We pray for peace

Matthew and I have been reading the book Practicing Peace: A Devotional Walk Through the Quaker Tradition by Catherine Whitmire.  The book has a compelling introduction written by the author, and then the rest of the book is essentially a compilation of quotations from throughout the last few centuries.  I checked it out from the library, read a few chapters, and I felt in my heart that I needed to own that book.  I don't know if you've had similar feelings, but as I was reading the book, I felt inspired and empowered to be better than I currently am. I certainly couldn't absorb all of the wisdom and inspiration before returning the book!  I've been mulling through some thoughts about peace, and I think I'm ready to put some of my thoughts into words.

Reading this book has made me realize that we need to pray for peace in our world and believe that God hears our prayers and doesn't cast them aside. In one of my groups of friends in high school, I learned to have the attitude that peace will never exist in Israel because of the long-lasting, deeply-rooted conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  I have let that mentality subconsciously continue for about 10 years now, and I have only recently realized what I believe to be an error in my thinking. If I believe that God desires peace in our world and that with God all things are possible, then I have to believe that peace is possible, and I have to live like I believe it.

I also have been confronted with my own failings when it comes to peace.  How many times have I harbored such frustrated, hateful thoughts toward people?  How many relationships have I soured through my own attitude?  How many times have I argued my case (because I'm right, of course!) despite the damage that my arguing was doing?

I don't think that I have to remain silent about issues that inspire passion within me, but I do believe that I can relate to people in peaceful ways.  I have often wondered, "Why can't people discuss things?  Why can't we discuss religion and politics and issues that matter without feeling ready to attack the other person?"  I am not sure I fully know the answer, but I do know that I want to be able to have these conversations while maintaining inner peace and the peace in the relationship.  Humans are never going to all agree on pretty much anything, so must not we all work on finding a way to live together in love instead of in hate despite our differences?

I am inspired by people who patiently bring about peace in our world by being peaceful and connecting to people.

In my idealistic and romantic heart, I think that I desire for my life and home to be marked by peace.  It might be silly, but I genuinely hope that people feel peace and love in their lives when they enter our house. I haven't stopped a war, but perhaps I can start by creating peace in our home and then watch it splash out into our community.

Finally, I have come to the realization that the next time our country considers declaring another needless war, which won't be too long from now if patterns from our history continue, I hope that I will have the courage to speak against it even if my position is not popular. 

I feel like this post is lacking.  Sometimes when I write I feel my logical, mathematician self typing as my passion bubbles in my chest trying to get out.  Perhaps I will try again another day to somehow spill my bubbles onto the page.  Or perhaps you can just get your hands on a copy of Practicing Peace so that you can also be inspired by the words of many throughout the ages...

Peace be with you.

And so we vote!

I have felt compelled to write about the 2012 election a few times either on Facebook on my blog.  Each time I start typing, my words fall short of the ideas in my head, and I worry that I will add to the drivel of election season.  Heaven forbid!  Finally, as election day has arrived, I think that I have figured out the words that I wish to add to the "conversation".

We have heard over and over from opposing parties about how awful (or wonderful!) things would be if a candidate is elected this year.  The numbers have been crunched (or made up), facts (or lies/half-truths) have been brought to the voters' attention, and speeches have been made (and then taken out of context)!  I don't think that anybody can deny that election season is messy in the U.S.

So what do I want to add to all of it?  My call to unify rather than polarize.  My prayer is that we:

• Unify as a nation to face our problems and work together, taking time to consider diverse opinions, to solve them.
• Bring peace to the world.
• Use resources (monetary and planetary) wisely so as to provide a positive future for generations to come
• Face the problem of climate change and deal with human impacts responsibly.
• Be compassionate to those in need that we are able to help.
• Create policies that bring justice, social and otherwise, both in our country and the rest of the world.
• Create a food system that is safe, healthy, just, and sustainable.
• Treat all people with equal respect and rights.
• And..

Regardless of who wins any elections, I hope that our representatives in government succeed in creating a better country and a better world through their policies.  We are not electing "the lesser of two (or more) evils", we are electing one of two (or more) people.  Each person will have both talents and faults to share as he or she governs.

But if we bicker and complain and attack our candidates and then our leaders, how are we making anything better?  How can we work together after an election if we can't be civil during one?

I end with these thoughts:  Our country, and our world, is made up of citizens.  Our government has a huge amount of power, and it can make choices that largely impact individuals and the world at large.  However, while I cannot control the choices of the government, I am left with the choice about what kind of citizen I wish to be.

I can contact my representatives to let them know how I feel about different issues.  I can stay caught up with the news even between election cycles so that I can understand the array of issues better and be as well-informed as possible.  I can choose my words wisely when discussing politics; I can speak gently instead of with the grace of a battering ram.

