Here's to...

Found this on the Freedom Experiment and loved it :) Check out this whole blog for some inspiration for the soul!

What if the next time they threw a war, no one showed up?

my friend Matt posted this article about war. I enjoyed it a lot.

It is an interesting thing to consider, or at least I find it to be interesting. War is such a confusing thing because in our fallen world today, it sometimes seems necessary. But i truly can't believe that darkness will drive out darkness. I truly can't believe that killing can cause peace. I just...can't. And although this will be a life-long debate with people of all faiths everywhere, for me, at this point, i cry out for peace. i cry out for now more war. no more violence. no more guns. But not just peace. Peace meaning good will to all, is a great thing to desire. But my boyfriend, will, made a good point to me the other day--the opposite of war is actually creation. War is destruction. Peace is not the opposite of war necessarily. In fact, creation really would be the more literal anytonym.

So let me rephrase:: not only do i desire peace--goodwill toward all--I desire creation. Creation of friendships, art, atmospheres of acceptance and diversity.


I'll end this post with a quote that I have read before but was reminded of in this article. Always gets me thinking::

You, my church, told me it was wrong to kill … except in war.
You, my teachers, told me it was wrong to kill … except in war.
You, my father and mother, told me it was wrong to kill … except in war.
You, my friends, told me it was wrong to kill … except in war.
You, my government, told me it was wrong to kill … except in war.
But now I know, you were wrong, and now I will tell you, my church, my teachers, my father and mother, my friends, my government, it is not wrong to kill except in war. It is wrong to kill. --George Mizo

Lifeee

my friend/roommate Kristin pasted this little baby in my inspirational books she made me for Christmas.

And I loove it :)

I'm baack!

I have been so neglectful of my blog lately! Goal in 2011:: One post every 2 weeks.

It's a start at least :) I'd love to post each week, but let's not get too lofty.

Kristin and I took a very spontanous roadtrip to Lexington, KY just to get away for a day. While there we visited some really cool shops like Third Street Stuff, Lucia's, and Common Grounds. Kristin is always good at finding things of this nature. Anywho, the trip was extremely refreshing. In one of the used book stores we frequented, we found this little treasure:::



It's called Seasons of Hope. Printed in 1970.

I'd like to share one of my favorite excerpts:

“The answer is to rely on youth, not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to the obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans; they cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, a who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress.

It is a revolutionary world which we live in, and this generation at home and around the world has had thrust upon it a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived. Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills. Yet many of the world’s great movements of thought and action have flowed from the work of a single man.

A young monk began the protestant reformation. A young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth. A young woman reclaimed the territory of France, and it was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who explained that all men are created equal.

These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Each time a man stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustices, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

–Robert Kennedy

Swazi Bound! :)

helloooo all!

So for the next 5.5 weeks my blog is going to be transformed a bit! Normally I just use it for everyday types of ramblings and book reviews and quotes and...well you get the picture :) But over the next month or so, I will be out of town. Actually out of the continent.

This is where I will be ---> Nsoko, Swaziland

Last year I spent 2 wonderful months in this small, HIV-ravished community. I met people in the worst of circumstances holding onto God in a way I have never seen in my life. I saw so much brokenness, but then again, I saw more faith than ever. I saw joy through the struggle. I saw smiles through the pain. And I started to really grasp the concept depending on God. Like...losing your family-not having a job-hungry-but-still-worshiping-with-total-Joy kind of dependence. I learned that simplicity is intimacy and felt God in a whole new way as I wasn't distracted by tv's, texts, or tweets. But most of all, I felt God break my heart into pieces for what breaks His. I felt the call ever so clearly that we live in a hurting world, and Jesus doesn't just save us to go to Heaven, He really does desire us to bring the Kingdom to earth. Or as Shane Claiborne puts it best:

"For even if the whole world believed in resurrection, little would change until we began to practice it. We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death."

As I return to Nsoko I cannot WAIT to be reunited with my Swazi family--the kids, the gogo's, our translators--my family. I also can't wait for the perfect weather [it's winter there], no mosquitoes, and allllll the shooting stars. But i really, really, really can't wait to share all these things, experiences, and relationships with some of my best friends who will be joining me for the first half of the trip--Kayla, Kelly, Lindsay, and Sarah.

So here we gooooo! If you'd like to join me on this adventure, feel free to peek the blog every week or so! Who knows how often I'll update, but when interned is available, I shall try :)

peace&love

-kati

peace lover or peacemaker?

"A peace lover is someone who enjoys the absence of conflict, but a peacemaker is someone who is proactively engaged in works of reconciliation in every sphere of life, from the personal to the global." -Chasing Francis, p. 136

...an interesting way to put it. I find myself asking, which one am I?

2 of my lovely friends, Kelly and Lindsay, on International Day of Peace at Marshall

Franciscan Benediction

"May God bless you with discomfort

At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done,
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen."

Ressurection.

"they will take my life and I will die Jesus says
but that will not be the end
and when you find yourself assuming that it’s over
when it’s lost, gone, broken and it could never be
put back together again,
when it’s been destroyed and you swear that it could never
be rebuilt

hold on a minute
because in that moment
things will in fact have just begun."

-Rob Bell.

...and today as I sat in the woods and looked at the trees... I felt this resurrection, I felt His presence all around me. And as my unworthy lungs inhaled a deep breath, all I could say was thank you.

He is risen.

Jack Kerouac Quote

Love this quote:

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...." -Jack Kerouac

I think it goes well with the title of the blog...Vamos! Let's go! let's live! let's burn, burn across the sky :)