather turned nice and I had time to do laundry.  I found a rope in the garage and strung it up on our deck out in the backyard.  It took me a few days to get all my laundry done and dried.  The really sad thing is that I have so much clothes that I could have piled up so much dirty laundry.  Since then I think I’ve only used the dryer on a few occasions.  While I was in El Salvador using a dryer wasn’t even an option.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do when winter finally sets in.  I might hang up some stuff to dry inside, but I might go back to using the dryer.  We’ll see.  

Laundry from today

Yes, hanging clothes up to dry outside takes longer and it’s more work than just throwing stuff in the dryer.  You have to deal with or avoid the elements of the outside world- wind, and rain mostly.  My mom graciously chased down clothes that tried to escape on a really windy day.  I can’t just do laundry whenever I want- I have to make sure there is time and appropriate weather for the clothes to dry. 

There are benefits though:

• The real reason I wanted to limit my use of the clothes dryer is because it uses a LOT of electricity.  The clothes dryer is responsible for 5-8 percent of the average household’s electricity use.  By hanging my clothes up to dry, I’m helping the earth and I’m reducing the electricity bill.
• It’s nice watching the laundry gently blowing in the wind.  One day I had T-shirts hanging of almost every color of the rainbow. 
• There is something romantic and nostalgic about doing something people used to do back in the good old days.
• Drying my clothes outside has made me dependent on the weather.  In a way it has made me more dependent on God- I have to wait for God to provide good weather for drying my clothes. 

I still feel a little bit weird hanging my clothes on the line outside, because that’s not how the neighbors do things here in the suburbs.  But I do it anyway and hope that my neighbors will join me in harnessing the power of the sun and the wind to dry clothes.  

Fortune Cookie

A couple of months ago I got an interesting fortune in a fortune cookie.  Usually my reaction to fortunes in fortune cookies falls into two categories: “Oh, that’s cool” or “That’s a dumb fortune.”  However, this particular fortune really made me think and think much deeper than any fortune cookie should.

The fortune was: “Trust him, but still keep your eyes open.”

First of all, this really isn’t a fortune.  They just don’t make fortunes cookies like they used to.  So many “fortune” cookies nowadays don’t include a fortune, but rather some vague statement that could be true about just about anyone or the cookie provides a piece of advice- like this one.

I can’t say for sure, but my best guess is that the “him” in this fortune refers to a boyfriend or husband (but this wouldn’t work if someone who got this fortune had a girlfriend or wife…).  I thought that fortune writer might be telling the fortune receiver to trust her significant other but keep her eyes open for any behavior that might suggest the boyfriend/husband wasn’t being faithful. 

Since I don’t have a boyfriend or husband, I started thinking about who the “him” in this fortune could refer to for me.  Eventually I decided that the “him” in my life that I need to trust more is not a “him” but rather a “Him.”  God is the one I need to trust.  I don’t often worry about little things in life, but I do worry about the big things like getting a job, being financially stable, trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life, making the world a better place, etc.   

But what about keeping my eyes open?  What should I be keeping my eyes open for?  And why do I have to keep my eyes open if I’m just supposed to put all my trust in God?  I’m not really sure.  But I do think that even though God is going to provide everything I need in life, but all that I need isn’t going to simply be dropped in my lap.  I need to keep my eyes open and look for the ways that God is working in and through my life.  And then once I discern (or think I have discerned) how God is working in my life, I need to actively work with God. 

Clearly I did WAY too much thinking about a simple fortune from a fortune cookie, but that’s just the way I role.

A little spice

The jalapeño pepper plants in my garden have done extraordinarily well.  There were/are dozens of good sized jalapeño peppers.

Of all the garden produce, the jalapeño peppers have required using the most creativity to use.  It’s not like you can just bite into and snack on a jalapeño (well, you could, but that would be weird and painful).  So here's what I've done with my jalapeños.    

I cut some up and put them on some nachos.  Pretty delicious.

