Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Quote of the day

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." ~Wendell Berry~


Dear God, Thank you for this privilege. Now, please help me live like I believe it. Amen

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Jenny is here!!!



One of my favorite people in all the world is in SF this weekend. I am so excited!

Also, work is a bit intense side, so posts will be a bit limited for the next week. I might post some fun images and quotes but that is about it.

HUGS

Monday, May 23, 2011

Music Monday




The fabulous lead singer did my last hair cut. She is kind of amazing.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Mystic Africa

I have to say I feel privileged to have friends like Jaclyn. If you can head to her show tomorrow you will love her work, and if you can buy some of it that will really help her pay for her trip to Africa. If you can't make it to the show her work is available online.

I am excited that she is returning to East Africa and maintaining her relationships. Her loving spirit is amazing. If you are interested in her work please read her blog.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Nerd Question (Html)???

Source: identi.ca via Zach on Pinterest




So, when I embed things onto my blog clearly have to use the code provided and the code makes it right justified. I want it centered. I need to know if there is code I can add to the beginning and end of the image/videos I embed so that I can have them centered.

I know it is dumb but it just bugs me to have images right justified I think it looks dumb. I would be even more excited if someone can tell me how to edit the code so that I can make images bigger, but I am pretty sure that I don't know enough to be able to do that.

Please someone answer me.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Setting up an art show

One of my dearest friends Jacklyn is an amazing artist who has spent the past two years working to complete a series on Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. I am excited to say that she is hosting a show featuring this series this Thursday, May 19th at 1337 Sutter. She is selling her work to fund her return trip East Africa and we are all excited to help! So, instead of doing the traditional evening gathering our community group are helping her set up her show (yep, I am speaking in the present tense, because there are more hands than room to work, so I am being a photographer and writer).

So one might ask how do you set up an art show? Well, Jack got herself a venue, a play list by a fabulous SF DJ, some flowers donated and we are all contributing food and wine, but that is just the beginning.

First you have to get the food/drinks for the work night.


Clearly the art is ready to frame.

The glass is being cleaned.

People are drilling in the hooks and the wire. (This is of course waited until after all the designers in my community group have an intense conversation about the best options for hooks, wires, and all other mounting ideas. I love how creative and serious all my friends are when it comes to the tiny details that make things even more beautiful.)

Jac is placing each piece ever so delicately, and I am having a blast looking over her shoulder to get sneak peeks of it all.

All the collaboration is so great to be a part of. Everyone is working so hard,especially Niko as he sips his beer and checks the baseball scores... oh wait... would I really call that working? ;)


Sunday, May 15, 2011

Painting Inspiration





So as I mentioned on Wednesday I would like to be painting more, but I just can't seem to decide what I want to paint!! I like the paint stokes in these, but I haven't painted people in AGES!!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Happy Friday

Letterpress from Naomie Ross on Vimeo.



Found this via Etsy's Twitter feed and I feel inspired.

I don't own a letter press, but I do think I will have to create something fabulously fun this weekend, you should too!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Creating

Source: art.com via Kim on Pinterest



This past weekend I got a new tattoo and chopped off my hair. My hair wasn't that long so the cut isn't too drastic. (I will post pictures) These two things were enough to stir within me a longing to create. I love treating my body as a canvas, I think that is why when I paint I end up with paint all over my hands and face and pants and shirt. Nonetheless, for a while now something has me blocked.

Along with the hair cut and tattoo I chatted with a good friend about how much I happier I am now than I was a year ago. During the chat I mentioned that yes, I am happier, but this time last year I was writing good poetry, painting, running 5 miles a day and 9 miles once a week, and my room was clean. Funny, how being a mess made me so much more productive.

So as a healthy and semi whole person I am setting a few personal artistic challenges: paint ONE painting a month for the rest of 2011; create something (cooking a full meal or a fabulous dessert counts) once a week for the remainder of my 28th year; take one photo daily; document these things.

