On a mission.... Honduras-bound

I've decided to go to Honduras with Habitat for Humanity!  I cannot wait!  Seriously, I'm so excited!

It is a one week trip and our team travels to Honduras on October 26, returning on November 3.  I don't know any of the volunteers and cannot wait to meet them.

As a part of this trip, each member of our team commits to fundraising.  Below you will find a link to my fundraising page. On that page, click on the 'Read more' link to learn more about the renovation project in Honduras.  If you feel so inclined, please consider donating by September 11.... all funds that our team raises will contribute to the mission of Habitat Honduras and help increase their impact even after we leave the country.  Any contribution is very much appreciated.  

Leanne's Habitat Honduras page

A few more details about the funds we raise...

The donations we bring with us fund projects like smokeless stoves, polished concrete floors, latrines, and structural reinforcements.  An average renovation in Honduras costs $1000-$1500, cheaper than if we were working on new home construction.  This means our funds can go even further and serve a greater number of families in the area!  Our donations stay with Habitat Honduras long after our team leaves, which makes this program sustainable on our own.  This is an important distinction from many short-term mission trips!

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One of the reasons that I am so excited to go to Honduras is because I had such a phenomenal time in Africa.  Two years ago I traveled with a team of volunteers to Rwanda, Africa.  It was also a service trip... we built and installed point-of-use water filters in areas where they have little or no access to clean water.  It was amazing to witness how people changed their lives after they had access to clean water.

I know that new homes will do the same for people in Honduras.  I look forward to witnessing the same thing in Honduras!

Another amazing aspect of the trip to Africa was the friendships that I formed with our team of volunteers.  I was fortunate to travel with an incredible group of people and forged some lifelong friendships with others on my team.

I am sure that strong bonds will form in our team of volunteers.  I cannot wait to meet the team I will work with in Honduras!

In Africa, I fell in love with the people.  They had such a humble and gracious presence.  And they had an incredibly intense joy and sense of gratitude!  It was so refreshing to experience and observe the Rwandan people.  To see their love of life, observe their joy and gratitude, and really connect with them...  It was a true blessing in my life.  The experience was such a profound reminder that we are all so similar.  Citizens of this planet.  I think of them often and am constantly inspired.

I am so excited to meet the people of Honduras!

As I prepare for my trip, I'll post updates here.  I've got to figure out how to pack one small carry-on bag and nothing else!  Yikes!  Sure, it's only nine days... but packing lightly is not one of my gifts.  :)  I think I'll also be able to post while on the trip.

I'm so excited!

I'm on a mission... Habitat Honduras.

Gratitude for another year... another birthday.

Another year has quickly flown by... and what a year it has been.  I'm in a completely different place than last year.  A different place mentally, emotionally, physically.

Time has ticked away as it normally does, with days turning to weeks and months, until a complete year has passed.  My own personal journey seems to expand beyond a year.  I have covered so much ground.  I can't wait for my journey to continue.

I'm full of gratitude today, my birthday.

There is much to be grateful for.

Start Close In... small victories in the slow and quiet

I'm still taking my photos but not posting them here in the abyss much (or at all).  I miss the posting and so  will be trying to take the first step to get back to it.

Tonight I am rejoicing in a small (and somewhat silly) victory.  In my yoga class tonight, I finally figured out the trick to crow.  More than that, I felt it.  I felt how it should be done.  I felt the difference in my body, my balance. Such a subtle shift of my weight made a world of difference.  And I held crow.  Not for very long, mind you.  But I was there.  Baby steps.  Letting go.

There has been a lot going on lately.  It's still my great 'slow down' as I was affectionately calling it a month or two ago.  Of course it isn't so slow.  But it has been quiet.  So some slowness and some quiet.  And I have found that the combination has been good for my soul.  I need more, I'm almost craving it.  There are other things I'm longing for as well and perhaps I'm on sort of a mission to find them.  Simplicity.  Impact.  Inspiration.  Gratitude.  Balance.  Letting go (forgiveness?).  During this slow and quiet time, I will continue to cultivate those and other things.  I will continue to seek wise counsel and to laugh with friends.  After all, sometimes there is magic in the chaos.

I heard this poem a few weeks ago and I really like it... maybe you will too.

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Start close in

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Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

 

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

 

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

 

To find
another's voice
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

 

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

 

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

 

~ David Whyte ~

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Day 43 - My 365, How do you measure a year?

Day 43:
Sunday, November 27, 2011

A public display of gratitude.  Courtesy of the iPhone.  Not so super, iPhone camera.   You can do better, right?  You usually do better iPhone camera.  This makes me sad...

Day 40 - My 365, How do you measure a year?

Day 40:
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Today we celebrate.  We eat and we laugh.  We eat some more.  We watch football.  And play with the cat.  And eat some more.  We take naps.  We laugh.  We enjoy the moment.

We appreciate the moment.

Today I am thankful.  I hope you are too.

Happy Thanksgiving (belated!) everyone!  :)

Yummmmmy.  :)

And I'm back!

Ahhhh, sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and a small break.

It feels good to push myself.  I've always been a pusher, anxious to do anything and everything.  I'm always too busy!  But sometimes it feels good to acknowledge and accept when I need some quiet time.  When I need a slow down.  This has been a busy and draining season.  Don't get me wrong though - I'm grateful for it.  It's been amazing with interesting challenges and opportunities.  Time to learn and grow.  And to take pictures everyday!  :)  But I'm ready for the slow down.  For the opportunity to sit in quiet.  For continued opportunities to learn and grow, but in a season of contemplation perhaps.

The slow down is coming.

Since we just had Thanksgiving, it's so good to pause and count our blessings.  It's so good to dwell in gratitude.  It's so good to dwell in the moment - to really be fully present in it.  No matter what.  That has been one of my challenges lately.  Be in this moment.  It's the only one that matters.  Appreciate this moment.  Take a deep breath and appreciate it.  

Each day, I write a list of the five things that day that I am most grateful for.  I have a little journal I've kept for years.  Sometimes it becomes this thing that I just do because it is what I do... Lately, I have a new spark for it.  It goes with pushing myself to be fully present and in this moment.  And it's the season of gratitude after all!

So tonight, I'm thankful.  I'm thankful for the little breaks, even if lately they have been few and far between lately.  I'm thankful for leftover pumpkin pie with streusel topping.  I'm thankful for my friends and family.  I'm thankful for my 365 project!  I'm thankful for this day and its ups and downs and highs and lows!

Day 39 - My 365, How do you measure a year?

Day 39:
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

You are a masterpiece.  Just the way that you are.  Embrace it.  The good, the bad, all of it.

Today was a beautiful sunny fall day!  Love it.  Nice way to start a long holiday weekend!  

I'm grateful for today, for this moment...

My 365, day 9 - How do you measure a year?

Day 9:

Monday, October 24, 2011

Nobody likes Mondays, right?  

So today I remind myself to be grateful.  

In 2005, I started writing five things a day that I'm grateful for... in an effort to cultivate an appreciative attitude, aware and happy about the little things in life.  I've done it relatively consistently, although not perfectly of course!  :)  

Most days are ordinary days and so you have to really pay attention to the details of life to list five things and really mean it.  Sometimes they are just little ordinary things and sometimes they are big.  

So here I am, turning the page and looking down on a blank page... grateful.