A Week with limited water...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I know, I am late with my last post on fasting, my apologies. I was supposed to post it on Christmas, if I stuck with the schedule, but I was busy celebrating that day :)

So, my last week of fasting was living with limited water, I only took military showers - no long 10 minute showers. As someone recently told me, most of our daily water consumption is in the shower (the charity of that week, charity:water, offers further insights into water usage and water as a social justice issue). I will admit. I cheated on this one. In that, it was not much of a challenge because I did this for all of last lent and through the summer in El Paso to conserve water.

In reflection, I did think some about how we use water here in the U.S. We water our lawns with it, some neighborhood association require you keep your lawn green. We take long showers to relax muscles, warm up, practice our singing, etc. oh and we get clean in there some how as well :) Our brothers and sisters in many countries often struggle to even get enough clean water to drink. When I was in Nicaragua this summer, we couldn't drink the well-water (our bodies aren't used to all the little parasites and things in their water). There were just two pumps in one of the little villages and if I remember correctly those were fairly new. Many folks bathed in the river, as well as did the laundry - tried both of those while there, makes you appreciate an indoor closed shower and washing machine. And that is where my advent season concluded. With Christmas morning, waking up in a bed, taking a shower, checking my email, and eating a diverse range of foods (all healthy and nutritious of course).

After this month of fasting, am I a changed person? Perhaps. Am I more appreciative of the many things I take for granted? Yes. Am I also more disgusted with the world? Probably. But there is not much I can do to make the whole world less materialistic and more focused on relationships, experiences, and the other many things that hold true meaning. So I will continue to rant and try to live out Gandhi's quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Thank you to all who joined me, cheered me on, read this, laughed at/with me :)

One final, unrelated to advent thought. This Wednesday is the two year anniversary of the death of my fellow peace-loving, social justice-living friend, Lauren, who died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Please, keep her family and friends in your prayers and in her honor purchase a carbon monoxide detector if you do not already have one. The price is definitely worth the cost of not having one. If you want to learn more about Lauren or Carbon Monoxide poisoning you can check out The LAUREN Project website (http://laurensproject.org/).

Love you all and may your 2011 be filled with blessings and peace.

Paix,

Karen

And the children were nestled all snug... on their floor?

Dear Friends,

As a child, of probably eight years or so, I can remember for a Girl Scout badge we had to write down our two favorite places. To this day I remember my response was: Chuck E Cheese and my bed. I have to say, those are still my two favorite places… Just kidding.

This past week was my week sleeping on the floor instead of in a bed. Amazingly this has been the easiest week so far. Thank you exhaustion. I have always been able to sleep almost anywhere; I fall asleep on noisy planes, with screaming babies, often before we even take off. I spent a semester of my college career sleeping in a sleeping bag; A week of my life on a mission trip without beds; And other random nights on the floor but never with the intention of reflection specifically on the bed-less part of those experiences.

Even sleeping on the floor, I could not help but think how lucky I am. At my office, we receive more than 300 phone calls each day. The majority of those calls are from individuals who are sleeping on the floor. Unlike my sleeping on the floor experience, many of these people do not have a stack of blankets, an insulated house, or even heat for that matter. Even in my rental house, the heat is set at a comfy 68 degrees during normal waking hours and, thanks to one of my generous roomies, I have blankets galore. When I got home to Oregon, my floor had an additional benefit: Carpet. Most of the moms I talk to on the phone at work are more likely than not putting their children to ‘floor’ without so many blankets and potentially on hard wood or the cheap indoor/outdoor, hard-to-destroy carpet common in low-income rentals. In the past week, at A Wider Circle, we put out a request for blankets as the temperatures outside were in the teens (gosh, I missed my El Paso-desert-bike-commute on some of those mornings). It was amazing to see a table stacked with more than 20 blankets be cleared completely within a matter of hours. Again, something so simple that I often take for granted. Between my two homes, Oregon and Maryland I personally own 17 blankets, I believe. And for those of you who know how much stuff I own in general, those really are a huge part of my belongings.

