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Modern-day Cannibals

Posted: March 25, 2013 in Uncategorized

Here I am at an internet coffee stop in the Lima, Peru airport. We’ve been in Peru for 10 days. For 9 of those days we were living out in the jungle with our new friends from the Bora Tribe, in the village of San Andreas. Never in my life have I met such gracious people who extend a profound sense of community and love. Considered to be very poor by the world’s standards, they are extremely wealthy in terms of love, joy and being content in this life regardless of what material possessions they own. They don’t seem to be haunted with the hunger of greed that perpetuates our society and sucks the very life force out of us, robbing us of why we were created.

On one of the last nights in the village, one of my students was asking one of the village elders, Walter, questions about jungle life, etc. He was asking through a translator. One of the questions he asked was “Are there any cannibals in the region?” Walter answered “no, not at all.” But then our translator, after thinking for a moment, said, “Yes, actually there are. They live in the city and they wear suits and ties. They have big houses only for themselves and they are consumed with greed that eats those who are weaker then them. Instead of using their power and wealth to help others, they use it to consume everyone and everything in their path. These are the cannibals – and there are many of them.”

Isn’t it true? The world tells us to live for self. Climb the corporate ladder. Success is defined as what brand you can buy, where you live, how much you’ve got put away for retirement, how big is your tv, what is your degree, how much money you make and what you spend it on … And on and on the message goes…

Yet I see my jungle friend’s love and lifestyle and realize they are the ones who are truly successful. They are the ones who have arrived. As one of my other student’s shared: “We have seen those who have nothing, yet who have every kind of happiness. And we see those who have so much, yet are still depressed.” Yes, my jungle friends, the people of San Andreas, are truly the wealthy ones. We are the ones who suffer from true poverty.

It’s true – there are cannibals still around today. The question to ask is this: Am I one of them?

Be a Trader

Posted: November 10, 2012 in Uncategorized

This Video says it all.

Abrupt

Posted: June 5, 2012 in Uncategorized

It’s over. My life has come screeching to a stop once more. Tires still spinning, eyes racing, activity over. And it’s just me. Just me and the sky. Just me and my soul. Heart still races from all the activity I’ve just come from. Sweat still glistens as my life has been poured out over the last 8 months. I look around frantically and see that I am in a field – a field with just myself. The class of 2012 has graduated and left over the horizon, their journeys forever woven into ours. The campus is eerily quiet, getting us all to question if the last school year actually did just happen. And summer is rising upon us all – a reminder that time is charging on, being a friend or foe – it’s entirely up to us. With this halt of scheduled activity, I am reminded once again that activity loves to mask itself as purpose…but it is not. As I catch my breath I have a choice – to keep feeding my activity-driven world, or to allow myself to stop and look … and be. To mourn, to remember, to sleep, to laugh. To be still and know… and to remind myself once more of all the things that truly matter – things that cannot be bought or sold or faked. Even though it still feels a bit foreign, I choose to stop and look…and breathe. I invite you to do the same. This rendition of Coldplay’s song really helped to give me that permission tonight.

The Wealth of Water

Posted: April 11, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: drill by hand, Peru, water, well

The day was already sticky and hot, and it wasn’t even 9am yet. We slathered on the sunscreen, mixing it on our already-sweaty arms and legs. Today was the day of the first well-dig, and we were ready to get it on. What followed in the coming days was a beautiful dance of digging, drilling, pumping and sealing. But today would be our first water-well out of 5 that we would have the honor of bringing to families and neighborhoods.

As we huddled around the heavy-packed sod we were about to tear up, there was something mysterious and magical that hung in the air. This element, water, is something that connects us all – to all life. Water is something that is so basic, yet in some parts of the world so precious because it cannot be just turned on with a switch. Many people are forced to labor and sacrifice time and energy to provide this very basic, life-giving source by carrying it for miles to their families or villages. And here we were, standing on this holy ground that would soon become a source of life and thrival in a few hours. The moment felt holy, because under our feet was the stuff that held the precious necessity that connects us all – H2O.

