Powerful Words

There is a lot of power in words.

There are a lot of words that have stuck with me-- the strongest of which are words of encouragement and words of reprimand (Mom-- remember when I ran up the phone bill in high school because I didn't realize how much it cost to talk to a boy in Spain everyday? haha).

Scripture tells us this, too.

A wise man's heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction.
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:23-24

For my own sake I should probably type the entirity of James 3, but for your sake I'll just type the summation:

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things out not be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?

James 3:10-11

I am guilty in multiple cases over the last 24 hours of having both salt and fresh water coming out of my mouth. I hope to engrave these Scriptures on my spirit for the next time I'm in a Wal-Mart line, spending time with more "difficult" people, in the breakroom with co-workers and loving those around me. It's true and illogical that my mouth would produce both cursing and blessing.

Photoshop Fun

I finally had the time (and more importantly, the patience) to attempt the "tutorial" this blog featured. Actually, this tutorial was really no help at all, and it is only by the patience of my man that this photo came to fruition.
Here's the step-by-step to achieve it if you'd like to attempt. First use your regular software to make 2 copies of the photo, one in black and white, one in sepia.

Open up the 2 copies in photoshop. (if you're on a mac) While on the sepia picture, use the rectangle tool to select the entire picture. Click apple-c to copy the sepia. Apple-v to paste it onto the black & white copy. This will make it a new layer. Alter to opacity (on the far right menu above the thumbnails of the layers) to 50%. This will minimize the color of the sepia. The finished project is above! I think this is the perfect blend of the black & white and the sepia. Enjoy playing with your own!

Atrocity

In that same vein (as the Bolivia-awareness blog), today I read yet another article about female suicide bombers in Iraq. This is my reaction:


floored
disgusted
discouraged
angry
sad, very very sad
mad
confused

No, I did not use a thesaurus. So you got my unfiltered, gut reactions. I began to think about a year ago that these women are forced into becoming suicide bombers, rather than choosing that path themselves. After all, there isn't even a fabled heaven of virgins awaiting a female martyr in Islam. After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini I began to get a picture of the horrors of life as a female in a radical Islamist nation (Afghanistan in this book). An unethical, immoral, unfathomable responsibility is placed on the woman for the ludeness and violence of a man. Raped? Your fault! You allured the man and forced him to take you. Abused by your husband? Your fault! You're antagonistic and rebellious!


Now I would never consider myself a feminist, but I am absolutely appalled by the news confirming my most awful nightmares about the plight of the female. There is a woman (and thus I assume women) manipulating this sense of responsibility on the Muslim female. A woman! A mother of 6 is the one doing this! According to now 2 articles I have read (the first above), a woman has admitted to recruiting 80 female bombers, 23 who went through with committing suicide. She's not only preying on their helplessness by claiming to offer them liberation from their domestic lives, as I had suspected. Worse. She is actually orchestrating them being raped so that she can offer them restoration of their dignity by blowing themselves up. ........ !!!!!!!!


I usually try to keep it light here, but seriously. Please be aware. I have no idea how else to help the situation. If you are of the Muslim faith and are reading this, I don't know what to say. I suppose I would feel this way if I had read about the atrocities performed by soldiers in the Crusades. I like to think I would have stood up then. I can't believe this is all happening in the name of a faith and would especially upset if it were being done in the name of the faith I held. I'm rambling because I'm upset.


So the last thought I have is the words we were singing last night,


"God above all the world in motion. God above all my hopes and fears. I don't care what the world throws at me now. It's gonna be all right! Cause I know my God saves the day and I know his word never fails and I know my God made a way for me.


Salvation is here."

Bolivia

It has been almost 3 years since I was in Cochabamba, Bolivia but the faces of the people have stuck with me. I don't pretend to understand the deep complexities of the political situation- an openly socialist, proudly indigenous President bringing his agendas into an arena where the indigenous have largely been forgotten throughout the history of his nation and forcing it onto another portion of the population that would prefer things stay as is. Sometimes I think, for me, having the awareness of the plight of the individual on both sides of the spectrum is perhaps more important than having a highly developed political opinion. I hope you have the time to look at these stunning photographs as recorded by The Big Picture and be inspired to awareness of the world at large.

Honest Scrap

Thanks Amy!

Here's how it goes:
#1: Choose a 7 spectacular blogs that you can't live without and pass this on to them.
#2: Post the "chosen ones" on your blog in link form.
#3: List 10 honest things about yourself.

#1 I can only think of 1 place where I order the same thing every time I go: Rembrandt's, Caprese panini. Everywhere else, I never order the same thing.

#2 I secretly miss having a pet. Not that I'm desperate to have our cat back, but I miss having an animal in the house.

#3 I really love Jesus

#4 I can't eat Snickers because of an unfortunate meeting between the stomach flu and Halloween when I was in middle school

#5 I know they're financially such a waste, but I love fresh flowers

#6 Planting a garden and watching it grow tops the list of fulfilling achievements for me

#7 I can't leave anything unfinished, especially puzzles (see my current reading list)

#8 I'm terrified of skiing due to an unfortunate first-attempt but I pretend like I'm not because I really want to like skiing!

#9 30 Rock is dominating my evenings these days

#10 My hair is no longer naturally this color

I raise my glass to:

Babs

Bess

Kitchn

Heidi

Marie

Holly

Jason