bicycle tricycle

senor macias is fixing the bike today. it has been a long time coming and honestly should have happened 3 months ago. we are doing the wednesday night cruiser ride tonight which i both anticipate and realize the irresponsibility of said event. (the ride ends at 1am...by the time i get home i will soon be having to wake up for work)But let's be honest..nothing beats hot july denver nights on two wheels...so cheers to the summer....cheers to the cruiser ride...cheers to good friends and irresponsibility

ask the questions that have no answers...

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more 
of everything ready-made. Be afraid 
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head. 
Not even your future will be a mystery 
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card 
and shut away in a little drawer. 

When they want you to buy something 
they will call you. When they want you 
to die for profit they will let you know. 
So, friends, every day do something 
that won't compute. Love the Lord. 
Love the world. Work for nothing. 
Take all that you have and be poor. 
Love someone who does not deserve it. 

Denounce the government and embrace 
the flag. Hope to live in that free 
republic for which it stands. 
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man 
has not encountered he has not destroyed. 

Ask the questions that have no answers. 
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias. 
Say that your main crop is the forest 
that you did not plant, 
that you will not live to harvest. 

Say that the leaves are harvested 
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 
Put your faith in the two inches of humus 
that will build under the trees 
every thousand years. 

Listen to carrion — put your ear 
close, and hear the faint chattering 
of the songs that are to come. 
Expect the end of the world. Laugh. 
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful 
though you have considered all the facts. 
So long as women do not go cheap 
for power, please women more than men. 

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy 
a woman satisfied to bear a child? 
Will this disturb the sleep 
of a woman near to giving birth? 

Go with your love to the fields. 
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head 
in her lap. Swear allegiance 
to what is nighest your thoughts. 

As soon as the generals and the politicos 
can predict the motions of your mind, 
lose it. Leave it as a sign 
to mark the false trail, the way 
you didn't go. 

Be like the fox 
who makes more tracks than necessary, 
some in the wrong direction. 
Practice resurrection.

summer sun

 i love the smell of chlorine and sunscreen on your skin. i love the feeling of cold air conditioning after a long day in the sun. i love the sleepyness that sun+ water creates especially when mixed with a generous helping of iron and wine.

Update

Hi all. I wanted to take a moment and touch base with you. As you know in March I chose to stay on another year with YWAM Denver. This was a stretch for me as the past year I have not had the support I have needed to  take care of my basic bills. (Right now I am receiving 246$ a month. My monthly expsenses are about 400-450$ a month) I sent out a newsletter  asking people to pray about financially supporting me in 2010. I got some response and raised almost an extra 100 dollars a month. This was not quite where I needed to be, but definitely a great help. This weekend I came to find out that about 90$ of that support had fallen through.  With that said I wanted to send a special request out to friends and family. I am looking for fifteen people to give 10$ a month for the next year. You can give in a few different ways. If you are looking to receive a tax credit for your charitable donation please make the checks out to YWAM Denver and attach a note with my name on it. You can mail it to 12750 W. 63rd Ave. Arvada, CO 80004. If you are not interested in the tax deduction you can mail checks directly to me at the above address or give via PayPal...

if you choose to give via paypal you can return to this site monthly and give, or give in one lump sum. The button will be located at the very bottom of this page for ongoing use. Thank you all so much for partnering with me. There will be more info on here in the next days and weeks about this quarter, our outreaches, and life at YWAM Denver. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Laurie

a helping hand

I hate asking for help. this may be a product of my independence or my stubbornness or just my personality, but i hate asking for help. I have  been living on support for the past 17 months. People donate money to me because they believe in and want to partner with me in what I am doing. That alone is a humbling experience. There are a lot of lessons I have learned taking this life path. One that is becoming more and more apparent to me is the lesson of interdependence. Wikipedia defines interdependence as the following...


Interdependence is a dynamic of being mutually and physically responsible to, and sharing a common set of principles with, others. This concept differs distinctly from "dependence" in that an interdependent relationship implies that all participants are emotionally, economically, ecologically and or morally "interdependent." Some people advocate freedom orindependence as a sort of ultimate good; others do the same with devotion to one's family, community, or society. Interdependence recognizes the truth in each position and weaves them together. Two states that cooperate with each other are said to be interdependent. It can also be defined as the interconnectedness and the reliance on one another socially, economically, environmentally and politically.

