iVoted

My lovely brother over at believe your voice can mean something has been urging me to begin blogging again. His blog name is fitting tonight at I watch 2012 Election Results after casting my vote this morning. I believe that voting is important probably because I watched my parents participate in the their civil duty and because I spent 2 years in Americorps. If Americorps does anything other than put young people to work in domestic civil service it engrains a life practice of civil participation. So, today, voting wasn't just an errand on a long list of to do, but it was an event of its own. My husband and I woke up early, filled our travel mugs with coffee and walked the 2 long blocks to our local United Methodist Church slash polling place. Now to my more city-folk friends this may seem perfectly normal. But, I would bet that in my suburban Texas precinct there were maybe a dozen people all day who walked to the polls...and it was a beautiful day. Needless to say I live in a state, county, city where I have to constantly remind myself that my voice can mean something. The little church behind me may be the the most offensive display of politics and faith that I have ever seen, but my voice can mean something. The kindergarten classes at my church may disagree with my presidential choice, but God Bless 15 of the 40 little voters for standing their own ground. I am thrilled, not annoyed, to see the banter on Facebook which means that people are engaging in public discourse. Yes, I wish that discourse was a little more educated. I am most grateful that for the most part today, no matter what side folks are on the key message today was go vote-believe that your voice can mean something. Now I just wish Christians could get the same way about faith...but that's for my next post when I hop on my church soapbox.

nope

Apparently it doesn't matter how old you are you still have to take a swim test at the YMCA. I feel for the girl who had to walk me through it. First she had to tell me that I had to be hosed off before I could get in the pool. Silly me for not showering first, but then again there weren't any signs posted requesting that one rinse off first. Anyhow, after being hosed off by a high school lifeguard boy I was returning to my town and shorts that I'd already placed by the lap lane when I hear, "Ma'am." Not a word I'm yet fond of responding two put with five lifeguards, two kids in the pool and me it was pretty obvious I was the intended. I turned and she says, have you been swim tested yet? -ugh, nope. [insert slightly confused look] She's obviously realized at this point that it is silly, but knows she has to do it anyhow. So I say, no worries, sweetheart, do you job. What do I need to do for you? She straps on the fanny pack and grabs her redfloatyrectangly thing and off we go. She points out the lap lane (which my stuff is already placed next to) and says I have to swim from one end to the other without stopping. I laugh and say, I'm about to do that for about 3o minutes, so I sure hope I can make it once. She acknowledges the simplicity and that there are so many regulations, etc. Off we go. I make it to the end!! I'm awarded with a green plastic bracelet to put over my orange paper version.

About half way through my swim I start to remember when I first started swimming laps, a mere 4 years ago, even though I grew up in Arizona. I wasn't much of a swimmer until Kristi challenged me to train for a triathlon in 2005. In fact, had I been made to swim test that first time in the pool when we began training it would have been a struggle for me to go one length without stopping. I could've backstroked my way through, but not the easy swim it was yesterday.

I was kicked out of the pool about 5 minutes before I was ready to yesterday (and 45 minutes before the pool should have closed). I was stopped upon entering due to lightning today. Waited 15 minutes, then got in only to be kicked out 15 minutes later and 15-30 minutes earlier then I'd planned. Flyer says pool closes at 4:45, but lap lane remains open all evening. At 4:30 the lifeguard says everyone out.

So, in just two days after a cartoon made be wonder if I've hit grown UP, I am at the mercy of a gaggle of red and white clad high school kids. Just, 15 more minutes please, kids? I wouldn't actually say it, they've (almost all) been real sweet. So now I'm hot (no ac in the apt), tired (I work construction in the Texas summer) and only half worked out. We've decided to attempt to beat the heat and get to work at 6:30 in the morning where I'll be reminded directly and indirectly by a group of mostly lovely old men that I'm both young and a girl. I don't know what grown UP is, but I don't think I'm there..I'm not sure I ever will be.

two little indians

sittin' under a tree. one of the highlights of my week in Iowa. One of my fellow house builders is of the Oneida tribe in Wisconsin. He invited me over to talk about the book for which the movie Smoke Signals is based on and listen to the music of a family member's drum circle cd. Sitting in the Iowa grass as the sunset we talked about heritage, spiritual rituals, family tradition, woe and just general solving the problems of the world conversation. Not growing up surrounded by native people or with any particularly native tradition or meals, I was reminded this week of a part of my heritage that for some reason I identify quite strongly with, but remain to know and experience very little of. This, on a new list, is something I shall look into more in the time to come.

