Feeling a SPRING in my step today!

Have you ever felt like you've been slogging away at a task for so long that it's what you dream night mare about at night and it's what is first on your mind when you wake up...or you find your mind wandering back to it when in the midst of a conversation...you feel guilty when you're not working on it...it's invigorating but exhausting at the same time and you find yourself sighing a lot...and mostly you feel weighed down by self doubt that you can actually accomplish the task at all?


That's how I felt...until about 10 am this morning! When I went to the printer's and dropped off my Task. 


Then I went with a friend to discover a garden that is just starting to wake up from it's winter snooze. It's like I'm the one just waking up...

Green

1st week of Lent, story #1

So the act.s relentless acts of justice story of the week can be read here.

I've been thinking of Sylvie and her children today. I wondered what time they got up and when they got to work. I am especially moved when I hear that children want to go to school, dream about going to school, and they can't. Children should go to school.

So this week, for the focus on 'worthless', I am trying the living more simply idea by not purchasing anything that is not needed for basic survival. I will not buy coffee or meals out. I will make do with what is in my fridge. I know my fridge is way more than Sylvie and her children see in a long stretch of time. So it is a little step only. I will also be thinking of Sylvie each day.

Lent- Day #3

After listing all the privileges I have and thinking about how I might be led to some discomfort in order to enter into stories of injustice around the world, now I am challenged to start a journal and set some goals.

1. LEARN How to give in practical ways, without the giving further separating me from the receiver. ( the rich being generous to the poor) How do I give without creating division or in-equality to the friendship? How to still be equals in friendship even though I am the one with the ability/means to give.

2. LEARN How to "act justly" in the wealthy city of Vancouver. How does this action come naturally, and not just "charity" that I do from time to time?

3. CHANGE my attitude related to having diabetes. Change from thinking that it is a burden, an injustice. Think about how many people with diabetes simply die because they do not have what I have. Realize how blessed I am.

Read today's full instructions here. Go to day three.

These pictures are from the summer of 1993. But recently this village has been fresh on my mind. These people are still teaching me.

These girls are teaching me to not take my showers, my kitchen sink, and my indoor plumbing for granted.

This 80 year old farmer is teaching me to be thankful for my hose to water my garden and  thankful for the local grocer to supply my family's food if the rains don't water my garden. (This picture was taken with him running for joy under the water that for the very first time was being piped from the water source to his farm.  He no longer needed to be dependant on the scarce rains to supply his family farm with water.)

She is teaching me to be oh so thankful for my washing machine. She is washing my clothes in the river by beating them on rocks. During Lent, I will not complain about having to do my laundry, thanks to the memory this picture brings.

Instead of thinking that giving up something for Lent means I will be living somewhat deprived, I am seeing how this is instead bringing some rich colour into my life.