regarding Colombia

I think it's safe for me to announce that there's a very good chance i'll be heading back to Colombia this winter. Rates are incredibly cheap at the beginning of December, and nothing would please me more than to be able to visit my bambinos around Christmastime. I'll keep you posted.

Until then, enjoy these photos sent to us by Wilson.


Some of the boys showing off the belts they made by hand to sell in town. They go for about $20 US dollars. I'm proud to say i own one. :)


The kids arriving at "home" from school. By the way, El Camino was just given scholarships from a Christian school for 25 kids to attend, which is obviously very good news. Oddly enough, all they asked for in return was sports equipment. As you can see, most of the children still need uniforms, but at least this school will be providing them lunch, a luxury they didn't receive from their old one.


25 kids packed into one tiny car...now THAT'S the Colombian way! :)

homage to the pom

I distinctly remember my first onslaught of exposure to pomegranates as a child. When my mother placed one of the fire-engine red fruits with a top that resembled a royal crown in front of me, i couldn't believe she was allowing me the honor of indulging in what was, at the time, an unaffordable food in our household. And when she cut it open, revealing the tightly-packed arils inside like a treasure trove of sparkling rubies, my eyes unfurled and expanded like Morning Glory at dawn. It was love at first sight.

Nothing compares to the coveted pomegranate; specifically, the process of consuming one. As a child, i found great amusement in digging into the clusters of arils with my spoon, squirting its crimson juice in every direction and sending my mother into a tizzy because it stains. Then i found even greater joy in sweeping those heaping spoonfuls of fat jewels into my mouth and feeling their smooth but firm, bubbly texture on my tongue before chomping down in a moment of sudden ecstasy. The juice bombs exploded, power-washing the insides of my cheeks. I ground the seeds with my teeth and let the cool, refreshing liquid run across my tongue. The entire experience was simply rapturous.

Approximately 10 years later...

Enter POM Wonderful, stage left. My first sighting happened to be in the form of a chilled tea sold in a tall keepsake glass. As a natural sucker for simple packaging (and this one was reusable!), i couldn't resist investigating. When i found out that its ingredients were nothing more than tea, sugar, pomegranate juice, and pomegranate entioxidant extract, i was ecstatic. But the icing on the cake, of course, was the taste test i gave it that very day. All-natural and delicious? Amazing.

I went on to discover that POM also makes straight up pomegranate juice which, as does the tea, comes in a handful of flavors. They also sell highly concentrated pomegranate pills and, of course, pomegranates! On their website, one can expect to find a listing of all of these products and their nutritional information, plus the history of the pomegranate, pomegranate recipes, ideas for decorating with pomegranates, news articles featuring POM, and access to POM's blog (where they're currently giving away free swag and products just for commenting and posting POM photos and videos...hence the extra motivation for this blog).

Bottom line: POM truly is wonderful. They have proven themselves worthy, advocating the super health benefits of the Great Pomegranate and selling an exceptional product, both with dignity and style.

progress

Every morning on my way to work (leaving the house at 5:00am), i pray. It's too early for the ruckus that happens in my car on the way home, which usually involves a generous amount of musical indulgence, head bopping and high-volume "singing." I can't listen to music before a shift anyway because it makes me anxious and i'm unable to focus when i get there.

So i talk to God. I tend to get fairly animated in discussion with Him, which is another reason why it's best that it happens when i'm alone, in the dark. The only problem with me praying is that once i start, there's no stopping me. I need lots of time, which was great when i was driving 45 minutes to Hingham for training every day (the only redeeming factor behind that kind of hike), but now that my driving time has been cut in half, i have to talk twice as fast and still only end up covering half of what i want to.

Despite these time constraints and my own shortcomings, however, God manages to work His magic. I recently committed to praying for one person in particular every day, and this person doesn't know it yet but it sometimes takes me the entire 25 minutes of my ride to get that prayer out. Quite literally, i'm talking nonstop - out loud, no less - from the moment i pull out of my driveway to the moment i pull into the Starbucks parking lot. Granted, it's supposed to be a two-way conversation - i'm still working on that - but over the years i've found that God deals with and speaks to each of us differently, and sometimes if i just keep talking long enough, the lightbulbs come on and there's some kind of revelation that occurs. In other words, it would be nice if i could shut up and listen now and then, but even if i don't, God can still get his point across. And make no mistake, He will get it across.

This morning was one of those mornings. I was praying for my friend again, feeling distressed by the fact that he's still struggling in certain areas of his life, getting down on himself for things he's done, and i realized two things. One, i myself am in that place as well. And two, we are the biggest roadblocks in our own lives. If we're constantly focusing on the negative, how can we ever expect to move forward? If we're always thinking so little of ourselves, how can we gain the courage to persevere?

Yes, we've made mistakes. Yes, we've fallen short. Yes, we've given in when we shouldn't have. But i was wrong when i stated in a blog one time that i had regressed. I thought myself hopeless and shameful and unworthy, but these were all lies. As long as i was alive, there was hope for me. There was nothing at all shameful about being human. And the fact that Jesus died for me meant i was worthy.

