Hello Friends, It’s Been a While

I am not entirely certain how 4 months can slip by like it was a few hours, but that’s what it feels like right now. And despite posting nothing for FOUR ENTIRE MONTHS, I have actually still had some people looking at my website, which makes me feel slightly pleased but embarrassed at the same time. (The latter for lack of new posts.) There came a point in my mind where I decided to stop apologizing for not posting – being as no one is paying to see my thoughts, getting nothing for no money is getting your money’s worth. However, I still feel a sense of commitment to this blog and those who care to read it. An explanation seemed in order. So with that in mind, let’s explore what things I’ve done since mid-January.

I worked, full-time. Usually a couple hours over that actually. This is not exciting, but 40+ hours a week is a real time commitment, second only to sleeping.

I have been leading a women’s small group in my apartment, which loosely focuses on prayer. This began last fall, but continues to be part of my schedule. It generally meets once a week, but that’s somewhat flexible based on holidays and working around everyone’s schedules. I love this. I cannot begin to say how much. But in addition to the night we meet, I take a couple hours-ish to prepare. This is a commitment.

I was part of a women’s study through my church on One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. In fact, I sort of helped lead it. It was a very enlightening perspective on thankfulness, and I recommend it if you can adapt to her poetic style. This was a commitment for me, both in preparation and meetings.

I went on a family vacation to Florida. Six days of mid-80’s while Minnesota was in the 50’s. It was delightful. Pool & hot tub were enjoyed, as well as lots of solid time with my niece. She is growing fast, getting teeth, and toddling around (but not solo yet). She likes looking at books and trying to get Cheerios into her mouth. Have I mentioned I love her dearly? (Oh, and the rest of my immediate family was there too, and I love them also.)

Beach Sunset in Florida, USA

I celebrated another birthday. It was not especially eventful, since my “milestone birthdays” are basically past until middle age. However I can now say I am in my “early/mid-twenties”, which is weird, because I expected to feel like a “real adult” by now. Maybe by 30…

We also celebrated my dad’s birthday. Really at both parties, the focus was on my niece, and no one minded. Such is life.

I helped a friend move. She and her husband bought a house, and I was able to do some packing as well as carrying and hauling. (Some other friends moved too, but I wasn’t around for that one. I owe you.)

I went to a weekend women’s conference with my mom and sister. It was called “Your Beautiful Purpose”, and Susie Larson was the main speaker. She is wonderful by the way, I recommend her. She’s funny, encouraging, energetic, and she really knows God’s word. She has a lot of wisdom and blessing to share.

I spent weekends visiting friends, my parents, and other family members, including grandparents and my sister’s family. Obvious you can guess by now that seeing my niece is always the highlight of the time, when applicable. Getting to see both of my grandmas yesterday for mother’s day was lovely though, I am so blessed by both of them & my mom.

I have found various home-y touches for my apartment. This is more of a general time thing, since I probably make a trip to Target (or somewhere) every week. The latest addition is two teal Adirondack chairs for my balcony, and basil, mint, and purple cone flowers which I’ve potted. Not necessarily a time commitment, more like a record of time spent.

I could go on for a while, but that isn’t the point of this blog. If I wanted to give the internet a play-by-play of my life, I’d get Instagram/Twitter/other social media. This is more of an explanation for my prolonged absence, something I never intended at the time. One of life’s small disappointments for me is when a blog I deeply enjoy stops posting, made worse if I don’t know if they’ve stopped permanently or not.

All that explaining aside, I have spent a bit of time thinking if I want to continue blogging: clearly it’s less of a priority than it used to be. The answer is, I don’t know.

I started this blog originally to share my time in Europe with those I’d left in the US. Then I kept blogging, because I realized I love to write, and it was a great creative outlet for me. However, as my life in the city I moved to almost a year ago continues growing, and my involvement at church slowly grows, and time driving to see family grows, blogging has gotten smaller and smaller in my mind. Now, instead of thinking of what to blog about, I am thinking about what to prepare for small group. As much as I want to hang on, because I love this space and all the time I’ve spent here, I am wondering if I have come to the end of this time.