I chopped up a jalapeño and mixed it into some black bean burgers I made.  I really couldn’t even detect the spiciness of the peppers in the burgers, so maybe next time I’ll put a bit more in.

I made some jalapeño poppers on the grill.  I cut a few jalapeños in half lengthwise and removed the seeds and the membranes.  I put them on the top rack of the grill and let them cook for about 10 minutes.  Then I added a bit of cream cheese to the inside of each jalapeño.  I let them grill a few more minutes.  It’s a real good thing the cream cheese was there because even with the cooling effect of the cheese, the jalapenos were super spicy.

I took on the whole salsa-making-extravaganza mostly as a way to use up a bunch of jalapeños.  And I sure did use a lot of jalapenos.  My first batch of salsa wasn’t spicy at all.  I just finished up the first jar of salsa from that first batch.  I’m not entirely sure, but I think that the second batch of salsa that I made is going to be a little bit spicier.  When I was making it I didn’t quite have enough regular green peppers so I put in extra jalapeño peppers.  I haven’t tried this batch yet, but I do hope it is at least a little spicy.

There are still quite a few jalapeños on the plants and I’m not sure what else to do with them.  If you have any suggestions let me know!

Jumping out of a Perfectly Good Airplane

If you are friends with me on Facebook then you know I went skydiving a couple of weekends ago.  For those of you who aren’t on Facebook, you can see some of the pictures below, and for all of you I’m going to try to put my experience into words.

Skydiving. was. amazing.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I wanted to go skydiving.  It was on my “bucket list,” my list of things to do before I die.  So, when my friend Amanda asked a bunch of friends if we wanted to go skydiving, I immediately said I wanted to go.

Luckily, I was really busy with my first week of work at Feed My Starving Children, so I didn’t have too much time during the week before to think about what I was going to be doing.  I wasn’t too nervous about the whole thing even when I was driving to the airport/skydiving place. 

We had a relatively brief orientation led by a pretty funny man whose job it was to reassure us that what we were about to do really wasn’t all that dangerous and that we would be fine even if we didn’t do what we were supposed to.  We watched a couple of short videos.  And then I had to sign away pretty much every right I had to sue anybody and anything if anything at all went even slightly wrong.  I had to sign my name/initials probably about 40 times.   

We waited outside for a while for it to be our turn.  While we were waiting, we got to see other jumpers load up and take off in the plane.  Then a little while later the plane would come overhead and you could see little tiny dots come out of the plane- people jumping out of the plane.  You could see when they opened the parachute and then watch them glide down to the ground and land.  Our orientation man had told us that 99% of people make a nice landing on their feet.  Watching people land we found out quickly that either this was a very off day or he was lying to us.  It was more like 25% of people made a nice landing on their feet.  I saw quite a few landings that morning and there was only one really bad one where a man landed pretty hard.  Most people landed pretty softly on their behinds.  It kind of made me wonder in what other ways the funny orientation man had stretched the truth.

Finally it was my turn.  We started getting all geared up.  Then I met Woody.  He and I would be connected when jumping out of the plane.  Woody made sure that I didn’t die after I jumped out of the plane.  So, in other words, Woody is my new best friend.

Woody explained again to me how this whole thing would go.  Get on the plane.  Ride up.  Get hooked together.  Jump out of the plane.  I would put my head back and arch my back.  I would hold on to the straps across my chest until he gave me the signal to put my arms out like I was flying.  Woody would give me the signal to put the chute at the proper time.  I would pull it.  We would glide down.  I would raise up my legs.  We would land.  I would put down my legs and help make the landing.  A lot of instructions to try to remember, but pretty simple really.  And that’s basically how it happened.

As we were riding up to 14,000 feet, Woody did a good job of trying to keep my mind off the fact that I would soon be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  He did a pretty good job.  We ended up on the subject of religion, which is probably a pretty good thing to talk about right before you jump out of an airplane.  Woody told me that he feels the closest to God when he is skydiving.  Skydiving requires a lot of trust in God (and trust in your equipment).  Woody also said that as he is skydiving and looking down on the earth below him, he can think of no other way that something so magnificent could have been created than by God.  I found this to be very true as I was looking down on the earth as I was heading back down to the ground.