I was looking for progress and couldn't see it. That's where i got myself in a tangle, and i think that's where my friend got caught up as well. We'd been stuck in a web of blindness and lies, but i think that God has slowly been cutting the silk away and removing the cocoons.

Progress is not doing what's good or what's right. Progress is simply doing. It's moving, growing, developing, happening. Are you breathing? That's progress. Are you thinking? That's progress. Get out of bed, go to work...make a decision, even a mindless one. All of that is progress. Even screwing up is a sign of progress. How will you find answers if you don't ask questions? How will you teach unless you first learn? How can you relate to someone or invest into one's life unless you've had firsthand experience in what they're going through? Progress.

God expects that we are going to make mistakes. I almost think he counts on it. How else could he use us to make a difference anywhere? Mistakes are what inventions are born of. Mistakes are what lead us to new and surprising territory, both literally (taking a wrong turn on a roadtrip and ending up at a better destination) and metaphorically (drinking, driving, and colliding with an AA director). Mistakes are not roadblocks, they are building blocks. All we need is a little perspective on the matter.

Along with the commitment to praying for my friend, i had sent him a birthday/graduation package that included a mixed CD. On it were a few songs by Mutemath, a band whose existence he'd been unaware of but found that he really enjoyed. In his latest blog, he mentions two of them, but the third one actually drives the point i'm trying to make home. It is appropriately titled, "Progress":

Pulling your confidence through
Some courage is well overdue
I believe solely in all your promise
Why waste a second in doubt
You could be helping you out
Keeping your head in the clear

Like an instrument for a song
Like the sun for tomorrow’s dawn
Every moment of time’s just an answer to find
What you’re here for, what you breathe for
What you wake for, what you bleed for

Everyone’s counting on you
Save for yourself what to do
Life is a card that you lay down sometimes
To search for the best way of all
Is finding the best way to fall
Keeping your head in the clear

Every moment of time’s just an answer to find
What you’re here for, what you breathe for
What you wake for, what you bleed for
What you hope for, what you live for
What you’re here for, what you breathe for, what you live for
What you’re here for, what you bleed for, what you live for

The bolded line is amazing, and i wish it were possible to physically ingrain it onto the cell tissue of my brain...or my heart. Every moment given to us is another opportunity. With that moment, we can resist or we can make a mistake. Either way, we're making progress.

So Adam, don't give up. And don't be too hard on yourself, because life is hard enough as it is without the additional pressure. Remember the phrase "no matter what." Know that God's will is carried out no matter what. Know that God will use you for good no matter what. And most importantly, know that you are loved no matter what. You read this entire blog, and hey...that's progress. :)

P.S.

Adam...i've actually written several blogs since Walk Two Moons, but they all went unfinished and despised (surprise, surprise). Winter's a filler until i can actually write something worth publishing (in other words, something of interest).

I need to purchase a book of writing excercises. Or just On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

what would YOU do for a klondike bar?

He's visited 7,064 North American Starbucks stores and 451 international ones. His goal is to visit them all worldwide. He's created a movie based on this unique journey titled "Starbucking," sells promotional t-shirts, and takes photos of himself at every Starbucks location. And thanks to twitter, one can literally track down where he is and what he's doing on any given day.

Oh, yeah, and his name is Winter. Just Winter.

I don't know how old he is, so don't ask. I'm thinking anywhere from late twenties to early thirties based on his mug and the fact that he started this adventure back in '97. Before you go thinking he's just some coffee-obsessed fanatic with no ambition in life (although how one could reach that conclusion is beyond me, considering the drive he clearly has to pull off such an exhaustive goal), i assure you there is more depth to this man than caffiene-powered road trips and odd photographs. Actually, i can't assure that, but i am trusting that the blurb he wrote about himself on his website is the God-honest truth. In that case, some of his other dominating interests are Scrabble, philosophy, literature, and pancakes. (Okay, so i might have embellished on the pancakes idea - i saw them referenced in one of his blogs and thought he'd be more interesting as a pancake-lover - but nevertheless, he sounds pretty cool to me.)

Bottom line: As i did not see Plymouth, MA on his list of U.S. stores not yet covered, i e-mailed this Winter fellow and told him to come visit us sometime. I'm thinking this is probably not one of the best ideas i've ever had, but i do believe i've forewarned the world enough that i do tend to often do stupid things for the sake of adventure. Besides, it's not my fault that Winter's goal is to visit every Starbucks in existence and i, coincidentally a Starbucks partner, have a goal to meet and befriend every interesting character that i possibly can. So i'm helping him reach his goal and he's helping me reach mine. It's a business deal, really.

I'll update this blog as soon as i hear back from him.

-- UPDATE --
Friday, September 7, 2007 12:47 PM

Here is the message i received from Winter this morning:

Audrey,

Thanks for the e-mail. I'm pretty sure I called that store last weekend but did not get an answer. But I've now moved it to open stores list and will update my web site when I can. As for getting to the store, it will be a while. I'm working in PA, and I do not expect to get up to Mass until early November, if I decide to play a Scrabble tournament in Cape Cod. I might decide to play closer to home, though.

E-mail me around the 3rd week of October if you want--I should know by then.

Winter

I wrote back again, of course, to find out how old he is. 35 - i was close.