Iowa has been filled with moments of surreal. Take now, 7:30pm and the sun is shining as if it were noon, but at 9am we were prepped for 90mph winds, the skies were green and

grey, big ol' rain drops and beautiful lighting streaked the sky. Another round rolled in around 5pm. In and out the rains and the sun have come all week. Reminds me of highschool when the sunbathers at CanyonRanch would ponder at how it was sunny and raining at the same time. Why are you closing the pool, the sun is out? They say in Texas if you don't like the

weather wait ten minutes. I'm not sure that is so unique to Texas. In Iowa they brings in round bails of corn stalks and spread them on the ground to keep from tracking mud.

Through this all 500 AmeriCorps raised walls, trusses, decked the roof, shingled and sided to near completion 20 houses this week. 20 people that didn't have houses a month ago will by fall. Cedar Rapids was devastated a year ago by what is called a 100 year flood. Waters 21' above flood level. The red tape of the water line just below roof lines is eerie. The whole scene is ominously liken to driving through parts of NewOrleans, even still. Houses are empty, still bearing the tags from rescue efforts. Signs reading, Rebuild Downtown line the streets. The first floor of any building remains largely empty. Cab drivers lament the gov't local and above on their lack of help, others applaud them. I don't know what it is like to live in a disaster zone (and hope I never do). These folks need our continued help. Cedar Rapids, New Orleans, Liberty...leave a comment with your disaster area town that needs help-all you folks that have the opportunity to coordinate mission trips-don't forget these places.

Piece of Cake

So, I led a cake walk last weekend and let me tell you it was no 'cake walk'. Which got me thinking, where do idioms like that come from? How did we begin to associate things that are easy with being a cake walk? Now the concept of a cake walk is very simple. Take chalk, draw a donut on the ground, divide into x number of sections and number, place matching numbers in container, walk in circle, draw a number, win cake. Cake Walk. A contraire! There are often more then twelve folks who want to participate, so you have to keep them in a waiting line, people just step into the moving circle so you end up with more then you began with, or you don't sart with enough and people start hopping numbers when there are empty sections. Then you have the slow times when the same kids keep playing and winning and playing and winning but there are others that haven't won and you don't want to 'leave a bad taste in their mouth' (especially when we're talking cake). You spend two hours yelling, guarding a table of cakes from hundreds of rascal children and 'bending over backwards' to make a fun experience. Ahh!! I'm 'dog tired' just thinking about it.So, where do these phrases come from? I'm most aware of our sayings when I'm around folks for whom English is a second language. Some of them are explainable, others 'throw me for a loop'  and 'boggle my mind'. 

Just as I'm sitting here writing this blog the other two folks in the room have used barrel of laughs and beating a dead horse in their conversation completely oblivious to the content of this post. 

This post may end up clear as mud, but toss it around a bit, mull it over and get back to me.

Women Build

Here is a "daily diary" entry I was asked to write for National Women Build Week.

Fact. Women Build. Just yesterday I was one of two people working on a Habitat for Humanity house in a West Dallas neighborhood, both of us women. Several of the neighborhood men stopped long enough to ask us if we knew what we were doin' up there on that roof. Yes, we're not up here fixin' our nails or baking cupcakes but doing actual work. We're the house leaders, yes we are women who know how to build a house. We're not alone either. Women Build.
Today I had the opportunity to work on a home as part of National Women Build Week. It was a paint day which is an unfortunate representation of the work women do for Habitat. Painting is often deemed "women's work." But, this is not so often the case in my experiences with Habitat. If it wasn't for women, who account for half our Construction Supervisor staff and 70% of the Assistant Construction staff at Dallas Area Habitat, our homes wouldn't get built. I have personally worked on several homes that will end up in the hands of single mother's and it is one of my greatest joys to empower these women in the actual building of their homes. I don't hand them brooms or nail magnets, but hammers and saws. Women Build. Women build and own their own homes. Women teach and lead others in all aspects of building homes. Women carry 80 pound stacks of shingles up ladders and install 4x8 pieces of OSB on a 6 pitch roof. So, the next time you're out on a construction site and a bunch of women come around, don't count them out, but step up to the plate.
There isn't a National Women Build Week because its the only 7 days a year that women are in the construction world. For many of us it is just another week. Women Build. This week only highlights the enormous contribution women have to the home building industry, especially in the non-profit sector. Women Build. Why not have a woman build your next home?

