The Story of Stuff

This is really cool. It's about 20 minutes long.




Grit and I have really been trying to consume less and be more conscious of the impact of our lifestyle.

A question for all 3 of my readers!

I've had this blog for nearly six years now. It's always been called, "Interesting, but not too Interesting." The title came from a conversation I had with friends after dating yet another weirdo. My cousin, Brandon, pointed out that I always seemed to date very "interesting" guys. After discussing this with my girlfriends, I said, "I do like them interesting, but not too interesting." It was hilarious at the time. Seriously. ...maybe you had to be there. It totally worked since this blog was born of a break-up.

Anyhow, my question is, do I change the name of my blog? It's been a while and the title still cracks me up, but does anyone really get it? My life has changed and more changes are on the way. Time to move on, or keep it the same?

Discuss.

Remembering

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was volunteering at the Salvation Army in Findlay, Ohio, a full-time missionary for the LDS church. We heard reports that something was happening over the radio and someone plugged in a t.v. My companion and I held each other tight and with tears running down our faces, we watched the second tower fall. I remember the horror, fear and speculation that we shared with everyone around us. There were reports that there was a plane headed for Cleveland and we were all very worried, even though we were two hours away from there. We were advised to stay away from government buildings and to stay home and wait for news. In the days that followed, the world grieved with us and so very many people came together. There seemed to be something in the air that encouraged people to be more courteous, more patient, and more understanding. 

Then came the anger. 

Anger is a natural part of grief. While I support the need to get answers and seek justice, I have never been okay with the vilification of Islam. I grew up with many Muslims and my experience with Islam has always been positive. The first time I heard Toby Keith sing about lighting up the sky and putting his boot in someones ass, I was HORRIFIED. I will not listed to his music even now because of it. I could not support something called Shock and Awe - the ones who truly suffered had NOTHING to do with our tragedy. I think about the terror of children woken from their sleep to the sound of bombs. Thousands of innocent Iraqi people are dead. I believe wholeheartedly in accountability and consequences, but not revenge. It bothers me that some waive the American flag while spewing anger and hate and intolerance. This quote by Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorites:

"But our flag is not just the logo for wars; it is the flag of American pacifists too. It's the flag of all of us who love our country enough to do the hard work of living up to its highest ideals." 

-Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder 

About a year after the attacks, I was in a new area in Ohio knocking on doors on a beautiful summer night and met the most wonderful Muslim family. They invited us to sit on the porch with them and enjoy the night air. We spent the time talking about all of the things our religions have in common and our hopes for the world. I learned much more about Islam and I left that porch with an even deeper understanding and respect for it. 


My heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones in this conflict - all over the world. I hope that we can all be cautious and careful about the way our actions may affect others. 

News

I know it's been a little while since I posted and I promised you Halloween photos! I haven't uploaded them yet, but I will... um... soon-ish. Life is great right now. Busy and hectic and wonderful. For those of you who haven't heard, Garrett and I got "officially" ENGAGED on November 8th! Garrett gave me a turquoise ring and proposed in my favorite garden under my favorite tree. I'm happy that Garrett appreciates that I am a strange amalgamation of traditional and unconventional and he just rolls with it. We looked at diamonds - good diamonds - and I found that I just wasn't interested. They seemed so cold and I absolutely would not wear one unless we purchased it through a company involved in the Kimberley Process. Turquoise is my favorite stone and we found the perfect ring. I love it. I love him!

Now we're working on wedding planning and it's really not as fun as we would like. I think it would be easier if we had a little bit more emotional support from family, but such is life. We've dealt with a few big challenges in the past 6 months and we keep joking that the first year of marriage will be a piece of cake for us! We're closer and stronger for it. Garrett is so wonderful and loving and supportive. I am so blessed to have him in my life! We're getting married on March 19, 2010. Right now we're working on our guest list and looking at wedding announcements and getting ready to have engagement photos taken. We already have our reception planned out and just have to figure out how to execute it. We're thinking of scrapping it all and just eloping to the LDS Temple and being done! Yeah right, everyone knows I want to throw a rockin' party. We're trying to keep things very simple and any advice from friends is greatly appreciated! I know this post is ramble-y and probably pretty gushy and obnoxious, but I'm allowed, okay? Okay?

I'm annoying myself now and I'm terrified of becoming this, so I'm going to go get ready for work and I'll blog again when I feel more rational. Hee hee.

A few things...

First, Earth Hour is coming up! Sign up and participate! I loved it last December; turning out all the lights and just hanging out with candles was really peaceful. It was perfect. My whole family is going to get together this year! Do it!

