At home from east to west

I spent nearly two weeks of December in Virginia with three kinds of family: the one I was born into, the one I married into, and the friends who are close enough to feel like family. I got to see so many of my very favorite people this month, and I'm incredibly thankful.

This visit reminded me of many things I love about my hometown. It was over too quickly, of course, but there was enough time for abundant conversation with my family, snuggles with my baby nephews, reunions with friends, and lots of holiday festivities. In no particular order -- a few of the best moments.

A morning at the Harrisonburg Farmers' Market, where I was staggered by the sheer number of vegetables and fruits still plentifully available from local farmers. This was mid-December, people. All the farmers markets in the Colorado Springs area closed in October and won't reopen until June. My locavore foodie heart cried a little.

Eating Indian food with my best friends and trying to soak up as much love as possible before the too-short night was over. Forgetting my water bottle at the restaurant in Charlottesville, because who can be expected to remember everyday details when you're so full of joy?

Drinking tea with my mother and sister and talking about the shared aspects of ourselves.

Crowding in close with friends and strangers to bless a newly wedded couple.

Crying happy tears at the incomparable joy of singing with The Table, my beloved church.

Group hugs.

Rocking my tiny nephew to sleep while this song played. Wondering what he'll be like when I see him in six months -- a longer time than he's been in the world so far.

Abundant laughter with my extended family.

Board games and Wii dance parties.

Leaving Virginia and returning to Colorado, finding that it felt exactly like leaving home to come home. How lucky I am to have many homes, for it is always better to have too many than not enough.

As 2015 closes and 2016 opens, may you find yourself in the comfort of "home", whatever that might mean.

2015 Reading Update: December

As 2015 is waning, I'm finishing up the reading challenge I've been doing this year. Here's a recap:

January: All the Light We Cannot See (currently on the bestseller list)
February: July, July (had been meaning to read)
March: Love in the Time of Cholera (originally written in another language)
April: Single, Carefree, Mellow (published this year)
May: Song of the Lioness Quartet (re-reading books from my childhood)
June: Will Grayson, Will Grayson (by a favorite author)
July: Fangirl (recommended by someone with great taste)
August: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth (a genre I don't typically read)
September: Eleanor & Park (a book "everyone" has read but you)
October: Beloved (should have read in high school)
November: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (a book my mom likes)
December: The Shadow of the Crescent Moon (chosen because of the cover)

Thanks to my sister-in-law April, who recommended Fangirl and all of Rainbow Rowell's books. I have now become a huge RR fan. I still haven't read Attachments or her newest book, Carry On, Simon, but I've read three of her five and absolutely love them.

Beloved is not strictly speaking a book that I should have read in high school. I don't think I ever blatantly neglected to read something I was assigned. (Well, not until college.) But I certainly had the option of reading Beloved to fulfill one of my many high school reading requirements. Until October, I had never read anything of Toni Morrison's, and that seemed like a shame. So I suppose I modified this category to something like "should have read before now."

I liked all twelve of these books. But my highest, most glowing recommendations go to....

All the Light We Cannot See: I can't say enough about this book. Beautiful on many levels. Completely deserving of its fame. Haunting in the best possible way.
Fangirl: Utterly winning in its believable characters and fresh, un-cliche writing style. One of those stories that will always make me deliriously happy.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: I have to hand it to Karen Joy Fowler. This book is brilliant. Totally unlike anything I've ever read before, and yet it resounded deeply with my life and thoughts. It's best not to know too much about it before you read it, so just go read it.

I chose The Shadow of the Crescent Moon from the "New Books" shelf at my library (which, by the way, was definitely the most difficult part of this 12-book challenge. I tend to obsessively research authors and read lots of reviews before actually reading a book, so there's a reason I waited until December to choose a book solely by the cover.) This is the cover I chose.

Gorgeous, right?

But just now, in looking for a picture of the cover to show you, I discovered two alternate editions.

                  

Both of which I also love.

Well done, Penguin.

