A-Ha!

I had a total "aha!" moment last night while I was listening to The Light Reprise by Scott McAlvany and Braddigan from the Walking on Water soundtrack.  There's a lot more to life than falling in love.  I know it is hard to believe but tis true.  As a young woman going to a Christian college it's a little hard not to think about because it seems to be on a lot of people's minds.  Yeah I'd like to get married and all that good stuff but that shouldn't be the only thing that I (or any one else) strives for in life.  So many books and movies try to bash it into our heads that if you are alone you're probably unhappy.  People at church do it too, they don't mean to, but especially for single women there is an expectation to jump on it and find a good husband.  Men can be as single as they want but heaven forbid a woman do the same.  

Again, I wouldn't mind one bit being a relationship, but I just get so fed up when that's all people want or expect from their lives.  God has equipped us to do so much more than look around for a soul mate.  So I'm thinking that instead of sitting around waiting for (or searching for) the love of our life we should bip around doing what God calls us to do and if we happen to find love on the way, sweet man.  If not, that is equally sweet.

Ok So Here's the Earth

So here I am just chilling out in Santa Barbara with no idea of what is going on in the world around me.  Because I'm going to Indo I've started reading up on Islam because I'm a curious person, and I don't want to offend anybody while I'm over there.  Learning about Islam coinciding with my reading of Three Cups of Tea has turned me a little crazy with wanting to know as much as I can about Islam (especially the Middle East).

My newest attempt at education has been watching a film called Sadaa E Zan (voices of women)  It was made in 2002 and is made up of interviews with women from Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan about their lives during the rule of the Taliban as well as post-Taliban experiences.  

I had no idea that women, no, not even women, that human beings could be subjected to what these women went through.  Here I am getting pissy when one of my co-workers assumes I can't carry something when there are women who have been confided to their houses and then severely punished when they left their homes.  I'm not really sure what was more painful, the fact that I was ignorant about all of this, that these women have lived through this, or the fact that many others are equally unaware.  

No education, no freedom, no access to good medical facilities, lost family members, psychological obstacles.  Grant it, the movie was produced right after 2001 and I'm sure (actually I'm not sure, I HOPE) that things have changed since then, but I AM sure that there is much more that needs to be done.  

These women do not need to be Americanized, as far as I know Islam calls for women to be below men (not to the extent the Taliban took it) and if they want to be true to their religion we should help facilitate that, but to do this they need security and safety before we can just rip off their veils.  

On top of that I read today in the news that Marines who opened fire after a car bomb went off in Jalalabad, killed 19 unarmed civilians, are NOT going to be punished in any way shape or form.  I know that it is Memorial Day and that I should be grateful for those who have gone before us to protect us, but to what extent has our quest for our own security injured the security of innocents that aren't "us" ? No one, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, what have you, should live in fear- and since we do live in fear we should learn  how to help each other escape those fears by respecting each other and working together.

Our number one rule for our Indo trip is DO NOT PANIC.  I hope we (and hopefully others) can stick to that.

Merry Happy

Kate Nash's Merry Happy is a truly merry happy song, I highly recommend it.  Today has been a day spent sitting around watching Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and thinking about how to learn from pervious experiences.

Previous experience: waiting around for something to happen... to change.

Thing Thought about and learned: "One who does nothing but wait for his ship to come has already missed the boat". 

 It was right in front of me for ages, taped to Julio (my computer) but it wasn't until I initiated something that I realized the only way anything is ever going to happen is if I make an effort to change it.

I'm feeling pretty empowered right now, lesson has been learned, if you wait around not much is going to happen, so take a leap of faith and get out there.

Worky Worky Worky

I love working grounds crew.  Naturally the weed eating gets old after awhile, but the shenanigans never end so it is all good.  Today we attacked a weedish tree with hand saws... I felt like I was going to war.

On top of all this fun stuff Phil Baker is one of my most favorite people, I wish I could dedicate a club to him called "my boss could snap your boss in half with his pinkie toe".  He's just this HUGE dude who is so stinking nice.  SO nice I can't believe how lucky I am to work for somebody like Phil.  Hooray

Right now I'm watching Cassidy slave over a cake and considering helping, except that I know I'll end up ruining it some how.

Life is good

I Wanna

I wanna go to Israel.

Now.

Ok maybe not now, but soon.

BLAH!

Birdy Bird

I'm a bird in a cage with far too few choices. (according to Dana's Zoology class haha)

Too bad the best choice really is the best choice, but won't ever be an option.  So I can't help but think to myself, "self, why are you putting yourself through all this caca?"

You always want what you can't have.  Why is that?