Second, I found this AMAZING link to find bluegrass jams in your area. I LOVE bluegrass so much it hurts and am excited now to know how to find local meeting places where people are playing. Check it out!

Third, I find out tomorrow about a job I interviewed for last week. Wish me luck!

Miss me?

Yeah, me too. I just haven't felt very creative lately. My knitting is neglected, my bedroom looks like a clothing/shoe store vomited in it, and I'm basically boring. I work, come home, sit on the couch or my supa-fly new recumbent exercise bike and watch tv/read news on the web. Oh yeah, I hang out with my family a lot too. But on the bright side, my foot is mostly better, I'm well-informed on current events and I'm more of an activist than ever. Many thanks to my job for that. I really enjoy the work I get to do and I'm able to stay up on the issues I care most about and get paid. I've encountered some really amazing people and some really CRAZY folks as well. My favorite part of my job is watching light bulbs go on as people really grasp what I'm saying. The even better part is when a training lights a fire and someone becomes committed to the cause of ending family violence. So, while I may be mostly boring in my personal life, my professional life is great and things are generally good all-around. I am going to post my most favorite quotes of late pretty soon. Those aren't boring! In the meantime, click the link below and find out how rich you are in relation to the rest of the world. It made me feel a little bit greedy, but also helped me recognize that there are little things I can do to help others. It's cool, I promise!

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

The Girl Effect

This is very cool. Watch the video and check out the website.
The Girl Effect.

There are more people enslaved in the world today than at any other time in human history.

REDUCE, Reuse, Recycle

I just read an article about plastics and how they are ending up in the oceans, the food supply, and our bodies (causing cancer among other things). It's really quite an interesting read. Check it out here.

There are simple (and not so simple) things that each of us can do to conserve and protect the environment. I really have zero tolerance for apathy. You are involved in the problem whether you accept it or not. Choose to be involved in the solution.

Listen up, Yo.

Hey ya'll.

So... many of you know how I feel about the importance of getting out to vote. Seriously. It's REALLY REALLY important. I'm non-partisan and try to be very objective and look at each issue individually. I won't go into my personal views here as I don't think it's necessary right now. How and why you vote is your business and I will leave you to it. My point is, DO IT. I got my hands on some statistics today that I really want to share with you. They have to do with who is voting, by age. I'm assuming that most of my readers are relatively close to me in age (25-35). So I'm addressing this information to you.

This is who is actually voting, broken down by age:

35.5% are 55+
21.3% are 45-54
19.5% are 35-44
14.5% are 25-34
9.3% are 18-24


Why does my age bracket only represent 14.5% of voters? Come on people. This is shameful. I have had amazing philosophical and political conversations with many of my friends who fall in my same age bracket. Many of you have ideas that are amazing and inspired and that can literally change the world. This said, we must get out and vote. Apathy is not okay. Even if you don't spend weeks and months studying the candidates, take an hour or two and look at the issues. Decide where you stand. Don't let anyone else decide for you. One of my favorite quotes says, "Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul." Mark Twain. Put a little bit of effort into this. Younger voters are turning out in record numbers to the primaries... lets keep the momentum going all the way to the election.


Here are some voting links. Get registered, get informed, get to the polls.

Rock the Vote
USAY Foundation
Project Vote Smart
USA.gov Voting Information
Declare Yourself
Voto Latino

This is what I'll be blogging about for the month of October.

I originally started this post on April 14, but got side-tracked and forgot about it until today.

I don't aspire to be great. I aspire to be as useful as possible. I've recently been able to read and hear some of the stories and histories of the people I've descended from. They were humble and hard working and God-fearing and compassionate. Not wealthy or famous and I don't want those things either. They were the best kind of every-day-people. I seek to be comfortable in the way that I live, but not at the expense of others or our dear planet. I've had some beautiful and introspective days recently. I've taken the time to think about the things I seek. Through the hikes with my brother and sister and I'm finding that I seek nature. I love seeing new places and exploring and feeling the sun on my face. But that is not what this is about.

I want to share some thoughts with you that I posted on my other blog some time ago. This is some of what I have reflected on recently:

I believe that we create our own destinies. That this is what God wants for each of us. That our greatest and noblest hopes and dreams and desires for ourselves are the things that He sent us here to discover and make happen. He loves us so very much that He will help us become all of these things. The struggle is conquering fear, insecurity, inadequacy, self doubt. This is no small task. These things are powerful and come at us from every angle and every speed everyday. We have to stay close to Him and re-focus and remind ourselves everyday of our goals and dreams. And we have to find people with focus and love who are as determined to help us get there as we are for them.