I have also been thinking even about how much ‘bed’ has become a part of our lexicon. “Early to bed, early to rise…” “I’m going to bed.” “Three little monkeys jumping on the bed…” In our country, it is just something that we assume is in ever home. We even call it a bedroom in English (something that doesn’t happen in the other languages I have learned). Just some food for thought.

In seeing many of you since I have been back in Oregon, I have found I have trouble explaining the work that I am doing and what my organization really does. I feel like you have to see it to believe it, in some ways. The example that comes to mind though is in the movie Blindside (for those who have seen it). There is a scene where Leigh Ann Tuohy shows Michael his room and he asks if that bed is his and then says he has never had his own bed before. I cried at that moment. That is story of many of the more than 1,000 individuals and families currently waiting on our waiting list. As well as the 10-15 families we serve each day.

Here is my challenge for the week. At A Wider Circle, we have one key policy. Do not say anything about someone that you would not say to his/her face. This means other staff but also donors and clients. I think this is a mantra to live by in all aspects of life and can’t help but think how, if we all took this to heart, the amount of hurt in our world would greatly decrease. There are enough random bad things that happen in this world that cause us pain, why add to each other’s pain with petty gossip? That extra negative energy, I am sure, just spreads. So for this week of love in the advent season (who needs Valentine’s day? We’ve got a whole week of love :-P). My challenge is to live by that one key policy and let every action and word be one of love. It will at least make you a happier person. Instead of cursing out the driver who just cut you off, say a prayer (s)he gets to her/his destination safely. Instead of complaining about your mother-in-law’s dry turkey (which is definitely my plan), become a vegetarian. : )

Until next week, peace and love be with you! And a very Merry Christmas.

~ Karen

Oh Happiness, Thy name is Carb

Hi Friends!

I hope you had a great and peaceful week! For those who have been following my blogging, you will know I gave up most food (only eating beans, rice, squash, corn, apples, and milk) for the past week. Even as I write that, it seems like I was still eating a lot of stuff. And again, I learn more and more about 'addiction' I feel each week of 'fasting'. This was a hard week though.

One of the first things I realized was that I have an overwhelming access to food. It may be with the holiday season, I think it is just the generosity of those with which I work, but there were at least three different 'free foods' sitting on our kitchen counter each day. Everything from mixed nuts, chips, and fruit to muffins, cinnamon rolls, and bagels. Needless to say, there was endless temptation :). I can proudly say I have enough Catholic Guilty that I did not cheat once on my fasting :). In this though, I did realize that if for some reason I had just not had the money to buy food this week, the reality I live in would never have allowed me to be hungry. One day I even heard one co-worker saying, "I haven't gone to the store because it is so cold outside so I literally have no food in my house." Another co-worker then offered, "Do you want half of my lunch?" Food access is definitely not something I lack...

Another realization that I came to is that food for me is more than just a way to nourish my body. When I am stressed or emotional in a negative or positive way, I cook/bake/eat. I still cooked and baked this week, I just fed it to other people excluding my rice and beans :)

I also don't think I have ever really understood the word craving before... All I wanted all week were things from the bottom of the food pyramid, excluding rice. Bread. Pasta. Cereal. My stomach some mornings would literally wake me up growling, because one can only eat so many bowls of squash, beans, rice, and corn. Yet, when I would get to the kitchen to heat up my rice and milk breakfast, my stomach would have changed its mind, if that was the option, and I would literally have to choke down the bowl trying to tell my body it would need the nourishment for the bike ride to work...

So the next time I contribute to a non-perishable food drive, I don't care if beans and rice give me the most bang for the buck, I will be buying some kind of healthy canned soup or fruit or something with some excitement. I will be passing on something that someone will enjoy eating. Something that I would enjoy eating. Perhaps some pasta to go with that soup...