Now this might be a bit much, as I am working to get better at my job; start running again and managing some significant volunteer tasks. Yet, somehow I feel that if I can commit to create more, I will have the energy to do the other things, and according to my friend Leah if I write it on my blog it is true, so now I just have to do it.

(Side note: great news: my favorite jeans have an un-mend-able hole, meaning I have new painting pants that I feel pretty in. I do a better job creating pretty things when I feel pretty.)

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Quote of the day

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder or lightning." ~Frederick Douglass~

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Hope

Source: None via Alle on Pinterest






"For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Acts 8:24-25

I am getting my anchor tattoo today. The anchor is a symbol of hope and I am holding onto hope, but I must confess I am really resonating with hope being unseen.

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." Hebrews 6:19

Friday, May 6, 2011

Happy Friday

No More Questions! from StoryCorps on Vimeo.




I think this video is sweet and I love Story Corps. It might not be your typical Happy Friday moment, but it makes me grateful for my grandma, and that makes me happy.

Dear Grandma,

Please live forever.

I love you.

Sarah

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Cinco De Mayo





One of these years I am going to host a killer Cinco De Mayo Party... this year I am just going to post ideas about it.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Learning How to Stay

Source: etsy.com via Victoria on Pinterest


Source: etsy.com via Emily on Pinterest



I have received mail in 6 states; I went to different school almost every year of elementary; and this summer my time in San Francisco will make it the second longest I have lived anywhere. I am living in one of the most transient cities in the U.S. and it is almost as long as I have lived anywhere. It is kind of crazy and has me struggling with a bit of an urge to move. You see I am not accustomed to roots. I had anticipated a career that had me traveling, instead I found one that is developing within me a deep sense of community and place, and I love it.

While I was in Paris I knew San Francisco was home, because I actually missed it, and I knew my job was my vocation because I wanted to return to it. Still, somehow within a few weeks of returning to San Francisco the wanderlust was already re-awakening. I am hitting my marker for moving on. I have the itch to leave, but I am committing to stay.

I will talk about Austin, Houston and Denton as amazing options. I will day dream about a back yard and calm hours at coffee shops, I might even sneak over to hang out with my friends in the burbs just to get a hint of it, but right now and for a few more years, I know that my life is here, and I am going to learn how to stay.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Once upon a field in Oxford


While I was in Oxford I had the joy of a long walk through a rather large field on my way to a fabulous pub. While walking with Suz and Rach we chatted about the roles of women in leadership all over the world and how religious systems often attempt to set limits on their roles. Than we came upon a group of horses and we paused.

I think this might have been one of my absolute favorite moments of the trip. We had been having fabulous conversation, and we continued to after the horses, but we still had a chance to stop and engage with a beautiful intense powerful animal. I loved it.

We laughed as the horses tried to eat my camera and my sweater. We pet them and tried not to get stepped on.

I love that they were roaming freely. Seeing them run was like something out of movie. I was inspired and awed by their power, beauty, and honestly their awkwardness - I mean really how long does it take to figure out the you cannot eat my camera?



side note: I finally uploaded by pics from my camera - so there will be many more photo posts.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Creative Ministry (thoughts on the first few chapters)

Today was a rare sunny day in San Francisco. Clearly this left me no choice but to sit in the sun and read (and nap). My dear friend's Chris and Christine loaned me Creative Ministry a few weeks ago and I am reading it slowly. I am reading it slowly because despite its simple and direct nature (as all thing by Nouwen are) it has a depth to it that I am hoping I can let sink in.

It is written with the assertion that all of us are ministers. I am just at the beginning and I feel challenged and encouraged. The first few chapters break down the way we teach and resist teaching/learning. It is my hope that I can learn how to trust learning. To trust what happens when I am vulnerable enough to face myself in the learning process and stop competing with others and start learning from them.

I feel that I was blessed in my seminary experience, in that it was often the case that I learned from my fellow students as much as from my teachers and I did not feel that it was a competition. Nonetheless, post academia I often let myself slip into competing to prove what I know and in that I fail to learn.

I am just at the beginning of the book. I am hopeful that this book, like much of Nouwen's work, will help shape me into the minister I hope to become.

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