The Gifts of 2009!!!

Instead of posting photos over several days, I put this video together. Thank you all for sharing with me a wonderful, incredible, beautiful year!

(And thank you to Adria for giving me this idea and for showing me how to do it!)

THE 365-09 BLOG CHALLENGE IS NOW COMPLETE!!! YAY!!!

365-09 #365!

Celebrating 2009 - Part 1

As a special ending to the 365-09 blog challenge where I had to write something everyday, (more or less), I am celebrating completing the challenge by a picture review over several posts of the highlights of the year. Of course, not everything precious to me has a photo but these definitely cover some of the best moments I’ve shared; thank you to all those who have been a part of it. Quite honestly, I must tell you it is the best year I’ve ever had. There was fun times, new growth, big surprises, seeing new places, bonding with new friends, laughing with old ones, and special memories. There was difficulty and struggle as well but the love I experienced was greater than whatever hard places I encountered. It was an amazing year.

The year began with "Death of a Salesman". For a long-time, it was a dream of mine to be in a play with a set, costumes, and lines so I took the opportunity to audition for this show through the local theatre and was given the part of Ms. Forsythe, one of the high-class prostitutes in the restaraunt. I learned a lot by playing her and I really enjoyed it. During the time I was involved with the show, various aspects of my life fell apart and being in that show gave me the consistency I needed and a community with whom to share the road.

Februaray came with a special joy - hamentashen cookie making. It is one of my favorite traditions and I love participating in it every year. Through our Jewish temple (I'm Jewish AND Christian if you didn't know), my friend, Stacey, leads the baking of hundreds of dozens of cookies for a fundraiser during Purim. It is a huge undertaking and is only completed with an army of volunteers. Our times in the kitchen have been my greatest lessons in Jewish community.


Through doing some of the photography for "Death of a Salesman", I was warmly invited in to join the Pentacle Theatre family as the official photographer for the rest of the season. It is a job I love. I have made so many friends through my work in the theatre and I love capturing the actor's and crew's memories of the shows. Seussical was the first show I did all the photography for. The cast was so welcoming to me, I am still friends with many of the cast and crew.

In March I flew to Savanah, Georgia, and South Carolina for a conference on "Weaving Sacred Wholeness". History came alive before my eyes there, Putting my hands on the bricks of a church built by slaves, seeing the air holes in the floor for the underground railroad, and seeing the Atlantic for the first time from the US side (Ireland in 2001), was a transforming experience for me. It was also very enlightening to get to meet many new Quakers from differnt branches and explore what diversity really means.

April found me working furiously for the arrival of the editorial board for the Quaker Youth Book Project. Our meeting was held at Twin Rocks on the Oregon Coast and my job was to plan hosts and excursions for the four members who were staying before and/or after. I also read all the submissions we had been recieving in preparation to decide together which ones to publish in the book. Our time together was full of joy, challenge, learning a lot about each other and our cultures (we're from five different countries), and creating a wonderful book which by the way, will be published in April 2010. Before our meeting, I hosted our friend, Emma, from Bolivia, and afterward, I showed Emma, John, Angelina, and Harriet the Tulip Festival, Silver Creek Falls, George Fox University, the Hoover House, Newburg Friends Church, and Multnomah Friends Meeting. I am really looking forward to seeing them all again when we meet this coming April to release the book in Richmond, Indianna.

To be continued...

P.S. I will still be writing a lot on here even with the challenge over, don't worry. :)

365-09 #364

Diversity Comes to Life

I wrote the following as a report on the Wholeness and Diversity Conference I attended last March. Enjoy!

Being born and raised in the Northwest, I haven’t been exposed to a great deal of diversity in my life. Living an hour away from the Pacific Ocean, this area has only been settled by the white man for a hundred and sixty years. Our oldest buildings are the clapboard mission houses built by the first pioneer settlers. Though we have a smattering of Germans, Russians, and a good size minority of Hispanics, most people are white, many descended from the first pioneers who crossed the continent on the Oregon Trail. As children, we learn about what it took to cross the harsh land in a covered wagon, what supplies we would have needed, and we play games on whether or not we would have survived. I usually didn’t.