The next week of advent is the week of joy, yahoo pink candle. This is a side note and a bit of a tangent, as a child I always use to think or would pretend (because I was never that naive a child :-P ) that the pink candle was because of me as it almost always falls right near my birthday :) So be joyful! I have really tried to do that constantly at work, because everyone is stressed this season both those who call to donate furniture, co-workers, and those who are sleeping on the floor. It is amazing to see how it rubs off. So rub off some joy this week and I will send you my reflections on sleeping on the floor next weekend from OREGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until then,

~ Karen
The Carb-a-holic

P.S. Saturday is my Break-fast day, and I literally had to stop writing mid-way through this to truly appreciate and devour a succulent bagel. :)

Advent Week One... Overcoming addiction

Dear Friends,

Happy Hanukkah! These are my reflections on my week without personal email/facebook/useless internet surfing...

I now have even greater respect for individuals who have overcome an addiction. I have to say I also didn't realize how much I use my email as an escape. I woke up a week ago and as normal I thought, I wonder if anyone sent me an email and I am so excited it is Sunday because that is when Postsecrets changes their posted secrets :) Throughout the week while I was baking, cooking, or before leaving work my default would be, I should check my email. When I would get home from work I would think I should check facebook and see if I needed to poke someone or wish someone a happy Birthday. In the few spare moments I had through out the week, I started thinking of planning my Christmas break (which largely means visiting folks in Oregon) and again would be foiled by the lack of 'communication ability.' I had some attempt at a social life this week and am planning a holiday party for next week, both of which again are more difficult without the email and facebook to which I have grown accustomed. I also did wake up excited to be able to again check my email. I definitely did not realize the level to which email/facebook primarily had so completely taken over my life. I do think to some degree instead of being means to an end they have become an end in themselves. It is my opinion that those tools should be used as just that - a way to assist in communication with people. Instead I have to some degree I think allowed them to become an idol in my life with which I have an active, yet one sided relationship.

Without the "privilege" of these things in my life I did notice a shift in my behavior. I found I spent more time reading, socializing in person, and probably sleeping without the constant draw of the computer. I also found I had to let go of some of my control freak-ness. I couldn't easily shoot someone a message to figure out our evening plans. I also had to be willing to accept that I would potentially miss some opportunities (I heard recently and may have quoted here that life is nothing but a bunch of missed opportunities - not in a negative way because for every opportunity missed that means another was taken advantage of).

I read a book two summer ago that talked about the important of mindfulness and focusing on just one thing at a time for inner peace. I have to say that without the computer that was much easier. I normally can be found in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, eating, reading emails, responding to emails, some times talking on the phone/texting/G-Chatting, while making my next to-do list and checking things off of my current to-do list. Needless to say, I am probably not doing any of these things to the best of my ability because I am only using one-tenth of my ability on any task. So in addition to learning of my addiction, I have relearned the importance of mindfulness (and will most likely have to relearn that one another million times in my life time).

I do think I will try perhaps to only use the email every other day or something along those lines so that it again is a tool to help me instead of the all consuming addiction that it seems to have become in my life. This week of computer fasting has definitely been an enlightening experience.

For the next six days, I will be on the beans, rice, corn, squash, apples, and milk diet to see what I learn about taking for granted the great variety and accessibility of food in my life. Though in looking at that huge list, I feel like I am granting myself too much variety...

Also one final tangent, do to my being out and about more this week, because I wasn't wasting so much time on the computer, I have been spending a lot of time on the bus (which is always an eye-opening experience to encounter humanity). I have noticed, and come to realize, those who are living with less, often in economic poverty, tend to wish others a "blessed day" or to even say "I am blessed!" more than individuals of higher economic standings. I especially notice this on the bus and in many of the phone calls I answer at work. I have never had a person calling to donate furniture bless my day or talk about how blessed their life is but regularly have folks calling to get furniture bless my day or in response to "how are you?" say 'I am blessed' (which is often then followed by 'and could you tell me how much longer until I can come get a bed')... I am still formulating my reflections on that but just find it interesting...

Have a blessed week and rest of Hanukkah for those of you 'in the tribe.' I think this week the advent candle symbolizes peace if I remember correctly... So on that note, peace be with you.