In other bookish news, I also accomplished my Goodreads goal to read 40 books this year. Goodreads made a cute little summary page with some interesting stats:

Total pages: 14,006
Average book length: 350 pages
Shortest book: 182 pages
Longest book: 562 pages

But here's my favorite one.
Average rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars

Now, I was probably more generous than I should have been with a few of my ratings, but I try to reserve 5-star ratings for books that I really love. So if my average is 4.1, I clearly read a lot of good books this year.

What were the best books you read in 2015? Send me your recommendations to add to my list for next year!

Hope

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

I have to be honest: the past few weeks have been hard for me. In light of many recent events, my optimism has taken a hit. Politicians circle each other in endless rhetoric that goes nowhere. Senseless killings are so common that we've stopped reading the news. The world is still run by profit and greedy corporations, even as I see the valiant and critically important work of hundreds of nonprofit organizations. How much more could they be doing if they actually had enough funding and support? What does it take for things to change? How bad does it have to get before we make it stop?

I'm battling hard to keep the faith. One phrase that keeps coming to mind is this: Cynicism is easy. Hope is hard. I can't fall into the cynicism trap.

My worst fear used to be complacency. I don't fear that as much anymore -- I have more fire than ever. Instead, I've been struck by a new fear: that the world actually will never change for the better. But that kind of thinking only leads to more cynicism, which is a force that convinces us not to act. It's a line of thought that persuades us that nothing we do will actually make a difference, and I simply can't stand that idea from anyone, especially not from myself.

Cynicism is easy. Hope is hard.

Last night while reading, I came across a quote which, though spoken by a character in an entirely fictional universe, felt particularly appropriate to this world at the moment.
"What do you suppose [...] the people on other continents, across all those seas, think of us? Do you think they hate us or pity us for what we do to each other? Perhaps it's just as bad there. Perhaps it's worse. But to do what I have to do, to get through it...I have to believe it's better. Somewhere, it's better than this." (Sarah J. Maas, Heir of Fire, p.422)

That's the way I'm feeling now. In a despairing, broken world, I have to believe that things will change. I desperately need to see the world get better in my lifetime.

I don't have any answers about how to move forward. I know what I wish everyone would do to facilitate change, but it's all been said many times before, so you can probably imagine.

So instead of going on about this, I'll just talk about something I found incredibly beautiful -- because hope is all about finding beauty in the midst of struggle. (Apologies for the moving-car pictures. I hope you can use your imagination a little.)



Here's the thing: I have grossly underestimated the significance of pine trees in the winter.

In the early fall, I was lamenting the comparative lack of Colorado fall colors because there are fewer deciduous trees here than in Virginia. Especially when you head west out of the city toward the Rocky Mountains, everything becomes coniferous.

Last week we were driving to Woodland Park (a little town in the mountains about 20 miles west of the Springs). It had been snowing off and on for a couple of days, and never got warm enough to melt much.

Driving out this way is beautiful any day, but never before had I seen it so striking. Everything -- mountains, rocks, trees -- was blanketed in snow and ice. Hills upon hills of conifers rose up around us until the tops blended into the cloud and fog, a hazy winter wonderland. It was just before sunset, and the sky was a shade of silvery gray that was almost a perfect match for the color of snow on pine trees.

LOOK AT IT.

I hope you can find ways to live into hope today, friends. I hope you can do what you have to do to keep the faith. For me, that's listening to Linus and Lucy while drinking peppermint tea. Soon I'm "going brunching" (as my German housemate would endearingly call it), and later there's a Christmas parade.

Today, let us turn away from the easy road of cynicism. Today, choose the rugged path of hope.

Holiday sights

This week marked only the second Thanksgiving I've spent away from my family, the first one being three years ago when I was in South Africa. No one in our household was traveling for the holiday (though we'll all be gone over Christmas), so we celebrated over a Thanksgiving potluck with new friends at our church.

All of us had the day off work on Friday. As Germans unaccustomed to being forcibly compelled to wait until after Thanksgiving to get into the Christmas spirit, Anna and Franzi wasted no time in Christmas-izing our house.

Daniel and I spent last night at the home of some friends from church as our "weekend away" (something we're technically supposed to do once a month, but we skipped October due to all the other traveling we'd been doing). We're lucky that our housemates don't give us much of anything that we need to escape from.