Here is where I leave you. I may or I may not post again, I don’t know the answer yet. If I do continue writing, it will be less often – whatever that means. If I do not, let me only say I have enjoyed spending time with you all, even the ones I’ve never met. I hope you have gotten something out of this, I know I have.

As always, thanks for reading.

My View of Feminism

I’ve somehow made the decision to get into my beliefs about both feminism and Christianity, and how I believe they don’t need to be mutually exclusive. (See my last post here.) That is to say, I believe a person can be both a feminist and a Christian. I feel the need to spell this out, because I have gotten some strange looks from people when they find out I support both. If you’ve been reading my posts, you know pretty well that I’m a Christian and what I believe about some related subjects. However, I’ve spent very little time on my thoughts about feminism, so I figured maybe I can clarify a few things about my personal stance.

Taken in Spain

What is feminism?

According to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary app on my smart phone, feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities”; also, “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. Note that it doesn’t mention specific views on any issues, nor does it require bra-burning or “man-hating”. So really, feminism is a more general word than many people think.

Who do I think a feminist is?

It’s someone who believes women should get paid the same wage for the same work. Someone who believes women should be represented in politics and allowed to vote. Someone who believes women should be able to get an education. Someone who believes women should be allowed to support themselves and/or their families by working as high-up a job as they can. Someone who sees the disproportionate amount of violence against women and wants to change it for the better*. Someone who sees women portrayed as sexual objects all too often in the media, and wants to change that for the better, too.

That is what I think of when I think about feminism. Those ideas are a few of the basics; they are MY basics. And if you look at that list, it isn’t all that crazy. Does it cover every issue under the feminism spectrum? Nope, it doesn’t. And that is allowed. A feminist does not have to have a particular stance on every possible women’s issue in order to support some women’s issues.

Something I feel is obvious, but needs to be pointed out nonetheless, is that the feminist label can mean many things. I think many people assume that all feminists are in the extremes, and that all feminists agree on every issue. In reality, those aren’t assumptions you should make: some people may be only slightly feminist, and all feminists don’t necessarily agree on any given issue. So in a practical sense, knowing that I associate with feminism doesn’t actually mean you know all my beliefs and what I do or don’t support.

What really kills me is when WOMEN tell me they don’t support feminism at all. One woman who told me this deeply appreciates her right to vote – which feminists fought for, and won less than a century ago in the USA. And every woman I know expects to get paid the same salary as their male co-workers with the same job – this is something feminists are still fighting for in many sectors. These basic rights are easy to take for granted as a woman, because the younger generation doesn’t know what it’s like to live without them. But in my mind, the work isn’t done yet, and that’s why we can’t write off feminism. That’s why I call myself a feminist.

~

More posts to come soon, some still related to feminism. As a side note, THIS  IS MY 100TH BLOG POST!! It doesn’t seem like very long ago that I was trying to decide on a blog name and layout. And yet, a lot has happened since then. A couple blog re-designs and a handful of countries later, here we are. There are some people that have been following me since the beginning, and I thank them for their loyalty. There are also people who have started following me more recently, and I also thank them for giving me a chance. As inconsistent a blogger as I am, I love it. It was a relief when I realized being creative didn’t need to mean oil paintings, cross stitching, or an apartment full of Pinterest projects (all of which I respect and none of which I have enough patience to do consistently). A little part of me gets displayed with every word I publish, and I thank all of you who witness it. There’s something special there.

~

*See this link for sexual assault statistics and information on the RAINN website. There is also a hotline if you have been involved in a sexual assault and need help or want to talk to someone. You are not alone.

Reaction: Why You Should be a Christian Feminist

I’ve mentioned feminism a couple times before, but I really haven’t gone into it much. I have my reasons for that. When you take two subjects that alone are already fairly controversial, (see blog post title), it can be very difficult to talk about them together without offending everyone on both sides. I am afraid that instead of showing people my point of view, and gaining some understanding of my beliefs, I would turn absolutely everyone against me. My first draft of this post got to three pages long, and I realized I was over-explaining everything at once which was really confusing. It reminded me how important both subjects are to me, and I don’t want to present them without some substantial reflection. (So that all may become another future post, but not yet. Being clear and concise is key here.)

