Today was a perfect day for...

...drying clothes outside!!!

I got this new collapsable clothes drying rack for Christmas.  In the dead of winter (even in this lame winter we had), it seemed like it would be forever before I could use it.  Most of the time during the winter I hung my clothes up to dry in the basement, but it took forever for my clothes to dry and it just didn't have the same feel of hanging clothes up to dry outside.  But now the weather is just great for drying clothes outside.

On Sunday my dad helped me install a pipe connected to our deck that the collapsable rack fits into.  So I can fold up the rack and take it inside when I'm not using it so it doesn't get all dirty.  And it works super!  It is easy to set-up and it holds a LOT of clothes.  I did a very large load of laundry and I could have easily fit at least one more very large load.  The really cool thing about the design of this rack is that I can hang laundry on the inner part that I don't want the neighbors to see.  Even though it got pretty windy today all my clothes stayed on the rack (I don't know if this can be attributed to the clothespins or the rack- either way I was pretty happy to come home and not have to collect my clothes from around the backyard).

First Week of Acts of Beauty

Here's a recap of my first week of acts of beauty:

Day 1: Feb. 22 

I had a little bit of a rough afternoon and my patience ran out.  My patience usually doesn’t run out so quickly (although there was certainly plenty of good reasons that my patience got used up).  I was in a pretty bad mood, and so I knew that my first act of beauty in Lent would have to be something to make my mood and spirit more beautiful.  So I came home and did some yoga, something I love to do but haven’t had much time to do lately.  My yoga left me feeling refreshed physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Day 2: Feb. 23

I posted this video on Facebook: Indescribable

Day 3: Feb. 24

I woke up to a beautiful snow covered world.  I didn’t think that I could do any acts of beauty today because it seemed that God had created all the beauty that was needed for the day.  But then I figured I would capture that beauty.  So I went to the forest preserve to walk around, soak in the beauty, and take some photos.  I finished up a roll of film that I started to use back in September (yep, every once in a while I break out the old fashioned camera and film).  I’m excited to see what beauty is on that roll of film.

Day 4: Feb. 25

My act of beauty for toady was being a part of packing enough food to feed about 185 kids for an entire year.  We have been trying to pack as much food as possible lately at FMSC.  I spent most of the afternoon and evening encouraging the volunteers to pack as fast as they could.  I love to see the volunteers get excited about packing a lot of boxes of food.  They have fun seeing how much they can pack and it just makes them feel good to leave knowing they made a significant difference for as many children as possible.  We have five packing sessions on Saturdays and our goal was to pack over 100 boxes each session.  Most of the sessions had no problem getting to 100 boxes.  The last group of volunteers was a great group, but they struggled to get to 100 boxes.  We let them pack a few extra minutes and they made it to 100!   

Day 5: Feb. 26

My act of beauty for the day was spending part of the afternoon reading in bed and then taking a little nap. 

Day 6: Feb. 27

I was a part of making a beautiful and fulfilling experience for special needs students who came to volunteer at FMSC.  The volunteer group of was a group of students with varying degrees of physical and mental abilities.  These students had an incredible time.  They got to make a contribution to something really important and meaningful- something they don’t get to do often enough. 

Day 7: Feb. 28

My act of beauty for today was making a delicious chocolate dessert for my family.  It’s called “slutty brownies”.  Basically you put a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, a layer of Oreos, and a layer of brownie batter all in a baking dish and bake it in the oven.  There is something about chocolate that makes everything more beautiful. 

40 Days of Beauty

Today is Ash Wednesday and thus the beginning of the forty days of Lent.  This is the season in the church year to anticipate and prepare for Easter.  There are, of course, many ways to prepare for Easter.  Many Christians give up something for Lent like chocolate, sweets, meat (or just meat on Fridays), TV, etc.  In past years I have given things up for Lent, but I've found that it is more meaningful for me to do something more rather than giving something up.  A few years ago I read through the Gospels a little each day of Lent.  Last year, I read a devotion and journaled about it daily.