Snowy day outside.

Roaring fire inside.

 It's so cozy I can hardly stand it.

Though I missed my family, it's been a pretty great holiday. Now just a few weeks until we're in VA for Christmas!

Olympic Training Center Tour

This past weekend, we had the privilege of a visit from Susan, the director of the Service Adventure program. One of the many fun things we did together over the weekend was visit the U.S. Olympic Training Center!

This is one of three main Olympic Training Centers in the country. Chula Vista, CA mainly hosts athletes training for outdoor summer sports; Lake Placid, NY covers the outdoor winter sports. Colorado Springs gets the indoor summer sports.

Obviously we had to test our long-jump skills while waiting for the tour to start.

Walking between buildings on the 35-acre complex.

First stop: the shooting range. I didn't get a good picture of the training room because people were cleaning, but we did appreciate this sign. ("Please do not tap on glass. Please do not feed the shooters.")

Here we learned that Olympic sharpshooters train to fire not only between breaths, but between heartbeats.

Perfect day. Plus, snow-capped Pikes Peak in the distance.

Next stop: the wrestling gym.

This is the dorm-style building where the athletes stay for anywhere from a week to multiple years. Apparently Ryan Lochte is here right now, no big deal.

In another gym, there was a "Rising Stars" event going on for men's gymnastics. We got to see some insanely athletic, talented, and muscular 9- to 15-year-old boys in action.

 Here we are out front, practicing our sporty poses by the sculpture. (Daniel's luge-ing.)

And interacting with the props and cardboard cut-outs in the Olympic Hall of Fame room. We'd make a good bobsled team, right?

Yes. The answer is yes. Also, that eagle.

Teeny tiny, four-foot-nine Mary Lou Retton!

So much fun. Adding "Olympic Training Center" to my list of reasons why everyone should come visit the Springs immediately...

Heart in hand

Heavy-hearted tonight for the mass killings in Paris. There is darkness in the City of Light and the world is weeping. Praying, hurting, wondering, and just maybe -- barely -- hoping.

My heart is heavy for many reasons. Of course, first for the human beings who were senselessly killed and for their families and communities. There is nothing that can be said about that that is not already being said and felt around the world. But my heart is also heavy because of the hatred that caused this and the hatred that rises up in its wake. For the continuation of anti-Muslim sentiment perpetuated by events like this. For the cutting and poisonous words and thoughts that will be born in response to this.

And there is another layer, which I hesitate even to mention in case it sounds like I'm trying to minimize the pain and severity of this night. But I am also heavy-hearted because a European or American killing of a hundred people catches millions of eyes and hearts and motivates change...while millions are still slaughtered in the ongoing Congolese genocide, for example. Violence and systematic oppression occurs daily around the world, and too often, those who are most dramatically affected are also dramatically underrepresented in the public eye. My heart weeps for the African people who the world has forgotten, even chosen to ignore.

Tonight my heart is too heavy to carry on life as if normal, and for that, I am actually glad. I need to be genuinely affected by the suffering of others, beyond just that initial moment of shock and perhaps a twinge of sorrow. I need to be plagued by the sense of wrongness and injustice and the need to speak out in word and action. It has been said, "The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe." (Joanna Macy)

I have to believe the words of the Harry Potter Alliance, especially on nights like tonight. The weapon we have is love. I have to believe we can move forward in love, joy, fearlessness, reconciliation, and a spirit of ubuntu ("My humanity is bound up in yours"). Because I am beginning to believe that it is the only way. Without these things we will lose our humanity -- have lost our humanity countless times before throughout human history. We as human beings must allow tragedies like this -- and the innumerable past examples -- to move us forward in love. To hold on to one another. It is the only way to salvage a broken, hurting world.

May it be so.

NaNoWriMo Stats

We're about third of the way (11 days) through National Novel Writing Month! A few stats to show you where I am...

Word count so far: 6162, including a rough outline, character trait descriptors, and random idea list

Worst day: 161 words on November 4. Pitiful, I know. But my biggest goal for this project is to write every day. (I don't even have a goal set for the total word count.) And I've done that.

