11.23.2006

lovely day: i found a grand homey new produce shop that i love just being within, and there was told i was beautiful, "absolutely beautiful." i must say, i do like that every now and then. and as i walked down my street, the smell of cinnamon or some sweet-smelling wood burning in the air, and everyone with holiday smiles for whoever passed their way (which happened to be me, and what a joy it was).
---
i think... i want my life to be like wonder woman. i see many similarities in our life missions:

Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman.

All the world's waiting for you,
and the power you possess.

In your satin tights,
Fighting for your rights ...

Make a hawk a dove,
Stop a war with love,
Make a liar tell the truth. ..
and mostly..
Change their minds, and change the world.

that sounds like me. love people, change the world, end war, bring out truth. pretty much my hopes for my life. but then, maybe i just want the invisible plane.

11.17.2006

and joy is all my dreams fulfilled...
trees aflame with color and
crispness in the air,
jumping in leaf-piles and
spinning in circles with
my littlest sister,
going into her imaginery world and
making up some of my own
(with fairies and starlight).
today, naps and swings and walks
in the park with my
not-so-little sister.
peace and music and wisdom
heard on the way,
tomorrow, a girls-trip for
family and celebration.

11.13.2006

i miss the pentaverate porch.
i miss the pentaverate.
i miss chicago,
rain and
leaves and snow
friends and family and
friends that are like family.

11.08.2006

life is beautiful
and
i love my sister
that is all
there is to say.

11.04.2006

i love this poem.

nikki giovanni's a poem of friendship

We are not lovers
because of the love
we make
but the love
we have

We are not friends
because of the laughs
we spend
but the tears
we save

I don't want to be near you
for the thoughts we share
but the words we never have
to speak

I will never miss you
because of what we do
but what we are
together

11.02.2006

i am continually inspired and excited by the stories of those living in a different way... why do we think we need to always go and evangelize and change the poor and the indigenous... perhaps it is they that understand God's Kingdom and we who need to sit and listen as they teach us what it is to be the church. the desire to be a collective, to take care of one another, to treat one another with equality and inclusivity, learning from the worldviews of one another, and to share the little they have with others who are in need... why can we not follow this real example? they are living proof that the church can stand together, can live in a new way without heirarchical systems and oppression, striving not for individual independence and competition, but instead for interdependence and cooperation. their vision sets my heart to dreaming and longing to live differently, yet i also must take caution against romanticizing their lives, for it is also a hard way to live and has cost many of them their lives in standing non-violently against oppression and injustice.
the following is from a book written by a colleague in my organization: Las Abejas: Pacifist Resistance and Syncretic Identities in a Globalizing Chiapas, by Marco Tavanti

The image of the bees makes them all members of the organization equal as "workers for the kingdom of justice, love and peace." ...Like bees, they work as a collective movement. And like the little insects that fly around a variety of flowers, their religious worldview is inclusive of Catholic, Presbyterian and Mayan traditionalist identities. They explain the choice of their name in this way:

We called ourselves Las Abejas because we are a multitude able to mobilize together... Like the bees we want to build our houses together, to collectively work and enjoy the fruit of our work. We want to produce 'honey' but also to share with anyone who needs it. We are all together like the bees, in the same house, and we walk with our Queen, which is the Kingdom of God. We know that, like the little bees, the work is slow but the result is sure because it is collective.
Some other members identify their iconigraphic image of the bees with their political intent and active resistance against the government:
The bee is a very small insect that is able to move a sleeping cow when it pricks. Our struggle is like a bee that pricks, this is our resistance, but it's non-violent. We do this because we need to defend who we are... we need to live as people."