We gathered around for a moment and offered this hallowed ground to God, as well as our sweat, muscles and minds. The humble honor of participating in such a gift was astounding. After our pause, we jumped in and began to dig…and dig and dig.

It’s very interesting the steps that are involved in drilling a well by hand. They are as follows:

- Dig the overflow “tank” – about 4 feet deep.

- Pat down the inner walls of the overflow tank – most of the dirt is clay-like and so it makes for a perfect natural tank

Carrying water from the river for the overflow tank

- Pour river or pond water (whatever is available close by) into the overflow tank and fill it up, as well as a large trash-can-sized container with extra water.

- Start up the generator that pumps the river water into the drill. (the drill consists of a drill-tip that you connect the other piping to, and then you connect the water pump to the piping, which then runs down through the piping and jets out through the drill tip.)

All the pieces in play for a well

- Connect all the drill pieces, and begin to drill the well, turning it by hand with two monkey wrenches. This is a tough job and different participants in the well-drilling have to rotate every 10 minutes.

- As the water level may lower, the bucket-brigade continues to fill up the overflow tank.

- As the drill gets deeper, you add more pipe

- Keep adding pipe until you hit the fresh, clean water well in the earth. (You can tell when you’ve hit the fresh water because of the minerals that will come out with the water.)

- Flush out the drill hole, and add the pvc pipe

Gabriel flushes out the new well

- Flush out the dirty pump water.

- Put on the top of the pump and WALA! You have a fresh water well!

The first well we drilled at San Andreas village

The well we did inside this family's house

A family with their well all finished and the crew

This woman is also getting a new house

Two of the girls that got a well

It was pretty amazing to be able to drill by hand water from the earth, and to help provide that basic human need to our Peruvian brothers and sisters. It was humbling for me to partake in the beauty of that labor. I thought of my own experience, and how easy it is to get water, and how I don’t treat it with the sacredness it deserves. You see, water unites all of life. They say that 70% of the human body consists of water. They also say that 77-78% of the human brain is water. Blood is 55% Plasma, and plasma is about 90-92% water, which makes blood about 50% water. Water unites us, just as air unites us…just as love, laughter, and life unites us.

Since getting back to the States and watching my flushing toilet; and seeing the miracle of my washing machine; and being able to draw a hot bubble bath with the turn of a spigot, or pour out a glass of clear water from my faucets that exist in several rooms in my house, I am humbled. What makes me so blessed to have the luxury of this basic necessity of water literally at my fingertips? Why doesn’t the whole world have this luxury? We are all deserving of this blessing – because we are all partly made of water, and so water unites us. But then once again, I stop and think: most of us are unaware of the luxuries we possess. We cannot fully understand it’s weight until we have experienced life without it…and so, who is truly more wealthy? Those of us who have all these conveniences and grumble, complain and wrestle with feeling entitled and “needing” more; or those who have labored for the right to have water – who have carried it for miles and have shared it with their thirsty friends and family – and who finally get a well in their home or neighborhood and truly feel the luxury of the water that now comes forth with just a turn of the switch! They celebrate every mouthful on their parched lips because they know the true meaning of the wealth of this basic, life-giving necessity! May we all remember that we are treading on holy ground all the time, and the necessities of this life are what unite us…and this is what makes life and community and basic human rights truly holy.

Spring Resurrected

Posted: April 8, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: dead, dead leaf, grey, hope, joy, poem, resurrected, spring, winter

(I wrote the first part of this poem during the winter – and have added to it now that spring is shyly tip-toeing in… The story behind the first part of the poem is that I was sitting in my living room on a quiet day. My soul was restless and I needed to pause and stop in the madness of my scheduled life. So I was sitting there, looking out the window – thinking – processing…when I noticed one lone leaf, very tiny, still clinging to the naked branches of a tree. This is what inspired the poem…)

Like a blank, waiting page – silent comfort.

