time off from blogging

I'm sorry for the long absence from this blog. I honestly will try and write more, but I think i have a decent excuse - My computer is broken. So I am computerless at the moment. I am borrowing my uncle's computer to write this message.

My life feels like it has been a bit hectic. I'm working quite a bit. I do like my job, most of the time. I am sometimes tired of it, but overall, I am happy to have a job and I see myself working there for the foreseeable future.

I've also started volunteering. I like my volunteer work. (I don't have much experience with people experiencing poverty - except for my personal experience of growing up without much money - but that is very different from poverty - at least in my mind, perhaps it is because my family is so educated.. but I digress). I try to volunteer once a week at a homeless service center here in Austin. I really like it. We serve breakfast to women in the mornings. Many of the women do not look "homeless". Many of them do. Many of them are clearly mentally unfit, others are as educated as me. Others need help getting their appointments to go to the doctor others just need someone to listen to them. I try to remember that a little piece of God is in every one of us. Myself and each person I meet. We were all created in God's image. That means we're all sacred - even if I want to see them as less than me or God.

Through my volunteer work I made a friend who invited me Saturday night to hear Immaculee Ilibagiza speak about her experiences during the Rwandan Holocaust in 1994. She is a very powerful speaker. Her story centers on her journey during that harrowing time and how she discovered God through it. If you have not read her book, Left to Tell, I would highly recommend it to you. I am always so fascinated by people who have lived through Hell and yet come out singing the praises of God. Sometimes those of us who have privilege and live relatively easy lives find it hard to praise God for the every day miracles in our lives. Hearing her laugh as she talked about her childhood in Rwanda is more moving than all the statistics about how many people were killed. She lost her entire family (except one brother who was out of the country when the killing started) yet she is able to laugh and joke and enjoy what she has now. She truly has freedom through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

She said one thing that really struck me. I'll leave you with this quote:

If you must choose between being kind and being right - choose kindness.