The name of this blog, Swinging from the Vine, was inspired by John 15 (specifically verse 5) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
I’ve been very distracted with real life lately.
My very good friend who is in her 30s and has 4 young girls was diagnosed with stage 4 metastasized breast cancer and is undergoing her first round of chemo tomorrow. Setting up a support site for her and helping to organize her support network has consumed a lot of my energy.
Shayel is in the last 2 weeks of school before summer break which means there are lots of extra things going on.
Revolution is undergoing an evolution with lots of people moving soon and we’re making lots of new connections that could result in all kinds of possibilities. Some of our other community relationships are changing for the summer so those things are taking up lots of time.
I have to testify against my abusive neighbor in a couple weeks which is taking up some of my thought process energy.
So that’s what’s up. Hope you all are well and thanks for sticking around if you’re reading this 
| "thoughts about a subpoena" |
|
Some of you might remember that back in December, my neighbor came to my door bloody from being beaten up by her husband and son.
Apparently, a jury trial is being held in June for the husband and I have been issued a subpoena to appear as a witness.
This is dredging up all the memories from that day and subsequent weeks and new thoughts are emerging. Many involve guilt and how much more I could have done, SHOULD have done and said at the time and in the aftermath.
I realized last night when I couldn’t sleep that I have a lot more guilt about this than I thought. If you think of it, prayer would be appreciated.
| "Things that make me feel alive" |
|
This weekend was a mixed bag. But it reminded me of things that make me feel alive.
- Connecting with new like-minded people
- Having amazing conversations with said people
- Observing my children at their absolute best - compassionate, empathic, respectful, bold
- Observing my children at their absolute worst - selfish, demanding, disrespectful - and then hearing a spontaneous humble, teary apology before going to sleep
- Apologizing to my child for being at my absolute worst when she was at her absolute worst
- the “I love you’s” that follow true apologies
- The great outdoors and observing my kids enjoying the great outdoors
- Eclectic people
- Earth Day
- Bright colorful organic locally grown food
- Girlfriends who “get” me….and love me anyway
- Margaritas
- Grandparents
- Walking in the spring sunshine
- Snuggles from my toddler
- Kisses from my husband
- My laid back and infinitely fun faith community
May your week be filed with life-giving experiences
If you search for YOGAmazing on iTunes store or go to yogamazing.com you can get some great free yoga videos. They’re all about 18 minutes long which for me is a perfect am/pm practice to add to my usual cardio and strength training. They’re really good and thematic so you can target certain things.
Tags: yoga
| "stream of consciousness" |
|
A little something I wrote last night.
I feel grumpy today -
lots of walking
no workout for 2 days
busy week
volunteer interview
tutoring
kid stuff
work stuff
got peed on today
while helping 3 ESL kids
with fractions and sums
that was fun
hard to focus on 364+539
with a wet lap
and a screaming toddler next to me
my almost 6 year old is now saying no
like she owns the place
and when it doesn’t work
darn it is her retort
she said shut up the other day
to her sister
at least it wasn’t shit
apparently Ariel is the favored princess right now
always a source of 10 minutes of banshee caliber fights
are we going to have to buy 2 of everything now?
spring break is coming up
that’ll be a barrel fun
remember Ariel?
yeah, maybe 2 of her is good
party campaigns in the US
tenuous peace in Kenya
England now only wants EU immigrants
Japan in trouble for whaling
France apparently has too many mayors
too many mayors - that’s a new one
Some cranky old N. Ireland Presbyterian politician
died or stepped down or something -
he reminded me of an old ‘don’
got a new magazine today
I like magazines
even if I don’t ever read the whole thing
words
color
photographs
carefully crafted copy layouts
a d v e r t i z i n g
yeah, I’m even ok with ads
magazines are great
I find them grounding
I’m not excited about a paperless society
did you know if you want to lose 1lb/wk
you should consume 500 fewer calories than your ideal caloric need?