Naked trees. Grey sky.

One leaf: black, dead…yet she clings…alone.

Shriveled reluctance…inner strength; stubbornness.

Perhaps not knowing that the inevitable will come – that the inevitable is here.

Yet alone she clings

Through rain, sleet, freeze and wind.

She shutters and dances, yet grasps to life

Alone.

There’s a sort of comfort to empty quietness

Masks are broken.

Eyes gaze at nothing really – just relaxed, and waiting and BEING.

Waiting to be filled…but adoring the empty – as if it is a sanctuary in and of itself.

Solace of quiet loneliness.

Letting be what will be.

Letting the winds rage, and the rain pound, and the winter darken the sky.

And still she clings…

Her defiance to the inevitable wind is astounding.

Her outer beauty gone, the inner strength screams

Of something extra ordinary within.

A part of me admires her

And a part of me pities her

Why not just give up the fight?

Release your hold – winter is coming – winter is here

But still she clings…

I look down for a moment, my own world spinning around me.

The wind of my schedules and expectations rip at my soul.

The darkened sky of deadlines to meet and roles to fill creep into my quiet.

Yet I pause, as if suspended in time. The lonely afternoon sanctuary of my place by the window

Calms me and soothes my human fragile soul.

And as I raise my gaze out the window once more

She is gone.

A part of me looks harder, sad I missed her final moments

Of tenaciousness against the elements…

But she is gone

Finally letting go and allowing the wind to carry her away.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Two worlds collide

Hope peaks out of the shadows

Joy tiptoes out of her place of hiding

Like a child wanting to throw a surprise party

She puts her finger to her lips and whispers “Ready?!”

There’s a twinkle in the wind tonight

As the day just can’t go to bed quite yet…too much to miss out on!

Can you taste it?

Renewal, as a promise of something beyond the darkness

Has begun to subtly paint her hues of green into our world.

Listen! Can you hear it? The rumor running on the breeze tonight?

That the dead did not win. That the grey could not hold out.

That the wind has stopped his scolding, and the rain ran out of tears.

That love, peace and laughter could not lay dormant any longer.

And the nakedness of shame has been covered with the grace of life.

Can you feel it?

The tenacious grip of hope has won.

And we are seeing this miracle with our own eyes!

Spring is resurrected.

A Different Kind of Poverty – Interlude

Posted: April 2, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: Amazon, beautiful letdown, culture shock, Peru, poverty, restlessness, soul, Switchfoot, tension, two worlds, wealth

My soul feels restless today. We’ve been back from Peru now for 4 days, yet it feels longer. We got back and hit the ground running – returning to work, catching up on paying bills, checking emails, doing laundry, going grocery shopping…life as usual. I finally have a day off – first one in over 2 weeks – and I feel restless.

Dreamt last night about Peru – I could hear the jungle sounds in my sleep, and woke up thinking I would be inside my tent – only to find me inside my comfortable bed, in my comfortable house, with the clock ticking and crickets singing outside. And it was weird – I felt a tiny bit of disappointment. I should feel grateful and happy to be home – and I do – but I also feel restless, and this restlessness is deep inside my soul. And it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what it is…but I shall attempt.

It’s as if the two worlds have collided, which is to be understood, and I am in the middle, holding one in one hand, and the other in the other hand. I am the link, and I am feeling the tension of both drawing at me, questioning my identity and value, whispering at me – challenging me with the question of who am I in light of both worlds? Like the tension that arises when a storm suddenly cascades upon the reality of a sunny day, I stand in the middle of this tension.

A storm coming on the Amazon while we were in Peru

This tension all started the moment we got back, but in little ways: finishing my grading, jumping right back into work, interacting on Facebook and email with friends, playing Angry Birds, doing laundry, prepping for work. All the little “normal things” that are the day-to-day routines of “normal life”, but it all happened so fast – as if two alternate universes collided in a matter of hours, and the normalcy of both at first seemed ok, but the more they both existed at the same time, it began to rip a hole in the universe of my soul. The chasm is widening and calling out to me, haunting me with questions such as:

Who are you and what will you do with this experience?