When I had the opportunity to visit Savannah, Georgia, and St. Helena Island in South Carolina earlier this year, I saw a very different view of diversity that has changed my outlook since. Seeing the harbor in Savannah where ballast stones from the slave ships were used as paving stones, the church with holes in the floor to let runaway slaves breathe while hiding, the market where black prisoners were sold, and a red brick church that slaves built but weren’t allowed to use, brought everything I had only read about in history books, that was before unreal and intangible thousands of miles away, alive and a part of the world I see today- who I am today. It was like seeing a vision in a dream and then having that picture come to life before my eyes. Once that happens, one can no longer turn away and say it was just a dream or it’s in the past. It’s not in the past, slavery, prejudice, and disparity between races is part of our present as well. I can no longer look at the chasm between races and ignore it, or say it’s not that bad. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen what it can do and I am now more passionate than ever to stand in the gap and form the bonds that may one day make a bridge.

Before attending the conference, I formed a bond within myself reading the book, The Shack. In the book, the author uses the character of a black woman to represent God the Father. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole story as it was an image that had already become meaningful to me. It broke the classic father picture I had and taught me some new things about who God is. While sitting in our meeting room on St. Helena, I spent one session looking across the circle at a black woman imagining she was God joining our group in a very physical manner. Though I didn’t think much on the general effects of thoughts such as that at the time, I believe we were each learning to transcend and appreciate diversity which we all do when we can truly see God in another who looks and acts differently than we do.

This lesson was put to the test a month later after returning home from the conference when I got to share what I learned with my fellow editorial board members of the Quaker Youth Book Project. Gathered in a house less than two minutes from the Pacific Ocean, diversity entered my part of the world as I had never seen. Hailing from five countries, I told them about my experiences at the conference, what I learned, and how it changed me as a person. We put such lessons into practical application as we met together to discuss submissions, exploring each other’s cultures to better understand where we and some of the writings came from. We learned to really listen to one another, to respect each other’s traditions, and most of all, the bonds of love between us were strengthened in spite of and because of our differences. I now feel I have brothers and sisters around the world both from the Wholeness and Diversity Conference and from the Quaker Youth Book Project Editorial Board.

Being exposed to diversity, different cultures, southern comfort and English food, different accents I have learned to understand along with the thoughts behind them, and different ways of behaving, has taught me a new way to relate to the world. I can see better with eyes that are not my own, value lives I have not lived, and encourage voices to speak I do not understand. Living in diversity is important, people willing to form bonds and cross barriers are desperately needed. Now that I have seen these issues alive around me, I will continue to seek out diversity and continue to encourage others to do the same no matter where I go and who I meet. Diversity is always there to appreciate if we open our eyes.

365-09 #243

Inaugeration Day!

This morning I woke up and turned on the television to watch Obama take his oath and give a good speech. I admit, I had tears rolling down my cheeks for nearly the whole broadcast, I was so happy to see him there and to know he is in charge and making choices. My poetic heart loved all the symbolism. My trust is in God but I will sleep easier knowing this particular son of God is sleeping under a white roof in Washington DC.

I am also so excited tonight for another reason. I just received an e-mail letting me know there are 53 registrants for the Quaker Weaving Sacred Wholeness Conference taking place in early March. South Carolina, here I come! I applied for and was awarded a full scholarship to attend but with the current economy, the planners were not sure it was actually going to happen. But it is definitely on!!! (Happy dance!) How much fun will that be? I can tell you right now, I am going to plan my itinerary to not have to stop in Chicago. I got stuck there last April and don't care to repeat the experience.

I am looking forward to a day at home tomorrow looking for a job and working vehicle. I've had to run various errands the last two days with an overnight trip before that so a day at home sounds heavenly before going to the theatre in the evening for our very first public performance. It's a community night for those who are in group homes or things like that, they will be our most honest audience, for good or ill. I am looking forward to it. It will be so fun to hear people's reactions besides those of the cast and crew. I'm also excited to see the program and to see the pictures I took published in it. "Well, that is nice isn't it!"

365-09 #20