This year during Lent, I'm going to commit to daily intentional acts to bring about more beauty in the world.  I'm defining 'beauty' in a very broad sense here.  It will include the physical beauty of my community, my house, my places of work, my self, and my friends and family.  Beauty will also include creating or sharing written, visual, or audio arts.  The physical beauty (what we see on the surface) is important, but it is creating more inner beauty within the people I come into contact with that I'd like to really focus on during Lent.  I'm sure I will learn much more about what inner beauty is, but I see it as the joy, compassion, dignity, peace, hope, faith, and love that exist within a person.  In reality I won't really be creating inner beauty (God already did that)...I'll just be helping myself and others realize that that beauty exists within each of us and then nurture and grow that inner beauty.

I hope that committing these acts of beauty will help me better see the beauty that God created in the world.  I also hope that these acts of beauty will help prepare me in body and spirit to remember and celebrate the most extravagant act of beauty the world has ever experienced: Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection.

I won't post daily about my acts of beauty, but my goal is to leave a record here on my blog of at least 40 intentional acts of bringing about more beauty.  If you have any suggestions for an act of beauty, please share- I'm more than open to your suggestions, especially if it's something that I might do to create more beauty in your life.

Reevaluating

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing some reevaluating.  I’ve been reevaluating and trying to make sure that I’m still heading where I should be heading in life.  During my two years in graduate school at Loyola I was blessed with the time and many opportunities to discern my purpose and calling in life.  At the time it seemed difficult to figure out what my calling is, but now I see that this was the easy part.  The difficult part is to actually live out this calling, my mission statement, and to constantly reevaluate if I am properly following that calling or if I need to even refigure my mission statement.

Here’s what I understand my calling to be: To educate people about injustice in the world and then to encourage, empower, and enable people to actually DO something to address that injustice.

A couple of things made me see the need to reevaluate things.

First thing: A friend of mine is quitting her job and traveling to the other side of the world for a couple of months.  She is going on this trip for herself, to try to find what it is that God has called her to do, and to be the person she is meant to be without all the pressures and expectations of others.  I am so incredibly excited for my friend and the adventures and experiences she will have (even though I am going to miss her a whole lot).  I really admire her courage to quit her job, leave her family for a couple of months, and take the time and space she needs.

My friend knows her current job is not what God has called her to do for the rest of her life and so she is taking a step of faith to hopefully find her calling.  I pray that she will gain some insight and answers while she is on this trip, but even if she doesn’t figure it all out on her trip, I know she is going to stop at nothing to live out a life of purpose and a life of serving others according to God’s will. 

My friend refused to become complacent and she refused to just go along and work at a job that she knows is not what God intended for her long-term.  My friend’s courage and refusal to become complacent was a bit of a reminder to me that I need to make sure that I’m heading in the right direction in life.  I don’t think I need to go to the other side of the world to do some reevaluation (I’m sure my mom is pretty happy about this), but I nevertheless do need to evaluate.

The second thing that made me see the need to reevaluate where I’m heading in life is starting my new job as the communications coordinator at my church.  Just having a second job has made life more complex, busy, and tiring.  I am incredibly grateful that I was offered this position, and things are going quite well so far.  It’s been great working with the staff, learning new things, and seeing some exciting new things fall into place.  But I know this is not a job I want to have for the rest of my life.  (And now I feel really bad about wondering how long I should stay with a job that I have just started, especially when there are so many people out there who are in need of a job.)  I am becoming more and more invested in this job, I’m finding parts of this job that really make me excited, and I’m seeing just how vital my work is for the proper functioning of the church.

Likewise, I know that I’m not called to be a Team Leader at Feed My Starving Children for the rest of my life.  Let me say this though: I LOVE my job at Feed My Starving Children.  I love my coworkers, I love working with the volunteers, and I love that I get to be a part of feeding hundreds of thousands of starving children around the world.  Through my job I know I am fulfilling part of my calling.

Here’s my fear though: I worry that I will get so caught up in what I love and am comfortable doing at these jobs, that I will stay too long, that I will put off living out my full calling.  And so I have questioned…How long is too long to be doing something that you know is not what you are called to do long-term?  How long can I work at a job that I’ve become comfortable with simply because I fear what God calls me to next?  Have I made the right decisions?  Shouldn’t I be seeking out other more “practical” opportunities like a full-time job with benefits?  Shouldn’t I keep looking for a job that will allow me to better live out my calling?  Is it a bad sign that I have to justify all this to myself and to others?