What world do you belong to?

How will you become this new reality of both worlds – how will you make room for the collision to exist?

How will this enhance the journey you are on?

How will you be true to yourself?

You feel you need to change? No need to change – let it go!

These questions surprise me – I travel a lot… I haven’t felt this restlessness in a long time. It doesn’t happen every time I travel. Why now? Why this time around? Or maybe I do feel it every time? Maybe it does call out to me but I drawn it out in the ways I have been attempting to this time: playing silly games such as Angry Birds, exercising, checking Facebook every hour, cleaning, working, planning, listening to music or catching up on TV…and the list could go on. Yet with feeding myself this dose of activity since getting back, I’ve become more and more restless, and with it, more and more unhappy – thus widening the gap between the world I left 2 weeks ago, and the world I’ve returned to.

After living simply with spending 2 weeks in a tent, listening to the sound of the jungle at night, laughing with and loving on children who have nothing, drilling wells for people who have no water and had to haul it literally for miles, and being cut off from email and tv and Facebook…and then suddenly plunging right back into this world of activity – it makes perfect sense that I feel this culture shock on a soul level.

So what to do? How do I process this “culture shock?” A side of me feels silly, like it’s stupid that I feel this way – “C’mon Krystalynn, You’re a professional. You do this all the time! Are you really that weak?? Why are you listening to your soul? You’re thinking way too hard about this! Maybe you’re just emotional and tired. Let it go! You had 2 weeks, now you’re back. You deserve this life here and now. ” It’s the cynic that lives in my head…Identifying this cynic feels liberating. And so, my way of giving my inner cynic the finger? I will listen to my soul. I will let my soul feel the tension of both worlds colliding. I will provide myself with space and hush and safety to process this beautiful glimpse of awakening in my soul. I choose to let the kingdom make itself manifest within me – and I will stop fighting it. As the Switchfoot song puts it, this is a Beautiful Letdown.

So how to make both worlds connect? I’m gonna go process this question now – I will give my soul permission to feel and to question and to mourn…and I feel relief and peace with the honesty I am showing myself and I’m excited for the outcome. One thing is for sure – I feel like I am unmasking the poverty of my materialism and unveiling the ingredients of the wealth of what it means to live kingdom moments that liberate the soul.

Here’s the song “Beautiful Letdown” by Switchfoot:

Traveling

Posted: March 15, 2012 in Uncategorized

Today I am leaving for Peru for 2 weeks. Don’t know if I’ll be able to update my blog, so if not, I’ll be back up in 2 weeks.

May we all spread love in whatever corner of the world we find ourselves in. As a quote says: “They’ll call you a dreamer, a do-gooder or a romantic. Every time you stand up for a good cause – large or small – someone will roll their eyes or tell you to sit back down. Robert Kennedy used to say that 20% of the people are against everything all the time. It’s true. There will always be lots of people who can give you all the reasons why you can’t or won’t improve the world. It’s up to you to remind yourself of all the resins why you can and will. Optimism and pessimism are both choices…” (from the book “One”). And I add to that that love and a life of love is also a choice. And it is what the world is dying for. So join me in the journey. Whether it be in Peru, Tennessee, California, the city, the country, your living room, the slums, or the palace – let LOVE be your mission, your motto, and your reason for being here at this time in history! And as Richard Bach says “Here is the test to find whether or not your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn’t.”