these are the things magazines teach you
or now to knit a sweater
make vegetarian vindaloo
green your kitchen
- or redecorate it
- or have sex in it
yeah, I like magazines
and notebooks
and pens
and Ann Lamott
I watched an interview on UCTV with her the other day
she’s very honest
and has really cool hair
she slapped her son once
and then wrote about it
I think that’s admirable
- the honesty not the slapping
my back is sore
I probably need to wear better shoes to walk in for 4 miles
but I like my red sneaks
they make me feel colorful
I’m into color lately
bright colors
shocking patters
maybe I’m going through a quarter life crisis
and my gym
I like my gym
I will especially like my gym after I’ve lost 10 pounds
but according to the magazine I need to cut back 500 calories a day
and it will take 10 weeks
i think I blew it today
I ate 5 oatmeal raisin cookies
but they were small
I’m still grumpy
I’m not sure why
maybe I’ll listen to a podcast and play cubis on my iPod
until I fall asleep
that usually makes me feel better
We’re making our plans for our trip to England in November. We’re probably going to be an hour and a half train ride from London. So, where should we go? What should we see? Where do we just HAVE to eat? Keep in mind, it’s November and we’ll have our kids with us - Aliyah will be 3 and Shayel will be almost 6.5 at the time of travel and our only means of transportation will be public (or taxi I suppose) We specifically want to visit “missional” and “emerging” and other “progressively minded” faith communities so here’s your chance This is sort of a pray and listen trip as well, thinking forward to a potential longer term missional venture in the near future. I think right now we’re planning on a 10 day visit.
Tags: England, travel, suggestions
| "you say baseball I say….cricket?" |
|
Apparently my city is a testing ground for Cricket. They’ve brought us the Stanford 20/20 Cricket Tournament through the technology of Cable TV. This Stanford guy (Texan - as all good crazy things come out of Texas) is investing a lot of money here during this month-long push with viewing parties, training classes and all manner of Cricket frivolity all over community centers, pubs, restaurants and clubs in our fair American town. And because I’m interested in all things related to my town and all things that AREN’T American, I’m trying to learn the game. All I have to say is WHAT THE HELL?! I think baseball is boring so maybe the sheer mad complexity of this game will keep me interested. We have a game on right now, it’s fascinating, in a sort of “gawking at the pile up on the freeway” sort of way.
The website I linked to above has some cricket basics but I think I need a more extensive Cricket for dummies or something. Really what I need is as my husband said - someone to watch the game with who can walk us through it. Anyone here into Cricket?
I do layout and design for a woman’s literary magazine that seeks to provide a safe space for expression of honest womanhood in all it’s raw and varied forms. I’m proud to be part of this venture and am privledged to lend my skills. I am also honored to be friends with the inspiration and driving force behind it. Heather has helped me become a little less cynical about the possibility of beautiful and honest friendship.
While at this point our advertisers are local to the Northern Colorado region (for now), we send the magazine anywhere in the US. I thought I would take this opportunity to promote this unique publication to men and women alike and encourage you to subscribe. Our website is still in process but you can visit getbornmag.com for a sneak peak and to subscribe. The magazine contains essays, short fiction and poetry and we are always looking for content.
We are also always looking for cover photos that communicate the complexity of REAL womanhood and the hope of “getting born”. At this time we do not pay for submissions.
Keep in mind when I say “honest”, and “raw” I’m not being cute, get born explores the harsh realities of womanhood (the season of motherhood in particular but not exclusively), often with humor, but just as often not. We also do not censor so you will find cussing. I would encourage you however, not to let that deter you. Sometimes a few well placed swears can communicate a powerful message of freedom and “getting born” (some of you might recall some of your choice words uttered in the throes of labor *wink*)
In the vein of honesty, here is a little piece I blogged awhile ago called “It’s Not All Pink Balls of Fuzziness”. This was written to explore our faith journey - which I edit here to intertwine with the other journeys we are on as women, of being born, becoming a woman, giving birth and becoming born again as we find our feet and our stride and spread our wings.
***
Sometimes it’s awesome and fuzzy and all kinds of pink balls of loveliness.
Sometimes it’s barbed, angst ridden, doubt filled and all kinds of black balls of frustration.
You fear, you hope, you dream, you love and laugh and learn, you question, doubt, grapple, wrestle and postulate, theorize and hypothesize but at the end of the day you realize that this God you are trying to serve the best way your feeble humanity is able, THIS God simply IS. Coming to earth, serving and loving, healing and getting angry, doubting and getting frustrated, being tempted and questioning while bleeding in a garden. When we add OUR story to THIS story we have a beautiful but very human thing going.
And then we get to add our humanity to another’s humanity and do all those messy things together with them and we join together to connect with the Missio Dei, the God at work on the Earth - and in that, we continue the story. We become vessels of reconciliation and healing, peace and restoration. At our best, we are incarnations of Christ, and at our worst, we are at least trying.
***
that is living, that is getting born