"That's when I knew

that I could never have you

I knew that before you did

still I'm the one who's stupid"

S.O.B. This is a bummer summer, but it will be A-OK eventually, it always is.

Food for Thought.

"Prayer is better than sleep." ~ the hazzan (call to worship)

That's quite the statement, especially for a constantly sleep deprived college student.  Sleeping and eating are pretty high up on my list (I dunno about the rest of you folks) so to actually see that in writing has made me reassess my priorities.

I frickin' love sleep, and if prayer is better than sleep...well.... I should frickin' love prayer even more.

I found this quote in the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (my new hero) and was completely miffed when I found out that he was in Santa Barbara speaking at the Arlington, an hour after the presentation began.  I know I know, life is rough.

The thing is.. I have 11 pages left in this book and I can't bring myself to read them.  It isn't because I don't have time or that I'm bored with what I'm reading.  It's because once I finish the book, I'm done reading this amazing story.

And once you finish a book like this you can't help but feel like anything you do may turn into a life changing passionate pursuit.  He started out as a mountain climber and ended up a humanitarian, who would have thunk it right?  So I'm a little scared/excited that after reading this book something will turn into anything and and and, oh look I'm panicking now. haha

Any who, point being PLEASE read this book you will not regret it one single bit, if anything you'll feel more at ease knowing that there is a purpose in everything that you do, or that happens to you.

PLEASE READ!!!

Into Africa??? NO WAY DUDE!!!

So I spoke to a friend of mine last night and was completely baffled by what I was told.  He's studying to become an engineer and as such he needs to complete a senior project.  So I'm sitting there thinking he's going to be building some solar powered candy cane maker or something of the sort when he throws me a complete curve ball.

"Well, I went to some meeting about this sugar making thing that needs to get designed and....well... hopefully by winter break I'll be going to Mali."

Note: This guy isn't Africa inclined, I recall several conversations where he would complain about Christians constantly going to and talking about Africa and that people just need to get over Africa.

Apparently he's joined a program that's funded through the Peace Corps in hopes of creating a juicer that will get sugar out of the sorghum plant.  The plan is to construct the juicer out of materials that are efficient and abundant in Mali.  After juicing the plant, the liquid can go through a process (hey I'm gonna be a 3rd grade teacher so I dunno all this jargon) that will solidify it into sugar, which is a pretty hot item in regards to trade.

If all goes well they'll be able to teach people how to make and operate the machines and then sell the sugar to make money for food, shelter, education, whatever.  The best part is that the idea is to create something that will make the people of Mali self-sufficient in trade and manufacturing.

I'M SO STOKED BECAUSE THIS IS SOMETHING COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BLUE FOR THIS GUY TO BE PARTICIPATING IN!

I can't help but be a cheeseball by thinking of the line from that song Through Heaven's Eyes

"No life can escape being blown about 
By the winds of change and chance 
And though you never know all the steps 
You must learn to join the dance"

It has been a year since being "over Africa" and all of a sudden there was this change in him... and now he could be well on his way to changing tons of lives for the better.  This is a crazy example of how God can use the most unlikely characters as part of a great story.

STOKED.

Question

Ok, so I'm reading this book Three Cups of Tea about this guy who starts building schools in remote areas of Pakistan.  Cool yea?  Well it is, but reading this has raised a question (and I should probably know the answer to this except that I had Christian Doctrine at 8 am first semester last year) 

When people who don't believe that Christ died and resurrected are really good people and do awesome stuff like Greg Mortenson, is it because of the Holy Spirit or something else?  I guess a simpler way to put it is: Are all good deeds done by all men because of the Spirit?  I've been putzing around in my Biblia trying to figure it out but I just can't come to any conclusions about it.

Any ideas? (And please if it's a really obvious answer don't make me feel stupid!)

Where's Larry?

I'm dirty, tired, covered in poison oak, and I love it.

It has only been day two of my job on grounds crew for physical plant and I have forgotten how good it feels to just go home and collapse on the couch after work. I'm outside, surrounded by all sorts of characters that you couldn't possibly encounter anywhere but physical plant. My favorite thus far is Larry.

Larry tells you to go do something and then disappears. When you go searching for Larry and can't find him, you find a co-worker with his number. After calling and telling him that you went (remember that) to Armington you drive back to that dorm. When he isn't there a second time you proceed to drive back to physical plant. While there, Larry drives by, spots you and yells "I thought you were waiting in Armington!" Then speeds off again. Then you go chasing after him only to find that he outran you yet again and is nowhere to be found.

We found him eventually, after 20 minutes of driving in circles, but hey it was all in good fun.

Hooray for working outside.