Best day: Today! 1329 words, thanks to the NaNoWordSprints twitter.

Best writing music: Hans Zimmer's Inception soundtrack. 100% hands-down. Cannot recommend this highly enough.

Best writing inspiration: 10 Prompts to Get You Out of a NaNoWriRut

Hardest part of writing: Getting my characters to talk. I can write descriptions till kingdom come, but my dialogue is awful.

Next story goal: Writing a riddle, to be delivered by a new character I'm calling The Enigma.

It's been a fun adventure so far! I feel like I'm finally getting to know my characters and figuring out my writing routine.
Wishing the best of luck to all other writers, whether you're doing NaNo or just the usual. Happy wordsmithing!

Fair trade, Fairer world

This weekend, we had the exciting opportunity to assist with our church's annual Ten Thousand Villages sale!

Here we are unpacking and setting up on Thursday night.

Currently there's no Ten Thousand Villages store in Colorado Springs -- the closest store is in Denver. So nine years ago, Paula (member of our Service Adventure Support Committee and all-around stellar human being) decided to organize a sale of TTV products in order to improve access to fair trade, increase knowledge of fair trade practices, and generally support the organization.

Here is everything all set up!

The event took place Friday afternoon and evening and continued Saturday morning and early afternoon. It attracted quite a crowd (over 130 paying customers on Friday alone), and though I haven't heard any sale totals yet, it was obvious that a lot was sold.

The six of us in the Service Adventure household volunteered in various ways -- greeting shoppers, recording purchases, cashiering, refilling coffee and snacks -- but we still had plenty of time to soak in the beauty of handmade crafts and art. And eat cookies. 

Even more than the fact that it was fun, it felt great to help with this effort to make the world a better place by giving artisans (especially women in developing countries) a hand up.

That glass pendant necklace slightly left of center, with the abstract tree? LOVE. If I could condense my NaNoWriMo story into a necklace, it would look like that. Sadly, I already own such a large number of necklaces (many of them from TTV originally) that it could be considered overkill. I love them all, of course. But I left this beauty for someone else, and by Saturday afternoon, it was gone. 

In the end, my own purchases stayed true to my foodie persona: spicy hot cocoa with cayenne pepper, and a box of one of the newest tea blends: Rooibos chai! (I've already sampled them both, and they're great.)

Overall, this weekend was an invigorating and inspiring experience. Never having been to one of these before, I didn't expect so many customers, nor did I expect so many who had never even heard of Ten Thousand Villages before. It was wonderful to introduce new people to the fair trade lifestyle and share with them why it's so important.

So in light of this, I ask you to consider the sourcing of your future purchases, especially as you begin choosing holiday gifts. Opting for fair trade is a small step in which you can be assured that you are making a difference. And you'll get better quality products, too!

Global Goals Spotlight #1: Gender Equality

Remember when I wrote about the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development?

Let's talk about those again.

Specifically, today I want to talk about #5: Gender Equality ("Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls"). Some people are tired of talking about gender equality because they think it's irrelevant. Outdated. Obsolete. I could expound at length about trafficking, sexual violence and rape, the gender wage gap, lack of access to healthcare, under-representation in political and leadership roles, illiteracy, lack of education for girls in impoverished countries, female genital mutilation, and reproductive rights -- but I won't. (For now.) Suffice it to say that I strongly believe the gender equality conversation is imperative.

The Global Goals website summarizes the ideas behind each Goal on their website; I highly encourage you to read the whole list of targets for achieving Goal #5 here.

I've been thinking a lot about this Goal lately, and spending some time reading about it and gathering resources. So now I want to share a few of those resources for education and action with you.

Recently, NPR has been doing a fantastic series of articles called #15Girls: Teens Taking Control and Changing Their Fate. I love this because it gets people engaged and thinking about the realities of life for teens (especially girls) around the world (especially those living in poverty).

A few highlights from the series:

• Read an article explaining the issue: Where the Girls Are (And Aren't).
• Find out how much you know about the world's girls in this quiz.
• Or just go for the full list of all the #15Girls stories.