The Rat Race

Posted: March 6, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: honest, peace, rat race, self-significance

(I wrote this a few years back and ran across it yesterday. It was a good reminder from my past self. Hope it can lift you up today!):

Do you ever have days when you don’t think you can take another step? When the routine of the day-in-day-out seems like crusted mud that has dried on your soul, where tire marks reveal the signs of being driven over and over again? Do you ever feel so empty inside that you don’t even feel broken, just cast aside like an old frumpy dust cloth, lying at the bottom of a heap of old, forgotten, unimportant laundry that hasn’t been washed in months. The world rushes on as if driven by some insane train conductor, where the breaks have gone out, and you feel like you have to run along-side it and match it’s speed, yet be sure you don’t break a sweat so as not to draw worried attention. Do you ever feel like you’ve accidentally set your soul down on a park bench somewhere and oops, forgot to pick it back up? Like you’re wandering aimlessly, a shallow empty shell of the human species searching for something; what you know not. Just as long as you search, as long as the tires spin and the air fills with smoke, you are living, and so you rush to chase after…after what?

And then suddenly you run into an unexpected alley where there is a deadend and your footsteps echo as you come to a stop. This isn’t where I was heading. How did I get here? And you stop. And it feels good to stop. But your brain tells you you can’t stop. And it doesn’t matter that it’s a stinky alley with trash rotted into the asfault, it just feels good to take a hush moment. And the still small voice comes whispering into the alley like a lonely afternoon breeze: “what are you doing? where are you madly rushing to? And why?” And as my breath races and my brain screams that I’m losing the race, the quiet reaches somewhere deep in my soul and almost convinces me that this is what i’m searching and rushing towards…and i begin to relax. Tense muscles slowly letting loose, breath slowing to a steady pattern. And here, in this alley of a deadend street, i start to see that herein lies my destination of fulfiillment. my eureka of longing deep inside. my answer to the question of who am i. I’ve been madly rushing past so many silent alleys for so long. I collapse in a heap at the edge of a dumpster, and as i smell the stench of rotting trash, i realize it’s full of my attempts at self – accomplishments and duty-bound exercises of self-significance.

I can’t take the pace anymore. I can’t carry the burdens anymore. And so i let go. Nothing at all to give except to just be. And then it occurs to me as I watch the madness of the traffic from my alley hideout: could this be the destination everyone is rushing to attain? Peace. Peace with self and God. Honesty of the fragile grass I am. Wouldn’t it be ironic that in the mad rat race, we are really just running from the truth of who we are and Who He is. That we are not God. That we truly were meant to just be still. That in that moment we are then found and fulfilled…. I don’t have all the answers. All I have is me, raw, chipped, grey (have you ever thought of your emotions as colors?), marred, empty, dry, wrung-out, helpless, demanded, creationless, even dreamless at the moment, and scared of my weaknesses…but it’s nice to finally see all of them in one place. And so the beauty of honesty begins to dawn on my mind…what will I choose to do with this silent beautiful moment? Only what role I choose to run in the race will tell…

A Lifestyle of Love – But Where to Start?!

Posted: February 28, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: Dark Side of Chocolate, Fair Trade Chocolate, International Justice Mission, small things with great love, World Vision

Do you remember when you were a kid and your room would be a complete disaster – and a parent maybe told you to clean your room, and it would seem so overwhelming?! I remember what my mother used to tell me: ”start by making your bed.” And it always seemed to help. For some reason, that made the daunting task of cleaning the cluttered room actually seem possible. Why? Looking back, maybe that’s the most noticeable thing in the room? Maybe it’s a mind-game that perhaps if I can make that look all neat and clean, then it gives me motivation and fortitude to tackle the other, smaller piles and messes? Or, perhaps, it’s because that’s the easiest mess to start with. I sleep in the bed every night, so therefore it’s the easiest thing to fix right away cuz it hasn’t had time to acquire piles on top of it. After making my bed, it always seemed that the room eventually got cleaned up, as long as I stayed focused on finishing what I started.