So over the past few weeks, I’ve done some thinking and praying (a lot of praying actually). 

And here’s what I know:  At this point I can’t stand the thought of leaving Feed My Starving Children.  I enjoy my job, I find it fulfilling, and for the time being I think this is where God has called me to be.  Likewise, I can’t see myself leaving the communications post at my church any time soon.

For right now, I am where I’m called to be and I’m doing what I’m called to be doing. 

Through all this, God is working.  God is preparing me, forming me, training me, strengthening me, and teaching me…for what exactly I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s something great.

Sharing a blog post

My jobs are going quite well.  They are keeping me quite busy (which is why I haven't been blogging much lately), but life is good.  Really good actually.

I have been slowly making some progress on writing on some blog posts, but they still aren't ready to be published...getting close though.  

But in the meantime I do want to share a blog post written by a coworker at Feed My Starving Children.  FMSC started a blog a couple of weeks ago and the latest post is excellent.  In fact, it's more than excellent- it's filled with deep truth and some incredible insight.  So read it here: The Whole World is Your Family.

I got a new job!

I got a new job!  Yes, I’ll still be working at Feed My Starving Children.  So, I now have two part time jobs (which is a situation I’m sure will present challenges and joys).

I was offered a part-time position as the communications coordinator at my church, and I’m happy to say that I accepted the position.  I’m going to be working with the church website, social media, newsletters, and a bunch of other random things.  Basically if there’s something at my church that needs to be communicated to the congregation or to the community, it’s my job to make that happen in an efficient and effective way.  I’ll probably be working at this job about 15 to 20 hours a week. 

Here’s what makes me excited about this new job:

• I get to work at a church I love
• I get to work for an organization whose mission and vision I firmly believe in
• I get to work with the incredible staff of Our Savior
• I get to interact and work with some pretty cool congregation members
• My commute is about 4 minutes by car or about 10 minutes by bike (but it might be a couple of months before I can bike again…)
• I get an office!
• I get to be challenged to learn and do new things

SOPA and PIPA and Priorities

If you haven’t heard about SOPA and PIPA you’ve been living in a hole (and I may just join you there).  These are two bills before congress that aim to stop piracy on the internet, but many have argued that these bills won’t work, they will be bad for companies online, and the bills will enable the US government to block certain websites using methods similar to the way China censors the internet.

Lawyers, online companies, and some big names are speaking out against SOPA and PIPA.  People are posting all over Facebook and Twitter.  There are videos on YouTube.  Wikipedia shut down for a day (!) and other big websites have protested in their own way.  People are encouraging others to sign petitions and contact their lawmakers in Congress.  There are commercials on TV.  Some people are getting pretty upset.

But I have to question just how important this is in the grand scheme of things and I really have to question all the attention and huge deal this has so quickly become.  Don’t get me wrong- this is important and the internet is an important thing.  I am not a fan of piracy and I am not a fan of censorship. 

But is potential censorship of the internet really as big of a problem as 18,000 children dying each and every day because they don’t have enough to eat?  Is potential censorship of the internet really more important than the one BILLION people around the world who don’t have access to clean water or the two BILLION people around the world who don’t have access to proper sanitation?  Is internet censorship more important than the 27 million people in the world who are victims of modern day slavery?  Should we really be more concerned about internet censorship than about the hundreds or thousands of people in our own communities who are homeless or hungry?  Should we really be spending our time being so concerned about the internet when millions of people around the world die of preventable diseases like malaria?

I think we need to reevaluate our priorities.

If we need to get so upset about internet censorship, then we also need to get upset about human trafficking, homelessness, hunger, starvation, preventable diseases, and access to clean water and sanitation.

Can you imagine what would happen if millions of people gave as much attention, time, energy, and resources to addressing these other world issues as have been given to SOPA and PIPA?!?  Can you imagine what would happen if people got as excited and passionate about ending world poverty as they have about preventing internet censorship?  Just think what would happen if as many people contacted their lawmakers about ending homelessness as contacted their lawmakers about SOPA and PIPA.

Just something to think about…