Fast Forward Weekend

Not that the weekend is over yet (yay!) but I am inside the hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina to get out of the heat for a bit. So here is the past 24 hours:
-wake up before 5 a.m. central time
-work all day
-drive 6 hours from Columbus, GA to Charleston, SC..an easy and uneventful drive (praise the Lord!)
-arrive at our AMAZING hotel at 11p.m. eastern time where Jason was waiting for me
-wake up and get a grande tea from Starbucks in the hotel lobby
-go for a run and explore the city near our hotel
-go to the farmer's market across from the hotel and get a yummy breakfast of Nutella and strawberry crepe for breakfast (yum!)
-went on a carriage ride tour of Charleston
-went to the market and "window" shopped
-saw the tall ships at Harbor Fest
....so, it has been a busy last 24 hours but I am so thankful for a fun weekend away!

PS- I forgot to mention that while at the Farmer's Market I ran into some girls that go to Auburn and had a "war eagle" moment! And stay tuned for more stories about broken dresses, crazy rain, MORE yummy food (because why else go on vacation if it is not to eat your weight in delicious food?), and God's perfect timing/miracles in the form of a taxi!

Walk This Way

So, in case some of you don't know about ARM (Alabama Rural Ministries) I will enlighten you. This is an awesome ministry that serves families in need in rural Alabama (hence the name!). ARM achieves this by helping families repair their homes, providing day camps for children during the summer, etc. BUT, this post is about ARM's "Walk Across Alabama". A group of sure footed folks are walking across the Black Belt of Alabama (from Tuskegee to Livingston) to raise awareness of the condition of poverty housing in Alabama. This is an amazing endeavor and Jason and I got the opportunity to participate with the walkers in a work day in Selma this Saturday. It was an awesome blessing to us to be able to serve and I hope by blogging about it more people will know about this great group of people! Please pray for the walkers but more importantly, pray for the people they are raising awareness for! I am not sure how to put captions under the pictures, but these are the pictures: Lisa Pierce (Executive Director of ARM), David and Jason (dirty but still smiling), the sort of "before" picture of the house (note the size of the brush pile), the "after" picture (we had 3 other piles going at this point because this brush pile got too tall), the Edmund Pettus bridge (site of the historic civil rights march)

To learn more about ARM and the Walk Across Alabama go to: http://walkacrossal.arm-al.org/

Quick Update

So many things have been happening lately and no time to blog about any of them (which is fine, it means I have a life away from the computer!). So, to fast forward through the past 4 weeks: graduated with my Master's degree, went on an incredible vacation (saw a manatee, went to the beach, snorkeled, ate a lot of yummy seafood, Disney World, Sea World, home- whew!), had a birthday and am now cringing because I am 12 years away from 40 (by the way, who in their right mind thinks like that?), and started my new job (are people really paying me to play with kids? Awesome!). So- that is our very recent life in a nutshell.

Adding to the Noise

"What's it gonna take to slow us down
to let the silence spin us around?
What's it gonna take to drop this town?
We've been spinning at the speed of sound.

Stepping out of those convenience stores
what could we want but more more more?
From the third world to the corporate core
we are the symphony of modern humanity, yeah"

--Adding to the Noise by Switchfoot

Have you ever stopped and thought about how noisy our world as Americans has become? We have iPods, Blu-Rays, DVD's, CD's, Plasmas, LCD's, LED's (which I'll admit do look awesome), surround sound, movie theaters, car stereos, blackberries, cell phones, iPhones, etc., etc., etc. That list could be almost endless. There are literally hundreds of things in our everyday world that contribute to noise. Sure, I have an iPod. Very few people nowadays don't have an iPod or some other sort of music player, but how often do you use it to drown out other noise? Doesn't it seem a little odd to be using noise to suppress noise?

I work in a job where I am blessed to have opportunities for peace and quiet while I work. Often if I'm in the office the only sounds I have to hear are the clock ticking and my fingers rapping away on the keyboard. Every now and then the phone rings or the radio goes off but it doesn't happen constantly. If I'm out in the woods all it takes is for me to stop whatever I'm doing for a minute and listen. Usually all I hear are the birds. I hear God's creation and it sounds so much better than any of man's creations! It is peaceful. It is restful. It is refreshing. I love it!

I don't think we were meant to live a life of noise. I think we were meant to live a life of connection to other people. Too many times we're in large groups of people but we have no idea what is going on with the people near us. We go to a concert and it's so loud you have to wear earplugs to keep your ears from ringing or even bleeding. It's so loud you can't even understand the words to the songs. What's the point? This happens across the board too. I've been to many "Christian" concerts and left having an appreciation for the musicians talent in playing their instruments, but having understood only about 25% of the lyrics. Are we really spreading the gospel by drowning out the words and damaging people's hearing? I think not.

This past week Meredith and I had a great vacation through Florida with stops in Crystal River, Englewood, & Orlando (Disney & Sea World). We spent a lot of time in the boat at Crystal River (when it wasn't raining) and Englewood. Other than the noise of the boat when we stopped it was generally relaxing. Disney World & Sea World - my goodness I couldn't believe the noise. I've been to both places several times and I can't ever remember a time when it was so loud. The people were loud, the rides were loud, the music was loud, the shows were loud, everything was just noise. It was exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the trip, but I was amazed at the general noise. Disney was the worst. I had trouble focusing on what was happening where. It was hard to talk to each other standing in line for rides or while eating lunch. It was over stimulation of the worst kind. I guess they're trying for the "wow" factor but to me it was just too much. If we had kids right now I would hesitate greatly before taking them to Disney. I don't want my kids being bombarded constantly with that much stuff. It can't be good for them.

I think our society now has a vested interest in keeping everything noisy. After all, if it's noisy then nobody can hear the cries for help, nobody can hear the shouts of joy, nobody can hear the pleas for the innocent, nobody can focus on anything but themselves. We want it to be noisy because it's easier than having to hear & see the difficult challenges in front of us. It's much easier to be oblivious than to be informed. We are lost in & consumed by the noise.

By the way, consumerism of our society relates to the noise, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day when I have time to think it all out. No guarantees for a timeline on that!

In the meantime, are you adding to the noise?