My greatest and noblest hopes and dreams and desires for myself are these: I desire to change the world; I desire to be of service to mankind; To teach and inspire and help the people I come into contact with; I seek to know God and know that by serving Him, I will be blessed; I believe that those of us who seek to know God have a responsibility to serve and educate those around us, not only in the ways of God, but in the ways that will help them to reach their full potential in the world; I desire to raise children to be intelligent and kind and thoughtful and open minded and to instill in them the desire and ability to change the world every day; I desire to help women understand that the old idea of what "feminism" means is outdated and damaging; That you, as a woman, have a right to be absolutely everything that you want; That you do not have to apologize for any of your desires and that you must be true to yourself; I desire to tell all of the people in the world who want to judge me harshly that I forgive you, but that does not mean that I will not try to stop you and love you and educate you every single day of my life; I cannot and will not be put into your box; I am what I am and I change everyday and I hope you do too; I desire to learn as much every single day as is in my power to do.

I will no longer chastise myself for not being what I have been taught I must be in order to succeed and be happy.

I will succeed and be happy by taking each day and allowing it to be what it is meant to be instead of what I, or someone else may try to make it. At the same time, I will make each day as happy and beautiful and productive as I can and will allow myself to have as many bad days as I want or need.

I desire to marry someone who is intelligent, kind, thoughtful, devoted to God, committed to changing the world, unwilling to sit idly by while the world suffers; someone who understands my need for an egalitarian union. I need balance. I also understand that a perfect balance takes time and I am willing to put in the work.

I know that God knows my deepest desires and that as I ask, He will answer.

Favorite Things

I just had to share the joy I experienced today when I learned that one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver, has a new book due out on May 1st. It's called, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and rest assured that I will have it in my hands as soon as possible.

I have Alice Walker's latest, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness in my possession currently and highly recommend it. It's beautiful!

Both of these authors are best known for fictional novels, but I prefer their non-fiction, particularly their essays and poetry. Read Barbara’s Small Wonder and Another America/Otra America and read Alice’s Living by the Word and Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth.

I've been reading various works by Zora Neale Hurston on and off recently and while reading some of her memoirs (Dust Tracks on a Road), I've come to feel a strong kinship to her. She was raised in the same place that I was, only 10 miles from my home, albeit nearly 100 years earlier and under very different circumstances; but her love of that beautiful place mirrors mine. I cried while reading her loving descriptions of the woods, rivers, and plant-life of Central Florida. It made me very homesick. I was blessed that the neighborhood where I grew up was bordered by woods on two sides, a lake on one, and orange groves on another. We were also a very short distance from the Atlantic Ocean. We also had a very large vegetable garden and many many flowers in our yard. I spent many happy years playing in those woods and catching catfish in that lake and swimming in that ocean. By the time we moved west when I was 16, we were bordered by huge subdivisions on each side that were named after the beauty that had been bulldozed to make way for monstrous hideous houses. My brothers and I spent a lot of time rescuing wildlife, particularly box-turtles from the crushing developments and housing them in our backyard (much to my mother's dismay), which should explain why I am very interested in the welfare of animals to this day.

I become particularly bitter when people who have never spent any real, quality time exploring the exquisite beauty and history of my home state, have only negative things to say and make it obvious that the only thing that they experienced there were bugs and humidity and ghastly tourist traps. It's your own fault if you chose to experience only those things, just don't share it with me because it's one of the things I have a tendency to carry a grudge about. Seriously. Judging my beautiful home by the tacky-Yankee-made-wonder-hole known as Disney World is the same as judging the entire state of Nevada by the Vegas strip. Maybe you do, but that's your small minded problem and not mine. I love Florida very much and will never verbally claim any other place as my home, nor will I allow you to speak ill of it.

I find that most of my favorite authors have a deep love for nature and the environment. They all seem to understand our deep connectedness to the earth and the importance of creating and maintaining a close relationship with it. I have always felt deeply connected to nature and have been spending more of my free time experiencing it firsthand, appreciating it, conserving it and sharing it with my family. Our weekly hikes are quickly becoming a family institution. We have such a great time while we explore the state together. We also sort our recycling together, garden together, and swap info on new and better ways to conserve and protect our environment and to help slow global warming.

One of my dear sisters was wise to point out to me that the commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to “…multiply and replenish the earth..” (Genesis 1:28), has only been halfway heeded. We have definitely multiplied, but we also have the commandment to “replenish the earth” The earth is our responsibility.