So there we were in the airplane. 

The scariest part of the whole experience was when the airplane door opened and people just started jumping out of the plane.  People jumped out of that plane like it was a completely normal thing to do.  Woody and I moved our way toward the back of the plane and the door as other people jumped out.

These people jumped right before I did:

Then it was our turn.  This all happened pretty quickly.  Going through the doorway of the plane is a little bit of a blur- I’m not really sure how much Woody pushed and how much I went willingly.  Once we got out of the plane we started falling (obviously).  At 120 miles per hour.  We did a few summersaults/flips through the air.  

Then somehow (it was probably Woody’s doing) we ended up like this:

We were in free fall for probably a minute.  It really didn’t feel like I was falling- I didn’t have that sensation in my stomach like when you are going down a big drop on a roller coaster.  Despite the fact that I was falling toward the ground at 120 miles per hour, I really wasn’t afraid or worried at all.  It was just an incredible sensation to be so free, to have the air rushing past my body, to be so aware of all that was around me.  Then Woody gave me the signal that it was time to pull the parachute.  I reached my hand back to pull the chute, but I didn’t quite get there fast enough, so Woody pulled it for us.  The chute came out, and we slowed way down.

I could see for miles and miles.  Now that I wasn’t falling at 120 miles per hour, I had the chance to enjoy the scenery a little more.  We did a few twisty turns in the parachute, but mostly we just calmly floated down to the ground for probably seven minutes or so.  I even got to steer the parachute a little bit.

We got closer and closer to the ground.  I could see other jumpers below me landing in the grassy landing area.  Then it was Woody and my turn to land.  I lifted my legs up, Woody made the landing, and then I almost got my feet onto the ground, but I made a nice soft landing on my behind

coming in for the landing

Even thinking back on it now, it’s a little hard to believe that I actually jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet.  It was such an incredible experience- it makes me excited just thinking about it.

I would highly recommend skydiving to anyone.  And I would highly recommend the Chicagoland Skydiving Center.  And I would also highly recommend skydiving tandem with Woody.

Bottom line:  I LOVED Skydiving.  And I'll probably do it again.

Happy International Day of Peace!!!

Remember when I started a series on trying to define what peace is before I left for El Salvador in July?  Well thus far that series hasn’t really been a series because there has only been one post.  But today that is going to change. 

Installment #2 on “What is Peace” will revolve around a reflection by Anne Lamott on peace.  I’ve written about Anne Lamott’s writing before on this blog.  Even as I read more books by Anne, I continue to find her writing to be a source of deep truth and wisdom.  This particular reflection was in Anne’s book Bird by Bird- a book about writing and about life.

Anne was going through a bit of a crazy time in her life.  She wrote this:

I knew my soul was sick and that I needed spiritual advice, and I knew also that this advice shouldn’t be terribly sophisticated.  So I went to see the pastor of my son’s preschool.

The pastor is about fifteen.  We talked for a while.  It turns out he just looks young.  I said that I was all over the place, up and down, scattered, high, withdrawing, lost, and in the midst of it all trying to find some elusive sense of serenity.  “The world can’t give that serenity,” he said.  “The world can’t give us peace.  We can only find it in our hearts.”

“I hate that,” I said.

“I know.  But the good news is that by the same token, the world can’t take it away.”

As with just about everything Anne Lamott has written, her brief thoughts here on peace are filled with truth.  And she knows how to deliver that truth in a way that is easily understandable- or at least as easily understandable as a deep truth can be.

Peace is already in our hearts, we just have to find it.  Perhaps peace is something innate in each human being.  Such peace could only come from God, it is something that God puts within each of us (and perhaps God even puts peace within each and every single living being- human and non-human).  If in fact peace is something innate and it is the Creator who put it in us, this can tell us a lot about that peace…peace is universal, everlasting, more powerful than all evil, and ever-present.

