We hiked down to this spot at Lily Point in Point Roberts, WA yesterday. Sometimes I am amazed at how close paradise really is.
Question: Where do you go to get away from it all?
Tags: Point Roberts, Washington, Lily Point, getting away
I wish somebody would have said this to me at my weakest point …
3 Sep
“Homeless girl” remains anonymous, but writes to put a new face on homelessness. In effect, her own story helps us understand some of the realities behind the men, women and teenagers, we see on our streets.
“Homeless girl” became homeless on May 18, 2007. ”The best analogy I can give is, it was like a snowball,” she says. “It started small until I couldn’t control it anymore. I have been kicked out of various houses and slept on the street but I haven’t lost my hope.” While she is not “technically” homeless any more, she now writes to raise awareness and understanding of homelessness. Her story has turned her into an activist.
Yesterday she wrote this post: You are not a “bum,” you are a person,” saying it might be the most important post she will ever write.
“I wish somebody would have said this to me at my weakest point,” she adds. Her words are beautiful and a true lesson in Grace for every one of us.
Homeless girl writes:
“You are not your circumstances and you are not your mistakes.
You are not the choices you made or the decisions you would change.
You are not a bum, you are a person.
You are not the missed bills or the late payments.
You are not what your mother said or what your father did.
You are not a bum, you are a person.
You are not the needle marks in your arm or the medication in your pocket.
You are not the one more drink you said you wouldn’t have.
You are not a bum, you are a person.
You are not the things you’ve had to do to survive.
You are not the night you slept on the street.
You are not a bum you are a person.
You are not the names they yell as you pass by.
You are not what they see you as in their eye.
You are not a bum, you are a person.
We all have the same 24 hours and we all have one life.
You are not hopeless.
You are not ignored and you are not invisible.”
Follow her blog at thehomelessgirl.com
Question: What do you wish someone said to you at your lowest point?
Tags: Poverty, Homelessness, Homeless
Human Trafficking: What will we tell History?
2 Sep
The United Nations launched a Global Plan of Action against human trafficking yesterday. What really got my attention, however, is this remark by General Assembly President Ali Treki (emphasis added):
“As this heinous crime flourishes, thousands of men, women and children are robbed of their safety, their freedom and their dignity. Human trafficking devastates families and tears communities apart. When the history of this horror calls, we cannot let this period be remembered as one in which the global community knew but did not act.”
Read the full announcement here: United Nations launches global plan of action against human trafficking.
Tags: women, Anti Trafficking
On the Ground, into the Heart of Sexual Violence in the Congo
31 Aug
She went from Colorado College graduate to volunteer rape crisis counselor in Chicago to stepping into her bigger story: entering the dark world for women in the Congo. Now Amy Ernst is even guest blogging for The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof at On the Ground.
Honestly, I can’t quite imagine the pressure of knowing you have to write and submit a piece to Pulitzer Prize-winning Nick Kristoff (but bring it on!) Yesterday Amy Ernst did it beautifully. The women and the story of the Congo is so close to my heart already and with her piece: Notes from a young American in Congo: Rape continues Amy brings the Congo headlines and rape statistics close. We get to step right into the room with her where she conducts the interviews … and meet these beautiful women with such profound stories.
Here’s an excerpt from her On the Ground post:
“C’est ca,” as everyone says here. That’s how it is.
When the 20 year-old woman sitting in front of me tells me her story, what I notice most are the frills on her white shirt. “It was seven soldiers who kept me in the forest for four days and raped me,” she says.
Her name is Joan. As she tells me what happened, she says the words without looking at me, and I can see that she is working hard not to cry. Joan explains that she was with three “mothers,” during those four days. She was 17 at the time, and now has a three year-old son. Her nostrils flare, and she stares at the ceiling as she answers my questions. Asking how many soldiers is a question I despise, but having interviewed several girls before Joan, I know the question is necessary.