UPDATE: Serve America Act

The Serve America Act is the Senate version of the House GIVE Act. This is going to debate today and could use a strong presence from our National Service network to help pass this critical legislation expanding National Service programs. Please see below for more information and how you can lend your voice to this effort. Thanks for your support! Senate Debate on Serve America Act Begins MondayAsk your Senators to Vote "YES" On Monday, March 23, the Senate will begin debate on S. 277, the Serve America Act. The bill, authored by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), will expand national service and volunteer programs to tackle America's most pressing challenges and create a new era of civic responsibility. President Obama specifically asked congressional leaders to pass the Serve America Act in his address to Congress last month. With additional leadership from Senators Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), the bill has been expanded to include reforms to the existing national service infrastructure to ensure accountability, efficiency and results. The Act provides necessary administrative simplification to help faith and community-based organizations - particularly small nonprofits operating in rural and economically disadvantaged communities - more effectively meet community needs. The Serve America Act was approved unanimously by the HELP Committee this past week.
Click Here to Read a Summary of the Serve America Act.
Click Here to Read the Release from Senators Mikulski, Kennedy, Hatch, and Enzi.
Your calls are extremely important. Please let your elected officials know that there is a high level of interest in this bill and we need their support. Please call your senators and urge them to vote YES on the Serve America Act. Suggested talking points and instructions are listed below.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO CALL THE YOUR SENATORS
1. If you need help determining who represents your state, visit www.congress.org.
2. Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of your senator.
3. Once connected, identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak to the Legislative Assistant in charge of national service and education issues.
A MESSAGE TO DELIVER BY PHONE
I am calling to ask Senator _______ to vote "YES" for the Serve America Act (S. 277). Due to the economic downturn, our communities are struggling and the demand for services is expanding exponentially. Nonprofit organizations need human capital to help them provide critical assistance to citizens in need. According to "Quiet Crisis," a report recently issued by Bruce Reed and John Bridgeland, the human need for nonprofit help is skyrocketing as nonprofit resources shrink.United Way saw a 68% increase during the last year in the number of calls for basic needs such as securing food, shelter and warm clothing, and is receiving 10,000 to 15,000 more calls every month compared to 2007; The State of Arizona reports an increase of more than 100 percent in the number of people who sought social services from 2007 to 2008. Goodwill of Central Arizona reported nearly twice the number of visits to its centers in December 2008 compared to 2007. Over the last year, more than 70 percent of Michigan nonprofits have seen increasing demand for their services, while 50 percent say their financial support has dropped.
The Serve America Act addresses this dilemma, using citizen service to place more human capital in the nonprofit sector. As Americans are stepping forward in record numbers to serve, the Serve America Act reinvests in service and volunteering. The bill creates more opportunities for a greater number of Americans of all ages to serve, helping to address local and national challenges education, health, clean energy, and poverty. The Serve America Act will reauthorize the federally-supported national service programs like AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and Senior Corps, which have not been reauthorized in 16 years. The bill includes new approaches for expanding the capacity of the nonprofit sector to tap the ingenuity and innovation of citizens working together to address the problems our nation faces. This is a bipartisan bill approved unanimously by the Senate HELP Committee. It is not controversial and the White House supports the legislation. I hope that Senator ______ will vote YES on the Serve America Act.

Christopher Ptomey
Congressional Relations
Habitat for Humanity International

Save AmeriCorps with Habitat for Humanity

Please take action on the following!! Wonderful programs that allow those of us to serve our country in peaceful ways are in great danger. We greatly support the GIVE Act which in many ways increases funding and AmeriCorps participation BUT not with the 2 final provisions that would greatly hinder the program and many non-profits.