I can share my resources with others.  I can improve my community.  I can participate in meetings of the local government.  I can make choices with others' needs in mind.  I can volunteer.

I have the power to bring beauty and love, or darkness and hate, into the world.

I want, and will work toward, good things in the world, and no election can change that.  I simply believe that I can be a more effective citizen if I am engaged, cooperating, thoughtful, concerned, and respectful instead of whiny, uncooperative, attacking, violent, and disrespectful.

And, besides my own ballot, that is my contribution to the election of 2012.

looking back, looking ahead

I think that summer usually ends a little earlier than this in our area, but this year the warm, sunny, dry days stretched from early July to mid-October.  Today it is raining, though, and I think that we are officially tumbling toward winter.  Fall and spring both fill me with the oddest emotions.  Mostly, both of these seasons send me reeling with excitement as changes abruptly happen.  Though the seasons are nearly opposite, spring and fall bring me a sense of promise for good things.  Yet, as I feel excitement and hope, I also feel a sense of loss as I realize that another season of life has passed, never to return.

First, let's celebrate the end of summer.

These are some of my very own tomatoes.  Delicious.

What a lovely creature!  It's amazing that few months ago,
this beautiful chicken was a scrawny little fuzzball.

Never in my wildest dreams growing up did I imagine harvesting
my own sunflower seeds.  

This melon grew from a seed that germinated in the worm bin.

A blue heron surveying our pond.  The warm days and lack of rain
sure has the pond water mighty low!

While I really enjoy each season, and perhaps especially so since I grew up on the coast where seasons were less distinct, I am already looking forward to next spring when I can put the first seeds in the ground and start over again.  I am really happy with all that came out of our garden this year, and I am excited to improve next year.  Plus, we have plans to radically change our gardening space for next year.  We plan to demolish half of the driveway and tear out about half of the front lawn.  In this space, we intend to build raised beds and perhaps add some fruit trees and shrubs.  We also plan to move the raised beds from the side yard and plant a little fruit orchard there instead.  One other major addition we're planning on for next year is a grape arbor in the front lawn.  It's going to be a lot of work, and I am terribly excited to dig in and see the changes.

My professional dreams and goals have also lead me to unexpected places.  While I feel more confident with my teaching every term, I am holding onto the hope that I will have a part in starting a food co-op that will eventually have the means to employ me!  In the meantime, I soak up the days when my students tell me that they appreciate me, and I work to not let student failures bring me down.  Teaching is a good job, and I really enjoy working with my students.  There is just a part of my insides with a PASSION for bring good, healthy, local food to our city, and I also feel anticipation for how a co-op could unite people in our community to do so many good things.

And this post would be simply incomplete if I didn't mention that I love being a wife, and I still eagerly anticipate being a mom someday.  I could never express enough gratitude for the way my life fell into place.  How did I end up marrying such a wonderful person?  Matthew and my dream for our life has somehow evolved simultaneously throughout our marriage.  It is perhaps not every husband who respects and appreciates both my part-time work for money and my part-time work at home to help live our lives simply, healthfully, and with respect for our fellow humans and the world.  We are partners in our mission; he works full-time at his job so that I can have the time to use my bike to get the groceries.  Thanks to my dear husband who is simply the best, and thanks to God who inspires the passion within us and delivers the joys of our lives.

CSA Weeks 17 & 18... The End!

 Week 17 provided about 15 pounds of:

• Tomatoes
• Pie pumpkins
• Kabocha squash
• Broccoli
• Potatoes
• Apples
• Sweet peppers
• Beets

Week 18 gave us 16.4 pounds of:

• Kale
• Pie pumpkin, spaghetti squash, and kabocha squash
• Pears
• Sweet potatoes
• Navy beans
• Hot peppers

I believe that this brings us to a total of 212.7 pounds of produce in 18 weeks!   It was a good 18 weeks full of a lot of food adventures and a lot of healthy food.  My one regret about this CSA is the plastic bags they package some of the food in.  It was one or two bags a week, and they used them to package lettuce or sometimes things like tomatoes.  I appreciated that they do their best by using biodegradable bags, but it still eats away at my package-free loving soul.   Mind you, I know that not all of their customer have the same passion for plastic as I do, so I understand what they do.

Next year we are considering trying a CSA that runs all year long.  Maybe I'll anticipate growing enough of our own food that we'll only get a half-share!

Paul, let's have another chat

If the Paul who wrote most of the letters in the New Testament wasn't, you know, a man from 2000 years ago, I think I'd like to invite him over to tea and have a chat.  Most recently, I have been considering, yet again, what Paul wrote about marriage.