Think about it.

Check it

We are promoting an event at work called Denim Day and my city is celebrating it this Friday, April 6th. It's a rape prevention and education campaign. Check it out and if you feel so inclined, get involved.

Here's what it says on the website:


Italy, 1992
An 18-year old girl is picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully rapes her. Threatened with death if she tells anyone, he makes her drive the car home. Later that night she tells her parents, and they help and support her to press charges. The perpetrator gets arrested and is prosecuted. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.
He appeals the sentence. The case makes it’s all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”
Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same, which in turn spread to Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, and Denim Day in L.A. was born.

Get Involved!

A Landmark

Last week at work we toured a really incredible local social service facility . This facility houses 5 separate agencies, working together to serve victims of family violence. There are police detectives, counselors, social workers, forensic doctors, etc., all in one place to serve victims in a way that will help minimize the trauma of the process of reporting the crimes committed against them. There were 7 of us from the shelter and we were able to ask questions and to find new resources to provide to our clients.

Since no victims were present, we were able to go in and look around the on-site forensic medical facility where they examine victims of abuse and sexual assault.

The moment I walked in, the energy in there shook my insides.

There was so much fear and pain and despair in that place; it hit me like a shock wave and I immediately wanted to leave. I wondered if any of my co-workers were feeling the same, but no one was showing any obvious signs of it. We were shown the various offices and amenities and then we came to an exam room. No one would enter it. Our guide went inside and was explaining the high tech devices and the various methods of examination and no one could move. I then realized that I was far from alone in my feelings.

I stood there for a moment feeling all of this devastating heart-breaking energy, took a deep breath and felt these words, "This is not your pain. You do not have to fear it."

I realized that this is just another step along my journey. I have gained the ability to sympathise with and advise my clients without internalizing their grief. And now I am gaining the ability to face down fear and pain that does not belong to me so that I can help others work through it. In that moment, I felt my purpose in being in that place at that particular time and took a step. I went inside that exam room and in so doing quieted all the fear and pain swirling around me. I feel that I cannot adequately express this experience in words. It was a profound moment for me and I felt moved to share it.

I'm closer to determining my path. I find myself gathering information and looking into all of the various agencies that serve victims of family violence and the services they offer. I'm processing and pondering and praying. What my course of study will be is slowly starting to take shape. There are so many amazing options.

A Few Things...

I posted some new links in my sidebar. There is a website called Web of Friends that is looking for young adults to share their stories of dating violence as part of a new campaign to help teens. If you have ever experienced dating violence, (dating violence is not just physical abuse, it is also verbal abuse and manipulation among other things), and are comfortable telling your story, please go there and do so. You may save someones life.

I'm finally going to start research for a project I've been thinking about for a year or more. I want to prepare a presentation for young single adults on family and dating violence, especially in the various forms that are unique to my religious culture. This has nagged at me for a year, but I've put it off. It can't wait any longer. I now have a friend who I think could be a remarkable contributor, so I'm going to see if she is willing. I'll let you know how it goes.

I am looking into the various shelters and social service organizations in my area and looking for job openings...

And last but definitely not least, it's that time of year again!

I'm participating in the annual Walk to End Domestic Violence again. You are welcome to check out my page and even donate if you feel so inclined. At least check out the event and who will be served by it.

Click here for info about the 5th Annual Walk to End Domestic Violence.

Click here for my page.

Decisions, Decisions

I'm still weighing my options for school. I'm going to start at the beginning and see where I end up. I think I could serve the causes I feel the strongest about by helping the victims and the perpetrators of family violence. I especially want to help families, and as I've blogged about before, I have a gift with children. They will talk to me when no one else can get through. That's not a gift I can ignore. I was recently reading an article on one of my new favorite websites (thanks John) and thought about the kids that are living in detention facilities. It kills me. I work with kids who are living in safe and comfortable shelter and see first-hand the negative effects it has on them, so I can only imagine what is going on in the minds of children who are being held with their families in a place they cannot leave. Children need to be empowered in order to grow up with the ability to succeed and influence the world for good. When they are forced to live for weeks, months, or even years in places where their power has been taken, they will try to find ways to get that power back for the rest of their lives. And their methods may be destructive.

Help Stop Canada's Annual Baby Seal Massacre

I watched this and cried. If you have a problem with baby seals being clubbed to death for sport and "fashion," please go to www.peta.org and get involved. You can send a message to the Canadian Prime Minister and urge him to put an end to this vile tradition. Watch the video, who knows, it might actually affect you enough to help you change the world.