Tourists in Hawaii

So, the Sundance Film Festival before mentioned in a previous post was a magnificent combination of standing in line for hours on end and roaming main street openly searching for celebrities. Unfortunately none of which decided to make an appearance. Needless to say it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

On Saturday Laura and I were invited to a very large party themed as a luau. The invitation encouraged everyone to dress up. So we had this genius idea of transforming ourselves into 45-year-old-recently-divorced-traveling-for-the-first-time-to-a-foreign-land tourists. We went to the local goodwill, and found our perfect outfits. We were the subject of a good many quizzical looks and a fair amount of full out belly laughs. It was a good night.

Nakate

I recently read a post on or-so-i-feel.blogspot.com and I was deeply moved by the message I read there. It speaks of a people who are impoverished and suffering from the debilitating disease AIDS in the small town of Kakooge located in Eastern Africa. These people not only must struggle for their own survival and the welfare of their children every single day but they are severely weakened by the disease that they carry.

A small group of women who have traveled to Africa put together a project called "Nakate" to help these women have the ability to provide for their families. How it works is they purchase handmade jewelry from women suffering with AIDS and sell it in the United States, then they return the money to the women and help invest in their businesses.

It doesn't take piles of money or countless hours of volunteer work to help make someone else's life a little better. We must all help each other and this is a beautiful way to serve another. The photos shown above are taken from the website. Take just a minute and check it out. See what you can do to help. www.nakateproject.com

Update

And after 5 months spent crying, searching, emailing, dropping off resumes, and praying I finally got a job.

It feels really good to be making some money again.

I'm a little bit concerned. One of my new year's resolutions was to wash my face every single night, and I'm proud to say that we're 3 weeks into 2011 and I'm still going strong. However, my face isn't really clearing up any. Everyone pray that I don't have a case of adult acne.

I'm excited for this year! I have a renewed commitment to do like a million fun things and the first one takes place this weekend. I'm going to the Sundance Film Festival! It should be a really good time. Hopefully I see some awesome movies and I wouldn't mind seeing a few celebrities either.

rome wasn't built in a day

Finding my way back is really hard.

I feel it every day. It settles over me every morning as I stumble out of bed and shuffle to the bathroom. It gazes at me as I sleepily look in the mirror trying to remember who that girl is.. or who she used to be at least. A constant rearranging of thoughts. A trickle of encouraging words and phrases to try and heal all those wounds. It follows me.. all day. Bullying me into silence, occassionally herding me into the confines of a novel.. or enticing me to watch television brainlessly. I'm tired. I'm tired of this fight. I'm tired of feeling weak. I'm tired of expending all of my energy on just trying to feel normal for once.

I don't feel hatred. Because I know there's enough of that already. I hurt though.. all the time. I pray every night and I hope it helps. I've found in myself a deep sadness for all the forgotten potential of the people of this world, a heart-felt compassion for those who are lost. I carry that with me. A piece was taken and this sadness is what replaced it. I'm still searching for joy.

One thing I learned today. There is hope. God knows. He will help.