As my grandmother pointed out to me, I have been somewhat delinquent with the regular posting of blog entries this year. My apologies, dear readers! I have had a few entries percolating in my brain but have not as yet put my fingers to the keyboard.
I have been thinking a lot about my to-do list this week, which can stress me out, since it never ends. I cross one item off and put two more on. Then I realized: I am going to have a to-do list for as long as I live. Why let its presence consume me so that I am more obsessed with getting things done than with being with people? The items on my list are only important because they facilitate the relationships and things that are truly important.
In honor of that realization, here is my mini list of 5 things that life is too short for!
Life is too short to...
1) Keep a perfectly clean desk
2) Eliminate all the items from my to-do list
3) Read & respond to every email
4) Stay angry
5) Clean the house every week
and life is too short to NOT....
1) spend time with the people I love
2) call my family
3) eat dessert when I want it
4) know that I am loved
5) treat other people with God's kindness
What's on your lists? Share!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Love is a matter of life and death
First homicide of 2010 in Pasadena. A Latino teenage boy was fatally shot on a Sunday morning at a bus stop.
I live just down the street from Villa Park, hangout for the gang the Villa Boyz, whom the police are trying to dissuade from seeking retaliation. I tend to think about the Villa Boyz sort of lightly (in fact, our house even named ourselves the Villa Girls, joking that we are the "anti-Villa Boyz," since we are here in the neighborhood with the hope of strengthening and supporting families & kids and working towards a healthier, thriving neighborhood).
But this incident reminds me that the kids I work with really do live in a neighborhood where the choices that they make (who to hang out with, whether to apply themselves in school or not, where they physically hang out in the neighborhood) can be a matter of life and death. I am reminded that I came here not because it was a "nice" thing to do or because I thought I would save the world, but because Jesus weeps over things that happen in my neighborhood. Jesus weeps over the boy who just died. Jesus sees everything that happens here--all of the wonderful beautiful things about this neighborhood and the families here, and all of the broken destructive things that happen as well--and he loves, he loves, he loves the people here. Will anything I do during my time here make a difference to the kids and to this neighborhood? I hope so, but I don't know. But at least I entered the fight, at least I will have tried, and I firmly believe that love always counts for something. As Kevin Blue says, "Nothing is wasted in the kingdom of God."
Pasadena fatal shooting touches off worries of retaliation
Pasadena picks local nonprofit to head up gang prevention efforts
I live just down the street from Villa Park, hangout for the gang the Villa Boyz, whom the police are trying to dissuade from seeking retaliation. I tend to think about the Villa Boyz sort of lightly (in fact, our house even named ourselves the Villa Girls, joking that we are the "anti-Villa Boyz," since we are here in the neighborhood with the hope of strengthening and supporting families & kids and working towards a healthier, thriving neighborhood).
But this incident reminds me that the kids I work with really do live in a neighborhood where the choices that they make (who to hang out with, whether to apply themselves in school or not, where they physically hang out in the neighborhood) can be a matter of life and death. I am reminded that I came here not because it was a "nice" thing to do or because I thought I would save the world, but because Jesus weeps over things that happen in my neighborhood. Jesus weeps over the boy who just died. Jesus sees everything that happens here--all of the wonderful beautiful things about this neighborhood and the families here, and all of the broken destructive things that happen as well--and he loves, he loves, he loves the people here. Will anything I do during my time here make a difference to the kids and to this neighborhood? I hope so, but I don't know. But at least I entered the fight, at least I will have tried, and I firmly believe that love always counts for something. As Kevin Blue says, "Nothing is wasted in the kingdom of God."
Pasadena fatal shooting touches off worries of retaliation
Pasadena picks local nonprofit to head up gang prevention efforts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Laughing in the face of chaos
Sometimes I just have to laugh at how non-profits scrabble and make things work without a lot of money.
We say that we can't afford to buy a top of the line drill so we buy a cheap one and it takes a staff member an hour to drill one hole in our concrete wall because the drill is so weak.
The stove legs are uneven so we have an old textbook under one leg to stabilize it.
There's been a huge hole in the wall in the women's bathroom for months as we gradually get the plumbing fixed.
Not to mention all of the random things that go along with nonprofit chaos...right now I have a plastic iguana sitting on my coworker's desk looking at me from a recent pile of donations that no one knows what to do with!
We say that we can't afford to buy a top of the line drill so we buy a cheap one and it takes a staff member an hour to drill one hole in our concrete wall because the drill is so weak.
The stove legs are uneven so we have an old textbook under one leg to stabilize it.
There's been a huge hole in the wall in the women's bathroom for months as we gradually get the plumbing fixed.
Not to mention all of the random things that go along with nonprofit chaos...right now I have a plastic iguana sitting on my coworker's desk looking at me from a recent pile of donations that no one knows what to do with!
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