So I am treading lightly for good reason.

A couple days ago, I happened across an article. And I read it, and I thought, “Maybe this would be a good introduction to people wondering how one person can talk about two socially/politically charged subjects together that don’t seem to match up”. So if you are looking for general insights as to how being a Christian and being a feminist could ever align, read this article from Relevant Magazine.

It’s just the beginning, very basic. It skims the surface. But it does bring up the fact that there are issues that overlap for the people who find themselves in both groups. Justice in particular seems to be something that unites the sides. But actually, the most important conclusion is that Christianity (traditionally conservative) and feminism (traditionally liberal) don’t need to be on opposite sides. In fact, in certain things they complement each other, and one person could certainly associate with both groups. That is basically what I am hoping to point out. I didn’t feel the article was extremely convincing, compared to the bold title it boasts. To me it felt more informational than persuasive, and I definitely feel there is a persuasive case that could be made. But I do feel the article encourages you to re-examine feminism if you are a Christian, and that feminism may not mean what you think it does. I also liked the hints that not all feminists need be in the extremes.

~

There isn’t enough room in this post for me to start spilling my ideas, at least not now. I could hash over what was and wasn’t brought up in the article, but I have way too much to say to even begin. I hope to expand on “all my crazy ideas” soon, so hopefully that will happen. I think this is the beginning of a few related posts, so if it feels incomplete, don’t worry because there’s more on the way.

I’ve had a crazy holiday season (per my usual) so I hope to come back to writing again occasionally now that things have calmed down a bit. I hope you had a great Christmas & New Year’s, and as always, thanks for reading. WIthout you, I’d just be talking to myself. 🙂

Living the Apartment Life

There’s a special date coming up this week, which probably no one is aware of but me. This week marks my first six months of living in my first apartment. I was nervous, excited, eager, and uncertain when I first moved here. I’d lived alone in a dorm for a year in college, but with friends right next door; it was all rolled into “the college experience”. But now? This is REAL LIFE. Paying rent, paying utility bills, figuring out your vacation and benefits at a REAL full-time job. Basically, it’s what I’ve envisioned as the true start to adulthood for my whole life up until this point. (I don’t necessarily feel as old as I thought I would.)

Taken in Valencia, Spain

You may not have come to this point in life. Or you may have been at this point years ago. But either way, I have been collecting some life lessons, and I’m going to share them with you. Perhaps they’ll help you, or perhaps they’ll bring to mind memories of your own “first place”. Take them as you will.

My Apartment Living Advice:

1 – Balance discipline (have-to-do-things) with fun (want-to-do-things). It’s tricky but worth it.

2 – Get out of the house every day. Anywhere.

3 – Budget. It feels awful at first, but really brings peace of mind.

4 – Social time and alone time are both good. Find YOUR balance.

5 – Don’t buy more groceries than you can carry up two flights of stairs in one trip. Alternatively, buying too many groceries and still only taking one trip up the stairs is a great way to strength train.

6 – Act on your whims occasionally. The ability to be totally spontaneous & eat meals at weird times is a benefit of having your own place.

7a – Don’t be afraid to say no to plans & invitations. If you are exhausted, or swamped, or sick, take care of what you need to do: other plans will come up in the future.

7b – Don’t be afraid to say yes to plans & invitations. Step out of your comfort zone and take advantage of your chances to meet new people, get to know your town, and do something fun.

8 – Ice cream actually can get old. Freezer burn is real.

9 – Try to spend more time reading than watching TV. Books. A newspaper. The web.

10 – Experiment with food. Cooking is a life-skill you won’t regret learning.

All of the advice aside, the most interesting thing has been learning more about who I am. I have more freedom and responsibility than I’ve ever had. I have more time by myself, and I have more work to do.

I am the person who most influences me.

Maybe that’s always been true, and it just took me until now to realize it. But my last piece of advice? Never waste an opportunity to learn more about who you are.

Advent & Waiting

Thanksgiving is over, which basically means…it’s time for Christmas. I’m talking for me, personally. I like Christmas music, but I refuse to listen to it before Thanksgiving; really, that is my general opinion on all things Christmas.