Her story is not new to me. I’m doing “identification” for COPERMA, a small Congolese organization trying to help the multiplying victims of violence, including rape, in North Kivu, a province along Lake Kivu in Eastern Congo. As the soldiers move through the region, they leave thousands without homes, without food, and many people, regardless of age or sex, with the horror of rape in their minds. “The soldiers shot my father and stole all of our things,” Joan continues.
Read the rest of the story here.
Image by Amy Ernst via On the Ground.
Tags: Africa, Violence Against Women, Amy Ernst, On the Ground, Congo, DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo, rape, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eastern Congo, North Kivu, The New York Times
Where the Soul resides
31 Aug
Setting up camp here today:
Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is rather like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home. –By Abraham Joshua Heschel
Source: The Wisdom of Heschel
via Prayer: the Soul’s Residence | Inward/Outward.
A soul in prayer, then, is a soul at home?
Question: When or where is your soul most at home?
Tags: Abraham Heschel, Christianity, God, Prayer, Religion and Spirituality, soul
SheLoves Magazine
26 Aug
I’m a little excited. In May we pretty much accomplished a small miracle, launching the sheloves magazine site at LifeWomen conference. We had it up and running in a matter of two weeks, during which I also took a 10-day trip to Kenya.
Soon after we launched, however, I realized we wouldn’t be able to sustain the magazine “look.” We took a summer hiatus and decided to go blog format, so we can update frequently and easily. The vision is still the same: to tell the stories of where God’s girls are rising up to be part of solution on the earth. Or, we like to find stories that may answer the question: Where is the Love?
Check it out: SheLoves Magazine. We also invite your contributions and story ideas, of course. There’s a lotta Love that needs to be spread.
PS: This morning at 6am we will also be featured on The Relate Show on JoyTV Channel 10 in Vancouver.
The Journey: A Lesson in Pure Joy
24 Aug
Two weeks ago Linwood House Ministries held a summertime Journey, a three-day retreat for women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. This time their theme was “summer vacation.”
“We packed everything we could think of that said ‘vacation’ into three days–reading, napping, nature, a trip to the local movie theatre, the creation of memory boxes to capture all of the great moments, a bbq, and even an impromptu birthday party,” writes Sue Todd. “But I think the best memory for everyone was our day at the beach.”
I think this picture says it all. Makes my toes curl, I love it so much.
Do yourself a favour and read the rest of the story here.
Tags: Downtown Eastside, journey, Linwood House, Linwood House Ministries, summer, women
Not a manifesto, just a list of 10 things I’ve learned lately | Marianne Elliott
23 Aug
I love this list by Zen peacekeeper, change-maker, human rights activist and twitter friend Marianne Elliott:
Not a manifesto, just a list of 10 things I’ve learned lately | Marianne Elliott.
She mentions vanilla rooibos, after all.
Linwood House Art Experience 2010: September 19
23 Aug
This is one of my favourite events every year. I have marked my calendar.
Check out the Linwood House Ministries website for more info.
Tags: Linwood House, Linwood House Ministries, Art Experience, Art Show, Sunshine Coast
Thin Places by Mary E. DeMuth
19 Aug
Mary DeMuth already had me at her first two paragraphs of Thin Places: A Memoir:
“Growing up, I find myself housed in a scrawny sort of body–legs thin as broomsticks, interrupted by knees so knobby they bang into each other when I walk. My doctor makes me drink whole milk so I’ll fatten up. Kids use words like rail, string bean, or stick to describe me.
I, myself, am a thin place.”
Stunning.
I savored the rest of the book, taking great care in between my mommy days to enjoy the raw words, honest stories and beautiful writing. Mary retraces her life and highlights the thin places–the places where she meets God and experiences God most intimately–often and especially in moments of deep pain and shame. She gets naked on the page, so we may find redemption in her story. She does it beautifully.
It’s a tender book. Perhaps how we should feel when we honestly share our stories.
Thank you, Mary, for pouring out your feminine heart. Your honesty and craftsmanship turned this book into a thin place for me.
Tags: women, books, Mary E. DeMuth, Thin Places, Review