Interdependence is the crux of community. Recently I have seen this in small, but powerful ways. 
This week a friend I work with at YWAM and I were having a conversation in passing. At the end we were joking about our financial states. He was heading home to meet someone about his water heater and said in a joking tone "pray i get 1500$ real soon or ill be taking a cold shower." Earlier that afternoon I was balancing my own budget to realize I was 20$ shy of paying my cell phone bill. I, in an equally sarcastic tone responded to him, "pray i get 20$ real soon or ill be phoneless." Later that afternoon I was in the kitchen making dinner, filling in for this friend while he was home, and I get a text from him saying he wanted to give me 20$ to pay my cell bill. I was taken back. The comment was not said in any way to suggest he would give me the money, but he did none the less. He had in fact found out that his water heater was "done for" and he still needed the 1500$, but wanted to help me out. I was touched. Later that night Him and his wife went to dinner with a friend and her boyfriend. They were talking about the whole situation with the water heater, and the boyfriend offered to buy them the new water heater. 
    Interdependence only works when people are generous with each other. Generosity inspires generosity. I have learned to do without quite a bit. I have learned the value of simplicity (of which i could write a whole other blog of insights on this topic). But, I have learned to be generous with what I have. Sometimes it looks like running errands for a friend in nursing school with no time, other times it is sharing food and opening my house for friends to hang out, sometimes it is the gift of a warm shower  for friends who are awaiting that new water heater.


Asking for help makes you dependent. Offering help makes you interdependent.

why nonviolence works

the more i study the teachings of Jesus, the more I understand the movement of an upside down kingdom. the first shall be last, the poor shall be rich,give up your life to gain it, the list goes on. Jesus also had some challenging teachings when it comes to the way we approach violence, revenge, justice.  Turn the other cheek may not just apply to us when we are personally wronged. It may not just apply to our group of people we identify with when wronged ( whether it be race or religion or gender). It may be what we are called to in the largest corporate context. I have heard it said that it is simply illogical to believe that violence can bring about peace. Yet I look around and see this illogical approach is by and large the most used method for attempting peace and liberation in countries. Many of those i have talked with about this see nonviolent movements as unrealistic idealology, or fantasy of utopia that will never be. Studying this a bit further i stumbled across a study done by Erica Chenoweth, a student at Wesleyan University. Her work is a statistical look at modern nonviolent movements and what the success rates are of those campaigns. There is a slideshow summary of her findings here.  If you have a lot of time or really want to research the topic here is her entire study .

I LIVE IN DENVER

I have lived out here for a year and half now and have these epiphanies from time to time. I was driving form my apartment to the YWAM offices this morning and had this realization.I LIVE IN COLORADO. This hit me at the out of body experience of seeing myself driving down the road in a subaru, drinking non corporate coffee (its ok starbucks i still love you) out of my reusable cup, listening to NPR's morning edition. Although I cling tightly to my Ohio roots,  I realized I had crossed an invisible line. I LIVE in denver. With that said I thought I'd have an Oprah moment and share some of my favorite things of this city I now call home... Lets start with food and drink...here they are.

1. SWEET ACTION ICE CREAM

After moving from Columbus Ohio I knew there would be no match for Jeni's Ice Cream , but I have to say I have indeed found a close second. Sweet Action is a little shop on South Broadway that specializes in superpremium ice creams, vegan ice creams, and fresh fruit sorbets. There ice cream cookies aren't half bad either.

2. Pablo's Coffee 

Pablo's is a coffee roaster and local shop down in the capital hill area.  They provide coffee for a lot of local shops, but have their own coffee shop on the corner of 6th and washington. the staff there are friendly and fun. the coffee is good and hot and they have a big patio, great for summer saturday morning coffee runs.

3. City o City 

After a month long fast/cleansing thing last january I became a vegetarian (for various digestive reasons). Since then my "eating out options" became quite limited...until i found city o city. this is a great restaurant with an extensive vegan/vegetarian menu and a very fun atmosphere. They have late hours and are a bastian of microbrews in downtown. seriously these guys are a jem.

...these are three great finds in the city of denver. there are many many more, but these are must drink/eats....check em out.