National Service Legislation Moves Forward in the House and Senate
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act of 2009 (H.R.1388) by a vote of 321 to 105. If enacted the bill would expand national service programs and increase the number of service members from 75,000 to 250,000. Earlier in the day the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) approved the companion bill to H.R.1388, the Serve America Act (S.277), which is expected to be brought up for consideration on the Senate floor next week. Just before final passage, a motion to recommit (attached) was passed that added 2 provisions that present great risk for HFH. The first would prevent grants from flowing to organizations that engage in advocacy activities, i.e. most CNCS grantees, including HFHI. The second prohibits any service member from displacing a volunteer. In discussions with House majority and minority staff, it has become clear that many representatives were not aware of the implications of the motion and would not have supported it otherwise. HFHI’s Office of Government Relations and Advocacy continues to work closely with House and Senate staff and with colleagues at Voices for National Service to remedy these problems. HFH affiliates are encouraged to follow up with their Representatives and Senators requesting that these provisions be removed from the final bill. (Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121)
Amendments receiving floor consideration:·
Amendment offered by Rep. Loebsack (D-IA) to authorize a new grant program, the Volunteer Generation Fund, to assist nonprofit, faith-based, and other civic organizations and State Commissions in expanding the supply of volunteers and improving the capacity of such organizations and State Commissions to utilize new volunteers.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Hill (D-IN) to make sending care packages to soldiers deployed in combat zones overseas an eligible service program.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Hunter (R-CA) to remove veteran’s educational benefits from being taken into account when calculating the maximum award an individual could receive for participating in one of the national service programs.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Kilroy (D-OH) to make the supervision of in- and out-of- school physical education classes and nutrition education eligible service activities, in addition to providing elderly people with food delivery, legal and medical services and transportation assistance.· Amendment offered by Rep. Markey (D-CO) to increase the operational support provided to Education Award Only programs.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Perriello (D-VA) and Rep. Titus (D-NV) to create a National Service Reserve Corps to engage national service alumni in national disaster and other emergency response.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Pingree (D-ME) to expand the Clean Energy Corps to meet the needs of rural communities.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Roskam (R-IL) to authorize annual evaluation of the National Civilian and Community Corps.·
Amendment offered by Rep. Teague (D-NM) and Rep. Klein (D-FL) to expand service activities to include assistance to veterans in education or career services, medical claims, or transportation needs.·
An amendment offered by Rep. Roe (R-TN) to roll back funding for AmeriCorps to fiscal year 2008 levels was defeated.

heartbroken

Habitat Dallas has started a new area of service..Rehab. This happens in two ways. One is the most unfortunate circumstance of having to essentially foreclose on a Habitat home, refurbish it and sell it to a new Habitat Family. The second is to acquire foreclosed on non-Habitat properties, refurbish and resell them as Habitat properties. Several of us worked on the first kind today. A home built 5-7 years ago by Habitat, that will now be known to 9 of us as the poo house.
As I enter the last portion of my second year of AmeriCorps service and a lifetime of service in general, I have seen my share of undesirable living circumstances, by both lifestyle and disaster. I believe today's to have been a disaster of lifestyle and my heart hurts still for it (along with the odd muscles used to scrape 1-3 layers of extremely gluey vinyl of the floors). At random in the house were bits of poop from a small dog and/or cat, mice; the smell of rotten milk and chicken; and I'll leave the gifts of the bathroom and the toilet we removed to your imagination.
I spent a lot of time in what I decided by the objects and pictures I found to be at the largest a 10x10 room shared by two boys- a small toddler and 5-7 year old. If they actually slept in the room, I'm not sure where as there were no beds, nor room in the mess to have been two beds. After several trash can loads of toys, books, shelving, etc I began to scrape. My heart was wrenched at this point. I began to pray. It was all I knew to do.
I prayed for those boys, for the sister(s), for the rest of the family, for the new family that will move in, for this generation. I will continue to pray for them. Where are they now? Is it better? Could it possibly be worse? I will continue to wonder where CPS is in places like this, only to then wonder if their life in a home such as this is a better one then foster care or orphanages could provide and my heart hurts more. So I pray. And I'll keep praying. I'll keep building houses. I'll keep praying.