So, being as it’s the first week in December, it’s time to jump in with both feet.

I have finished the majority of my shopping, decorated at more places than ever before (including doing my own apartment twice), and already bought myself a new Christmas cd which I’ve added to my “Christmas” playlist (which I may or may not be listening to right this moment).

Bring. On. The. Christmas. Because I’m ready for it.

My first Christmas tree!

 

But for some reason the other day, I got to thinking about Advent. For those uninformed, it’s a part of the calendar in certain churches. Different things are celebrated at different times, and the 4 Sundays before Christmas is the time known as “advent”. At my church growing up, there was a special wreath for it with four big blue candles: one candle would be lit the first Sunday, two candles the second Sunday, and so on. The white candle in the middle of the wreath would be lit on Christmas day. Someone had taken great care to make the wreath look beautiful, and I always appreciated that.

During the Sundays of advent, it’s pretty common to talk about John the Baptist: his conception, his recognition of Jesus from the womb, and how he prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry when he got older. There are usually also some readings from the Old Testament that speak about the coming Messiah, the anticipated king for the Jewish people. It is really, really easy to skip over stuff from the Old Testament. It’s really long and it has a lot of genealogies that seem irrelevant and make it feel even longer. And it can be extremely tempting to feel like it doesn’t matter any more, because Jesus has already been here. But what if we didn’t skip that part? What if we pretended we didn’t already know the ending?

Imagine for a moment you have the Bible in your hands, but it is not the Bible as you know it now. Imagine the Bible as ONLY the Old Testament. Look at the story of God’s people – imagine you ARE one of those people. You know there is a God, and you know He is good. He gave you rules so you could keep yourself pure, but there are so many you can’t remember them all, much less follow them all. And this is a stressful thing to you, because you want to know God and have his blessings. All you can really do is bring your offerings to the temple and hope God will have mercy on you. Some prophets have talked about someone to come, a savior, but you don’t really know what that means or when it will happen. Bring more offerings. Try to hope. Offerings. Hope.

The people of the Old Testament did not have an easy time of it; they were hoping in God, but not yet sure what specifically to hope for. All they could do was follow the rules as best they could and blindly trust in God’s mercy and goodness. If this is your mindset, if this is how you live your life, can you imagine how amazing it must have been to hear Jesus had come? The time is now – we have our king! Our long-awaited king is with us! We can stop wondering what it will be like, because HE IS HERE.

In our modern world, 2,000 years after Jesus walked the earth, I think it’s all too easy to forget the real Advent. Advent was longer than the four weeks before Christmas, and it was longer than the life of John the Baptist. God’s people waited hundreds, thousands of years for the One sent from God who could rescue them from their sin. And as we live on the other side of Jesus’ coming, let’s not forget what an amazing thing that was. Let’s not lose sight of the amazement and awe felt about 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born – AKA Emmanuel, “God with us”.

This December, try not to jump right into Christmas from Thanksgiving. Don’t take Jesus’ presence on this earth for granted: it was a long anticipated arrival, with overwhelming joy and unseen hope finally seen in the flesh. Advent is about hope being realized – almost, but not quite yet.

Fall Photo Adventures – #3 – Bonus

You may or may not have seen my first fall post or my second fall post, which had some fun pictures of autumn in my town. Check them out if you haven’t.

This is a bonus fall post – mostly because it is only sort of related to the first two posts. I was out taking pictures, doing my thing. And then I come across these strange woven wicker globes out in one of the parks. And I still have zero idea why they’re there or what they’re for, but I took pictures of them hanging in the trees.

And without further ado, here they are; they were taken on two different days.

First, black & white.

 

 

 

And now, some color.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Saturday! Thanks for following along! 🙂

Fall Photo Adventures – #2

You may or may not have seen my first post matching this heading – find it here.

And, continuing onward.

I live in a river town, so some of my fall photos were taken at a park down by the river. So what I’ll be sharing with you in this post is all river-related. I’ve been waiting for the “right time” to post these…they’re predicting somewhere between 5-12″ of snow for my town tomorrow, so I sort of figured now would be good. November is still basically a fall month in my head though, so regardless of actual snow outcome, there may yet be some more “fall type posting” going on through Thanksgiving.