About a month ago, my housemate Sarah told me about an app called Charity Miles. It's free, and when you walk, run, or bike somewhere, it tracks your distance and donates to a charity of your choice. It's not a lot, but it adds up; since I started using it, I've accumulated $10.12 from the walking and biking I'm already doing. As a very small way to remember to fight for the Global Goals, I've been splitting my donations between Girl Up (a UN organization designed to empower girls around the world, especially "girls living in places where it is hardest to be a girl") and Every Mother Counts (a maternal health organization that provides education, transportation, and supplies to women during pregnancy and childbirth). I know it's small, but it's something I can do with absolutely no extra effort other than the few seconds it takes to turn on Charity Miles.

Another incredible resource is Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn's book Half the Sky. I can't say enough about this book. It's as foundational as it is eye-opening, and as hopeful as it is realistic. Read it, read it, read it. But just in case you don't, I'll boil it down to this one phrase: Educating girls will change the world.

These are just a few ways to get involved in the movement to empower our sisters around the world. There are hundreds more that I haven't named, and I encourage you to find them and tell people about them.

I don't have all the answers, friends. But I'm asking you today to do one thing. Please just take one step to educate yourself, or change a habit, or give to a nonprofit, or open your eyes. It does make a difference. It really does.

Write your story

National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) starts on November 1. It's a 30-day challenge: Write a novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. Lots of published books have started out as NaNoWriMo novels (Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; Cinder by Marissa Meyer), but the project's main goal is to get people to write for the sake of writing. For the sake of telling stories, no matter if they're ever read by another living soul or not.

Interestingly, Daniel and I are apparently switching identities for the preparation stage of this project. He, normally the procrastinator, has been developing his novel idea for months: piecing together the details of its futuristic setting, talking through complicated plot twists, and even spending a couple of days in the library researching various medieval societies. I, on the other hand, have no idea what's going to spill out of my brain next Sunday. I haven't even decided if I'm strictly writing a novel or if I'm going to do essays or maybe short stories instead. I plan on starting with a blank document and making words spill out until something interesting happens. (This is what I had to do for most of my assignments in the Creative Writing class I took at EMU, and it worked surprisingly well.)

I think I'm too much of a reader -- and literary critic -- for this type of project. I think the reason I've had trouble coming up with a story idea is because I want my story to be remarkable. Stories are one of my favorite things about life. I can't stand the thought of creating one that's dumb or boring or cliche. Somehow, I'll have to suspend all my standards for high-caliber writing and focus on quantity of words, not quality. I'm an editor by nature, so my instinct will be to edit as I go, but that's not the point of this endeavor.

I've been waffling on whether or not to go through with the project ever since Daniel announced his plan to participate, but last week, I officially decided to do it. After that I was vaguely worried about it (mostly about my uncharacteristic complete lack of planning ahead and preparing), and casting around for story ideas. Then I watched this awesome talk (from the first-ever NerdCon: Stories that took place earlier this month) by Sarah Mackey, director of Community Engagement at NaNoWriMo, and I got really excited.

She talks about why every single one of our stories matters, how writing a novel in a month can spur us on to other new and fabulous experiences, and the value of spontaneous creativity. (PLUS SHE QUOTES MALCOLM REYNOLDS so obviously she knows what she's talking about.)

I'm not prepared - but I'm ready. 

Anyone else gearing up for NaNoWriMo? :)

A week in photos

First, two favorite photos from last weekend's Relief Sale in Rocky Ford, CO. Among the many highlights of the weekend (pressing fresh apple cider, eating homemade pie, making new friends) was this: bicycle-churned ice cream!

We got to see the Albuquerque Service Adventure unit again for a short visit, which made the trip even more fun.

A mid-week hike in Garden of the Gods.

Walking downtown to an orchestra rehearsal Friday morning...

My neighborhood is beautiful.

It rained for three days this week, which led to a new and beautiful sight that we'll likely be seeing for the next six to eight months...snow-capped mountains.

Today we spent another quick hour at the Garden. The late afternoon fall sunshine was too good to miss.

It's a beautiful world out there, friends.