When it comes to living a life of this reality, “Small things with Great Love”, at first the task can seem daunting. Our lives, which have been scattered with “stuff” appear out-of-whack and we see the need to organize, and clean up. But it can appear to be discouraging. So my advice? Start with the “bed.” What is one thing in your life that you can control and change right now? Remember, it’s small things with great love behind it. What would “making the bed” look like in a normal person’s life? Here’s some suggestions, some taken from real, every-day people:

-If you like chocolate, start buying only Fair Trade Chocolate. This is a quick, easy way to vote with your dollar. To get motivated on why to buy fair trade chocolate, see the video here: http://documentaryheaven.com/the-dark-side-of-chocolate/

-Go to World Vision and decide to sponsor a child. For only $30 a month, you provide meals, healthcare and an education. That’s about $1 a day!

-Become a big brother or big sister to a child who doesn’t have a father or mother, or a positive adult in their life. To find out more, check this out:http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5962335/k.BE16/Home.htm

-Instead of spending so much on cable TV or Dish, opt out for a lower bundle and use the amount of money you would spend every month saving to go on a mission or humanitarian trip, or donate to a cause of your choice.

-Use moments and opportunities that present themselves to you as a moment to trade. My brother started a website called Trade for Freedom. You can check it out at www.tradeforfreedom.org. In it, he wants to use different things in his life to trade for the freedom of a human being. For instance, instead of getting a certain drink he likes, he’s going to put that money toward International Justice Mission where a slave can be freed. He had a moment this past weekend where someone vandalized his car, and instead of buying the hood ornament (about $40 on ebay), he is donating that money to IJM – he’s trading for freedom. As he puts it, “I don’t want to just send money off and not have to be too closely involved. I want to be closely involved. I want to make more of an impact and to understand more and just be the change…What if I take something I don’t really need to get, and every time I would normally buy that instead I trade it for someone’s freedom? I suppose that is still donating, but I feel it’s different when there is great love behind it. And a way that we can do something really small, with great love is to trade something really small, for the freedom and rescue of a hurting lost fellow human. And it doesn’t have to be money. If I have an old computer I’m not using anymore, I’m going to sell it and donate the money to those who are on the front lines. Yes, I would love to be on the front lines. But until I can be, I can do this…I can trade for freedom.” Join him, or start your own unique journey.

These are just a few ideas. The message is clear – start somewhere, and like my mother meant when she told me to “start with making your bed”, start in the easiest place that you notice right now. And remember: It’s “Small Things with Great Love” that change the world, one step at a time. What are some things you’ve done to start living a lifestyle of love?

Small Things with Great Love – Some Examples of Ordinary People

Posted: February 24, 2012 in Uncategorized

“The most valuable weapon in the fight against human trafficking may be you,” the article begins. These stories are some great examples of ordinary people in just a year’s time doing something beyond themselves. I just had to share this link! It shows that ordinary people doing small things, with great love and justice behind it, is proof that we can change the world! Check it out the link below, or you can read on and I’ve included a copy of it in this post:

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/23/ways-to-help-making-a-difference/?on.cnn=1&hpt=hp_c3

The most valuable weapon in the fight against human trafficking may be you.

CNN is celebrating the work of ordinary people inspired to do something, to take action; to stand up against slavery.

People from West Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, have all joined the fight.

Watch the “Taking a Stand, Making a Difference” show here in three parts. In the first segment, viewers horrified by our expose of working conditions for people cocoa farming in West Africa campaign for more Fair Trade products.

Natalie, in Romania, was moved to stop eating chocolate until Fair Trade cocoa is on sale in local shops. Gerry, in New Zealand, tried to make a regionally-inspired dish using only Fair Trade products.

Meanwhile, young Christians at a U.S. convention built a statue symbolizing the extent of slavery, raised $3 million for related charities – and got the attention of President Barack Obama.

In part two, the idea that people are not for sale is spreading across Ukraine, and one South Korean school is now campaigning to abolish the modern-day scourge.

In part three, one woman beat her fashion bug to help women rescued from human trafficking.

Amy Seiffert wore the same dress for six months and donated the money she would have spent on clothes to a local organization building a shelter for rescued women in Ohio.

She says it was a small thing that reinforced the message that her ability to choose is privilege denied to many.

Along the way she inspired others, and the Daughter Project’s shelter is now a reality.

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