High Road

So I often ponder the saying, what do you do when nobody is looking. It is easy to do what is right when we know we're being watched, but do we do the right thing when no one is watching or might ever know? I don't live up to this all the time, but I am daily trying to become a better person. Today, I had a simple almost silly moment of this. As part of my AmeriCorps position with Habitat we're taking weekly tests on our construction knowledge. We're suppose to have read the construction manual. (As I said to them, if we'd gotten it at the beginning of the year, I would have read it, but it is not my top priority to sit down and read this large document at this point) So, I've been floating fairly successfully through the quizzes based on my own knowledge having been on the sites since Sept. Today I came across a question that was really only answerable if one had read the manual. Apparently an exact copy of a graph in the handbook. I made a comment when I came upon the question (after I'd just kidded someone else's silly question) about needing a calculator, to be informed it was in the handbook, etc. I knew one of the three answers because it applied to the style house I've built with Habitat. I had no clue on the other two. Except for my teammate. The one I'd just given a hard time to for his silly question. Muttered the answer in a cough-like creatively random sentence. I figured out his meaning, based on what knowledge I did have of the question and figured out the correct answers. But as I sat there staring at them I couldn't do it. Grades don't matter except for pride. These quizzes are simply tools for learning. I'll forever know the answer to this question and putting those answers down might have given me a close to perfect quiz. I just couldn't do it. What good would it have done? I couldn't be proud of my near perfect score if I'd cheated.
I'll be the first to say, I don't always take the high road. But for a few minutes today, I did. I hope to say that more often as my life goes on.

Sexism alive and kickin'

I try not to jump on the feminist soap box, ever, but it seems hard to avoid these days. I build houses for Habitat for Humanity (a truly wonderful organization). It is not uncommon to find a lot of women on the construction site and still a fair number of men taking tools out of their hands or making totally unacceptable comments. I don't understand how people don't realize that referring to sweeping the site as 'women's work' is not acceptable. I'm at an AmeriCorps Habitat for Humanity leadership conference this week. This topic came up today in a session regarding leading volunteers. Obviously, the problem of volunteers not listening or respecting women on the work site is not an isolated event. I was furious to witness the question dismissed with jokes and indirect answers today. I won't rehearse the idiocy of the 90 minute session here. I just want to implore anyone, glbtq young or old, to stand up for yourself. Stand up for what is right. Don't just ignore these acts when you see or hear them. If someone isn't going to stand up for themselves, step in. Don't dismiss your worth for the sake of avoiding an awkward moment. Stop making jokes and face the small comments head on before they expand into bigger problems like Cali's prop 8 (p.s. vote NO).
Okay, thanks for the indulgence, I now pass the box to someone else.

Dependent

What makes a person dependent? Over the past few weeks I have spent a lot of time contemplating dependency. As I see it in others - as I see it in myself. I come back to this issue ever few years, it seems. Starting a new 'job' I notice that quite frequently my fellow AmeriCorps and I are wary to make a decision for ourselves. Should we really nail this in? Is it exactly right or close enough? Most of the decisions would not be world ending if they were wrong nor irreversible. Building a house is, when you get down to it, just not rocket science. At what point in time does a person begin to make their own choices and at what points do we cease to be able to function alone. When and why do we become completely dependant on someone else telling us our choice is correct. Why were we at one time able to write in personal journals desperately hoping no one ever found and read them and now our value is found in how many people read our completely public personal blogs. (Guilty myself, I'm counting ya'll) I recall one point in my life when I really struggled with this. My life was so consumed with school, theatre and work obligations that I was completely happy to be dependent upon my significant other at the time to plan my social life. I'm confident I could have created my own social system if need be (and have at times we weren't dating) but at the time, I was perfectly content with letting him. Is it because I knew I was capable myself and made an active choice to depend on him? Is there a good dependency? I like the definition of independent, I believe in most things that is how I'd like to be.

breaking the unbreakable

It is the end of an era. A slightly short toss off the roof missed the dirt by inches and slammed into the sidewalk. At which point the bottom fell into pieces. Nalgene's come and Nalgene's go, but purple Thump and I have been together for some years now. These bottles are apparently giving me cancer anyhow, but nothing beats them even if they aren't truly indestructible. The first week I had this particular bottle I dropped it off a short cliff while climbing and busted the lid strap, which the store gladly handed me a replacement for. The irreplaceable is the memories that come with the bottle. The years that Cam and I had the same. The addition of Thump at an ROTC. Grad school. Enchanted Rock at New Year's. The lingering question is: Do I put the Thump sticker I found while unpacking on the new Nalgene or is that like cloning my dog and thinking its still the same dog?