Hope you enjoy.

(If you’re viewing on a larger screen, click on a picture to see it full sized. No editing was done to these pictures, beyond taking a few in black & white or sepia. The lighting varies because the pictures were taken on multiple days.)

 

Hope you are enjoying fall weather, wherever you are. Take advantage before winter hits. 🙂 As always, thanks for reading!

On Carrying Burdens

Have you ever gotten stuck listening to someone complain about something?

Most likely, you are more of acquaintances than best friends, and after listening for a few minutes you realize you don’t care in the least what they’re talking about. As they continue to whine, thoughts start in your head of all the other, better things you could be doing right now. And eventually you’re considering how long you have to stand there nodding at them before it’s socially acceptable to excuse yourself.

I can say, I have been there. I think we probably all can think of a time when that happened. Here’s the deal though: when that’s our mindset, we’re going about it totally wrong. Yes, we have all been stuck listening to someone’s bad day, but I am convinced we have all been on the other side of it, too. We have all been the one having a tough day, just looking for someone to talk to about it. Put yourself in that person’s shoes. How much difference does it make if someone is there to listen? The difference can be enormous.

Telling others about the things that weigh us down somehow helps ease that weight; two people carrying a heavy load instead of one means half as much work for each. But for that to happen someone has to be willing to hear you.

As the person listening, it isn’t always easy. Sometimes the timing seems inconvenient, because you were in the middle of something else or you had other plans. Sometimes it means feeling uncomfortable, because there isn’t an easy answer to the problem. Sometimes you feel awkward simply because you may not feel you know the person very well. But I believe one thing we are supposed to do is carry each other’s burdens. Sometimes it’s small things, sometimes larger ones, but that person might need you. Do you want a straightforward way of loving the people around you? Make yourself available to listen to them with compassion and kindness.

I have many wonderful friends. They laugh with me, watch movies with me. They spend hours on the phone with me. They remember my birthday. They lend me books. They teach me how to make jewelry and proper make-up technique. They give me their honest opinion.

They pray with me, and even for me sometimes when I lack the words.

And they listen to me.

They carry my burdens.

Friends, (& family), you bless me. Thankfulness for you has been on my mind. Your presence in my life is not an accident and I am so glad to say I know you. Your willingness to take some of the weight off of me when I need it does not go unnoticed, and I hope I do the same for you.

I want to keep getting better at helping others carry their burdens, and having a soft heart when someone needs to talk to me. Sharing only the fun, easy, joyful parts of others’ lives doesn’t often foster deep relationships. It might seem difficult or messy to get involved in someone’s drama, disappointment, or heartache. However, it is also a blessing and a privilege to share others’ pain, because willing vulnerability conveys and builds trust.  As you help them heal, you may also find yourself growing.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

– Galations 6:2

Fall Photo Adventures – #1

I am not a person who believes in spelling things incorrectly on purpose, so if you were expecting me to say “Fall Fotos” or “Phall Photos”…sorry, but I’m not sorry. Spelling is fun! (Not ‘phun’.)

Anyways, fall seems to be the season that makes me turn into a wanna-be photographer. Spring is mostly rain and mud, and during the winter I get concerned about my camera freezing up. In the summer, I’m too hot to spend extra time outside when it’s 90 and humid. Fall not only has lovely temperatures, with usually less rain than spring, but it’s also the time where leaves turn those brilliant shades of red, orange, and gold. Right now as I sit typing, I can see the lovely yellow* out my window:

The wonderful sunshine we’ve been having is evident. So, since I’ve been taking some pictures, I thought I might share a few with you. I actually have taken quite a few, so this post focuses on leaves. They were taken at a few different spots, but all of them in town, somewhere. At parks, along the river…and in yards of people I don’t know. (Front yards…I walked quickly. It is amazing how self-conscious you are of a camera when a police car drives past you, even though you’re on the sidewalk, doing nothing wrong.)

Here is the first batch, starting with the singles…

…and moving onto lots of leaves.