In particular, I have been remembering the following passages from 1 Corinthians 7.  I grew up with an NIV Bible, so I'll include that translation:

Verses 8-9: Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Verse 28: But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. 

Verses 32-35: I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs — how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. 

Verse 38: So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better. 

Verse 40: In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is [single] —and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.  

You can tell that I left a lot of the verses out, but I included that ones that haunted me for awhile in high school.  At that point, I took the Bible more literally and more at face value.  I really wanted to get married someday, but these verses made it sound like if I chose to get married, then I was settling for less than the best, and I wouldn't be able to be as devoted to God.  Paul makes it sound like the only reason to get married is if you are losing control over your sexuality.  Thanks, Paul.

Now, to be fair, I think that Paul believed that Jesus was coming back and restoring order on Earth soon.  He was also writing to the Corinthians, and it seems like the city of Corinth had a little craziness occurring.  It is quite possible that Paul didn't intend to tell every Christian throughout the ages that you do okay if you marry but better if you don't.  I'd like to think that's the case.

Another interesting point about this passage is that Paul actually mentions that part of it is "in his judgment", although, he adds weight to his words by saying, "I think that I too have the Spirit of God."  Gosh, how do you argue with that?  The funny thing is, people with the Spirit of God don't always see eye-to-eye.

OK, Paul. If you are actually implying that all women today would be happier if we stay single rather than marry, then we don't see eye-to-eye.  Hear me out.

First of all, in my opinion, marriage today is largely not about sex.  Due to our terribly sexual culture, I think that sex seems like a huge part of marriage to the single Christian teens and 20s who see sex everywhere around them except in their own lives.  However, there is just so much more to marriage.  (Also, because this myth needs to be dispelled as often as possible, it is pretty unlikely that sex will be anything like that displayed in the media.  Seriously.)

I could talk awhile about all that marriage can mean.  However, I actually just want to focus on one major point that became clear to me this week.  I read the book EcoMind by Frances Moore Lappé this past week, and she mentioned one social aspect about humans that really strikes me as true.  She talked about how humans find it hard to separate from the herd and be different.  There are social consequences for being different including, but not limited to, being labeled as "weird", shunning, being looked down on, and attempts to change you to become more "normal" again.  This is why it is helpful to have some friends that agree with your desire to break away from the mold.

My relationship with Matthew helps me to break away from the mold in ways that I truly doubt that I would have if we hadn't gotten married.  In this way, I think that having my husband has helped me grow exponentially in my faith.  Since getting married, my faith has become less about nitpicking and believe that exact right thing about morality.  I no longer believe that the key to my faith is to "be in the Bible and prayer each day".  It's not that I don't believe that those two things are important, and I do continue to do both of those things daily.  However, I was stuck in a rut because I was missing all of the other things that my faith was supposed to lead to.

I'm not saying that we don't still have room for vast improvement, but our faith together as a married couple has lead us to an understanding that our faith is less about being individualistic and focusing on ourselves and more about pouring God's love on everyone around us.  It has helped us to collaborate and cooperate to change our lifestyle to be more closely aligned with our vision for how our world should be: fair, equitable, beautiful, sustainable, and filled with the goodness of God.

I think that my marriage has made me open to change and filled with the belief that change is possible and I can be part of it.  Matthew and I spend hours each week discussing our community, our country, and our world.  We try to spur each other into doing our part in each of these areas, and we learn more and more about things we can do.

So, Paul, I hope that you can see that Matthew and I use each other to be stronger in our commitment to God.  Our goal in life isn't to please each other; instead our home is the first place for us to practice loving people and putting others' needs above our own.  I do not believe that our interests are generally divided and that we are less devoted to God due to our devotion to each other.  Rather, I honestly believe God views us as a team empowered by each member, and I think He uses us as such.

CSA Weeks 15 & 16

 Week 15 brought 15.4 pounds of:

• pie pumpkin/ornamental squash
• lettuce
• melon
• apples
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• eggplant
• beets

I was baking the day I picked up Week 15's share, so I had to take the picture on another part of the counter space.  It was Matthew's birthday that day, so I moved baking day up to Wednesday instead of Thursday.  We needed to have some cake!  

Week 16 brought 15.2 pounds of:

• Spaghetti squash
• Cabbage
• Jester squash
• Apples
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Sweet peppers

I have to say that I think that Week 16's picture might be one of the prettiest.  I love all of the colors...

Pretty Pretty Placemats

I started making placemats back in May, and I finally finished!  I love how colorful they turned out!

I think I might make two more placemats for when we have guests (any more than six people, and I guess we're throwing a bed sheet across the table!!!), but the next two I think I'm going to just have vertical stripes.