soundtrack for the season's change

you can feel the change in the weather. Autumn is coming. The nights are cooler and the sun seems to hang much more lazy as the afternoon's get late. i love summer and mostly wish it would never end. But I enjoy this time of summer. Still warm but you can feel the change. Nothing is more comforting than a warm hoodie and hot coffee on a crisp morning. I also notice my music preferences change with the weather. In the summer I find myself listening to the more poppy, catchy, drive with the windows down summer music. Fall lends itself to slower, warmer, and more nostalgic, with upbeat hints. As an homage to the coming season I am sharing my current ipod playlist. They are all downloadable. click on the links provided.

Far Oaks Their Arms (Autumn Mix)

The Equatics- No Sunshine 

Rocky Votalato- What Waited For Me  

Darwin Deez- Radar Detector (xaphoon jones remix) 

Sigur Ros- Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysyngur 

The Mynabirds- Let the Record Go 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.- Nothing But Our Love 

Florence + The Machine- Addicted to Love 

Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys)- The Prowl 

Local Natives- Camera Talk 

Beirut- A Sunday Smile 

David Bazan (Vic Chesnut)- Waited For You All My LIfe 

so you want to start a revolution??

I have mentioned my friends frankie and john on here before. They work alongside a lot of awesome folks with a grassroots organization called Energize Clinton County. I worked with frankie and john back at starbucks in ohio for years and became dear  friends with them. My last trip home i got to catch up with them a bit over coffee and see how things were going down in Wilmington. It was soo cool hearing all the awesome things they are doing to change their world at home. It is inspiring. So many of us want to go to africa or asia to change the world...they went home. sometimes going home isn't the exciting move, but it's the right one. Cheers friends. Here's to saving the world, growing vegetables, and never forgetting where you come from. I am proud to call you friends.

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip
these guys got recognized at the VH1 do something awards last night. You know just a little get together with megan fox...whatever.

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.