more potty talk

I began pondering the port-a-potty a few months ago. I was at a Cowboy fast draw event that had two port-a-potties. One was pink, one the traditional blue. Upon closer examination each unit had the respective gendered restroom sign of cultural understanding. The pink woman's room also had a small mirror on the inside of the door, a feature apparently not included on the men's. Is it really necessary to have a separate men's and women's port-a-potty??
My port-a-potty-ponderings have returned in the last couple weeks as I've become a regular of such establishments. This is the restroom of the construction site (all blue w/ no gender specific signs). My curiosity is that the toilet seat has a spring. Not just the lid but the seat. It is in essence the reverse of the "don't leave the seat up" argument. There is no way to leave the seat down. Thus, there really is no squatting if one intends to use the seat b/c the rear must be used to keep the seat down. I have yet to decide the usefulness of this spring feature (on all the potties I've thus far used on sites). Each unit also has a 'urinal'. It does make me wonder why all those folks who keep ragging on others to put the seat down, don't just install the reverse. Install a spring that forces the seat back down. I don't know if one can pee standing up while holding the seat back as one is able to hold it down with the rear end...

when ike grazed dallas

I was building a house. We were loading and raising trusses (the triangles that sit on top of the walls to form the roof) to be exact. I was mentally prepared for some pretty intense wind and rain, so what we did get really didn't seem so bad. Don't get me wrong, its was gusty standing on the wet framed walls holding up trusses and nailing them in. I think it is good for people to get out in a little inclement weather. In some ways I even prefer today to a hot and sunny summer scorcher. A lot of mud and water and I didn't even melt..mom has some explaining to do. I also kept thinking how ironic it was that I spent eight hours building a house in the midst of a storm that was simultaneously destroying so many.

light between darkness

When I left this morning the sun had yet to rise, it was dark. When I arrived back home moments ago the sun had long been set, it was dark. I was tired this morning and I'm a whole new form of tired now. But, in those many hours between the light was great. Not just the Texas sun beating down on me creating a nice set of raccoon eyes and a farmers tan to boot, but the light of people. Arriving on site today (the first big Saturday workday of this AmeriCorps year) there was a mere slab of concrete and a pile of framed walls in the back. Just after four we rode away from a fully framed (plumb and squared) house. Working side by side with Cynthia, the future home-owner, her mom and one of three sons, we began what will by Christmas be a home for one really fine family. Cynthia's 3yr old grandson stole the day when, prompted to do what he does for the ladies, dropped to the dirt ground and starting pounding out all out push-ups. A couple of great and patient volunteers, Walker Texas Framer, Wayne and Dave took extra time to teach the 'newbie' AmeriCorps kids, the sponsors pulled out a fine lunch spread and sent us packing w/ leftover chips and cookies. After a long day of serious work the Tipperary Inn served up a fine finish with cold drinks, new friends and some fancy fiddlin'. If anyone were to say to me today, This world is going to hell in a handbasket, I'd simply have to disagree. If it is, this handbasket is filled with some mighty fine folks.

eidetic

Some moments from today:
For about 24 hours my current AmeriCorps experience was completely unlike my previous year of service. That was until today when we piled into the glorious 12 passenger van. The memories of traveling in vans during youth have been taken over by the many many miles of 10 folks and all our stuff in a 12 passenger AmeriCorps van all over the northeast.
I was schooled by a spry little pregnant woman teaching a step aerobics class tonight. I had flash backs to high school volleyball tryouts as she made us scurry across the floor in squat position. But, as the only 'white' person in the gym I felt a whole lot more at home and comfortable than in a room full of other middle class white woman who I have a lot less in common with. I was again reminded of my first tour with AmeriCorps when we lived in Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati and I attended an African American church and couldn't have been happier, drawn to worship and embraced in community.
This is not just a dear diary moment, but a contemplation on memory and flashbacks. I love a good movie flashback. I love a good life flashback even more. I'm curious today about sense memory. There are so many things I have forgotten, names, places I've been, stories I've told, etc. There are moments I haven't thought of since they occurred. But one duck into a large van and a year of memories came flooding back. It was all I could do to not become the 'my first time in AmeriCorps..." barrage of stories girl today. And through my drenching sweat and aching muscles I rolled through step aerobic moves that I haven't done in at least four years. Muscles remember. Its fascinating. How horrible are we to our bodies (not to mention our minds wasting away in front of computers and TVs) and yet there is so much information stored in them.