As Anne points out, the trouble is finding that peace.  Human nature and the crazy world we live in make it difficult and sometimes impossible to find the peace that is present within ourselves.  It often seems that everything works against us finding that peace.  Finding peace in ourselves has become so counter-cultural.  It is even more counter-cultural to try to work for peace in the world.

The world can’t give us peace, but there are certainly people and things in the world that can help us find and embrace the peace in our hearts.  There are individuals we can learn from: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Dear, Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and so many others.  There are movements and groups and organizations that have set an example of what it means to work for peace: the civil rights movement, the Plowshares movement, the Catholic Worker, the Quakers…  These people, groups, and movements can help show us what peace is and how we might find it in ourselves and create it in the world.

The preschool pastor was so right: the world- the evil, the injustice in the world- can do nothing to take away the peace within us.  Peace will always be present within me, within you, and within every person.  The evil and injustice in the world may mask that peace or make us forget about peace, but the peace will remain with in us.

Taking all this into account means a few things for my search for peace in my life and in the world.  No one and no thing is going to hand peace to me on a silver platter.  I have to find it in my heart through transcending the non-peace of this world (obviously much easier said than done).  Perhaps I have been focusing too much on looking to the world to help me find peace.  Peace is something I have to find first within myself before I can have any chance of leaving the world more peaceful than I found it.

Seeking peace is something active.  It’s not just going to find me.  And so today, on this International Day of Peace, I’m going to try to begin something new.  I’m going to try to spend at least a few minutes everyday actively searching for that peace in my heart.  For a few minutes, I’m going to block out every thing that is not peace and try to connect to that peace that is somewhere within me.

First week at Feed My Starving Children

I completed my first week of work at Feed My Starving Children!  The first day was really overwhelming with trying to take in and remember everything I was supposed to.  But it got less overwhelming each day.  All my coworkers are great people- they have made me feel very welcomed and have been very helpful in teaching me everything I need to learn.

I went over some human resource stuff with the site supervisor, read some of the employee manual, watched some safety videos, and took some safety quizzes.  Most of the time I spent observing the team leaders as they led groups of volunteers.  I also did some food packing along with the volunteers and I jumped in and helped the team leaders when help was needed and I knew what I was doing.

I was amazed at just how different every group of volunteers is and you never really know what to expect in a volunteer session.  Just this week alone there were families, middle school field trips, transition students, a high school tennis team, church groups, 85 people from UPS (they are all about efficiency!), a 16^th birthday party, a Kiwanis club, Starbucks workers, college students, elderly people, 5 year-olds, and volunteers who have been to Feed My Starving Children more times than me.   

This afternoon I did my first bit of leading.  I led the clean up of the warehouse and I led the group as they prayed over the food they had packed.  I think it went pretty well.  This is probably the easiest part to lead, so it was good that I started with this one.  I’m a little worried about leading the other parts because there are lots of instructions that I have to remember to give to the volunteers.  I have a whole week to learn though, and of course I’ll have the support of the other team leaders.

I think the coolest part of the week was today when we sent off a shipping container (think of a semi-truck or train boxcar) of food to Liberia.  Once or twice a week we send off a shipment of food to countries all around the world.  The food goes from our warehouse on a truck to a port then onto a ship and across the ocean, then through another port, then on another truck probably over some not so great roads to get to the organizations that Feed My Starving Children partner with on the ground to distribute the food.  It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months for a shipment to get where it’s going.  With the long journey and the chaos and uncertainty of the journey, the food can use all the divine protection it can get.  So, once the food was all loaded up on the semi-truck, some of the staff members gathered to pray that God would watch over and protect the food throughout its journey and that the food would nourish all those who will eat the food.

Thus far I’m really enjoying working at Feed My Starving Children.  The staff and volunteers are so passionate about what they are doing and it’s easy to catch that passion as well as to spread it to others.