i never thought about it like this before.

this is an excerpt from David Batstone's book 
Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It: 

We have arrived at a momentous stage in the struggle for human freedom. The curtain has gone up, and the future waits for what unfolds. 

All of us wonder how we would have acted in the epic struggles of human history. Would we have stood up and been counted among the courageous and the just?

How would we have responded in 1942 when Nazi soldiers came to our door in pursuit of our Jewish neighbors? Would we have been the collaborator who reveals to the soldiers where the Jews on our block might be found? Or would we have played the role of the spectator who pleads ignorance, minding our own business and watching the drama unfold from our front room window? Or might we have dared to act as an advocate, giving our neighbors shelter in our attic or helping them escape across the border? 

Would we have stood up and been counted among the just? 

esther - by esterlyn

University Avenue in Minneapolis is the most widely prostituted street per capita in the whole nation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified Minneapolis as one of 13 cities with a high concentration of criminal enterprises promoting juvenile commercial sexual exploitation. 






the paint's peeling off the streets again
and i drive and i close my eyes
and i feel nothing, not brave
it's a hard day for breathing again. 

but there is hope in the Lord.  

bushed.

i would give my left arm to take a nap right now.
and sleep for a day straight.

blessed are those who mourn.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort
than be comforted, to understand than to be
understood; to love than to be loved; for it is by
forgetting self that one finds; it is by forgiving that
one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens
to eternal life.


- St. Francis of Assisi 

When all seems fairly lost and you are lower in spirit than ever before, invest in others...and your light will rise in the darkness [Isaiah 58:7-11].

forget [fer'get] verb - trans: fail to remember.

i bought a $1 mini grow-your-own flower pot kit of forget-me-nots a couple weeks ago. it came with this little pattie of soil that magically grows when you pour a couple tablespoons of water in the pot...it seriously was fascinating to watch. brie and i just stared at it for like three minutes straight as the dirt bubbled and expanded. anyways, so the directions said to put a maximum of ten seeds in the soil (i think this is because the roots would get tangled if there are any more than that)...but, since i had a great lack of faith in my flower growing abilities, i dumped probably close to twenty in.

i think this may have been a poor decision.
with great joy, i awoke yesterday morning to find fifteen little sprouts reaching towards the window. they were so fresh and green, i made brie get off the couch and come look. i was so proud.

good news: they look healthy. bad news: i hope they don't all kill each other as they take over the pot.
i'm going to need a babysitter for this plant over break (march 4-14) to mediate any possible quarreling, any takers?

i think this is a rare cactus plant that i'm in.

so i am currently sitting in a plant trying to type a ten page paper on male vs. female aggression for my psychology of gender class. i'm not actually in the plant, but basically it's the closest i can get to an outlet to plug in my computer...so i have fronds in my face. i and both my amys are currently at the spyhouse coffeeshop which is just about the coolest place i've ever been in downtown minneapolis. we moved from the window seats to a large table since it was closer to the outlet...but even so, i had to ask a random man sitting in the living room area to plug in my charger under the small coffee table. he was like (in his mind but it was written all over his face), "you're weird, but okay, i'll uncomfortably bend over and plug in your cord under this table."

i wish i could draw you all a diagram to show you how awkwardly i am sitting right now.

but seriously, go visit this place...i got like three whole pages typed here. background noise helps me concentrate though...here i'll stick a picture in: see that table to the right? and the plant right beside it? yeah thats the one i was in...although i think it's grown since that picture was taken. it was getting very jungle.

put to sea.

okay so this isn't anything terribly deep or weighty, but i just got this picture of a ship stuck in my mind the other day when i was thinking of my life. ha that's a bit trite.
i think this is a very normal reflection.

i have like three really important decisions that i find out about soon and will basically change the direction of my life a bit. i've been waiting on the Lord and putting my hope in Him, but that doesn't change the fact that when "it" doesn't go quite the way I planned, things get a little sticky.

hence, my brainpicture of the ship.

when you are sailing straight forward, it's easy. you have momentum, you can plan ahead, everything is unwrinkled and effortless. but when you need to change direction (or the Lord decides that your life needs to change direction), it takes A LOT of effort to turn the obstinate wheel. it takes much strength, it's usually hard, you strain and sweat and muscles shake. but once you have turned and have begun the new course, the sailing is smooth.

the turning will probably be hard. it'll probably hurt a little.
i'm a stubborn wheel.

but i believe the Lord's guidance...and that I'll end up where He wants me when it's done if i turn when He tells me to.