I love looking for the beauty in the seasons. I firmly believe life is in the details, the little things, the glimpses, the moments. These are my efforts to pause for a second, take note, and enjoy, before time pulls me along to the next thing in my busy life.

Thanks for reading, I hope to post more soon. 🙂

 

*You may or may not know this, but I really dislike yellow. Fall leaves are one of my exceptions, along with sunflowers and pineapple.

Reaction: The Screwtape Letters

People have been telling me to read The Screwtape Letters (“TSL”) by C.S. Lewis for years. So this past summer I picked up a cheap copy at a used book sale, and a couple months later I finally got around to actually reading it.

 

Image taken from Amazon.com

Absolutely amazing.

I was already a fan of C.S. Lewis’ from reading (and loving) his Mere Christianity – because I really enjoy the books that make you think. That being said, I loved TSL because it was also a thinking-style book. What makes TSL brilliant is that it’s from the opposite perspective. Instead of directly telling you advice on how to live a Christian life, Lewis writes on things that trip us up or slow us down, from the perspective of demons. These demons want us to fail, and are happily willing to help us down the comfortable road to hell. You might call this a book which uses “reverse psychology” in order to encourage perseverance in right living.

The book itself consists of letters from an older demon to a younger demon. The overarching idea of the book is instruction on the tactics demons use to tempt human beings away from faith and righteous living, demonstrated on a certain human referred to only as “the patient”. Lewis effortlessly interweaves many ideas that might be floating around hell, so many that it was really difficult to distinguish between them at times. Whether or not any demon shares any information with any other demons may be debatable, but if they did, I would imagine it might be close to what was written here.

As far as my experience reading the book, it varied between multiple contrasting feelings. Primarily, it was convicting at times. As you go from letter to letter reading all the ways we can mess up our lives, at times it felt like going down a check list: “Yep, done that, done that, still do that…” So that was difficult, yet sometimes looking at our lives from a totally different view is exactly what we need. Following feeling convicted was feeling a bit discouraged: the demons seem to have an answer to everything. The patient gets to church, so they keep him uninvolved. The patient gets better friends, so they make him feel superior to those outside the group. The patient falls in love, so they make him feel the positives about the relationship strongly and ignore any negatives. In that sense, it was a stark reminder that evil never sleeps.

But if that was all I felt while reading the book, I would not have liked it very much. I think Lewis wrote that way to spur us on, to wake us from lethargy. Yet he also seemed very aware that we very much need hope, and that was interwoven right alongside the conviction. At key times when the demons seem particularly pleased about how things are going, they are stopped in their tracks. For all the work and time they put into screwing people to hell, God, (who they refer to as the Enemy), can step in to help the patient at any time. Their work does not hinder God’s work, which was very comforting; their power is not greater than his, which is a huge frustration to them. The demons are also incapable of understanding love, especially unconditional love. This was not an idea that had ever occurred to me, but I think an argument could be made for it. This lack of understanding is obviously a huge weakness for evil, as it is such a large part of who God is.

The version of the book that I picked up included two prefaces (1941 & 1960) written by Lewis, and one of the questions he addressed was whether there would ever be a sequel to TSL. Lewis says he “never wrote with less enjoyment”, owing to the fact that to write from the perspective of a devil/demon, you have to put yourself into their mindset. While the writing came easily, it wasn’t pleasant. I enjoyed the book, but I can understand his reluctance. And yet Lewis’ talent is made apparent here, since it was first published in 1942 yet remains a title people recognize.

Overall, I highly recommend reading TSL. The subject matter of demons may intimidate some, yet the style of the book isn’t overly creepy or scary. It does not read like a Hollywood horror movie, but promotes self-reflection on how to live your life, even with a bit of humor at times. It was well thought out, well written, and is certainly worth the time. (I intend to read it multiple times more, because I feel like there was a lot I missed.) Lewis writes in the preface, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” This book nicely balances between the two extremes, and I hope it continues to be a starting point to thought in decades to come.

—

If any ideas from this post upset you or make you have questions, I’d love to chat about them. Comment on the post, or shoot me an email – you can find it on my “About” tab at the top of the page.