Plowing through

Sometimes I want to write but I have no plan whatsoever. I just kind of plow through until I find something.

Plow through...what an odd saying, it makes me think of Little House on the Prarie. Odd jump there I know, but I loved those books growing up. I checked them out from the library constantly, eventually my parents got me the full set of all the books and I ate it up.  I was determined to cook a thanksgiving dinner like Ma and Laura did (Which was just a wee bit over my head at the time). I wanted to find an Almanzo of my very own, and we would live on a farm and raise kids and animals.

Now in defense of what sounds like a moderate obsession, I still want to live on a farm, I married a hardworking man, and we have a baby (on the way) and a dog. So not too different from what child me wanted.

My sister and I were both voracious readers, and we read far above our "reading level". However, the content of young adult literature was much less volatile in the 80's, or at least it seemed that way.

It is really disturbing to walk through a bookstore's young adult section now and see things like Twilight, Hunger Games and the Divergent series. Books that are about ancient vampires hanging out in high schools, kids killing kids (not to far from Lord of the Flies, I know, but the political undertones and the loss of childhood make it sinister in a different way), and post apocalyptic life! We had Sweet Valley High, and the Lioness series, and fantasy series like Narnia and the Belgariad! Books about the process of growing up, not kids that were already adults.

I feel like we are doing a disservice to our kids letting them read books (though the same could be said for movies too) about adult topics with the main characters being, essentially, children! What happened to kids enjoying the process of growing up? Why is it that kids, especially girls, jump from 8 to 28 in about 4 years?!

Now I'm not saying that some kids aren't prepared to be exposed to content like this. I have two nieces who are smart as whips and completely understand the concepts presented in some of these series. They know that it doesn't apply to them and to what is appropriate for their actions. But I also have kids around me all day that are 8 and 9 and think that they are old enough to make their own life choices.

It seems that the focus of children's books has become more about entertainment and less about teaching, which I think is sad.

Wether we like it or not, life is a process, a path to be traveled to the end. There is no skipping milestones or a smooth path around a bumpy section, and books that romanticize monsters and trials and traumatic events make it seem that the path will be magical and surreal. That intent is more than action and the ends justify the means.

Plowing through life is what gives it meaning, not meeting a monster and falling in love, or winning a contest and starting a bloody revolution. Try building a life from scratch, going on an epic hero quest, or fighting for what you know you were meant to be. That is what everyone needs to read!

...Nature girl

Restless

Restless

I love words, and I feel "restless" today. For whatever the reason I find relaxing beyond my ability. I felt drawn to look up restless in the bible to find out what was there, and this was what I got:

Deuteronomy 28:65-67
"Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. "So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. "In the morning you shall say, `Would that it were evening!' And at evening you shall say, `Would that it were morning!' because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. 

Genesis 41:8
Now in the morning his spirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. 

(if you are curious, you can check out more, here.)

These are odd bible passage for me to be identifying with but there it is. I don't feel that I am being punished/cursed for not holding to God's commandments (Deut. 28), but I feel like there is something that I am missing. Something I'm not doing in order to feel the rest and calm that I normally do.

My dreams are intense, vivid, and stick with me for days sometimes. Whenever I dream like this I can FEEL that there is something I'm trying to figure out. Or something I'm supposed to be doing, or saying. I need an imprisoned Joseph (Gen. 41) to help me out.  For a long time the hubbs was the one with the death dreams, now it seems we have switched roles. 

I feel itchy, cranky...restless.

I am trying to be quiet, to listen for the things that I need to do or say to alleviate this feeling. To solve a problem that I can feel, but not find.

...Nature girl

Nature girl...searching for balance

The "Ban Bossy" campaign is really starting to get under my skin.

I'm not entirely sure what made me pick this particular topic to get all upset about, but I find myself not able to let it go. Why do girls have to be exempted from "bossy"?

 I feel like someone should point out the middle ground here. Some girls are bossy (so are some boys), and some boys are undermined (so are some girls)... But not all, not by a long shot!

I was labeled as bossy back in grade school, I'm naturally nosey and like to get my way. But as a kid I used temper tantrums, and manipulation, and workarounds to acheive my goals - I was "bossy" in all senses of the word, I deserved that label! The trick is for us as a society to acknowledge the truth of things and move toward change. 

As I got older I learned and internalized the old adage of "you get more flies with honey, than vinegar". I refined how I talked to people, and how I identified with them, I learned more, saw more, and realized that I wasn't the center of the world, something that many of my generation have not been able to do.

We are failing women, and men as a culture, not because we call girls bossy, or boys bullies, but because we aren't teaching them how to GROW from bossy, and bullies, into leaders (if they choose) and more importantly, self-confident adults!

Boys and girls have a similar set of problems. Instead of being encouraged to be what they are biologically designed to be, they are torn down, re-hashed, and criticized, until they are molded into what society thinks they should be! While the damage to girls is psychological, the damage to boys is of their identities. 

Throughout my life I have met incredible men and women, as varied as leaves on trees but all of them have had to overcome things that they were labeled with. ADHD, "weak", "emotional", "geek", "nerd", bossy", and even "creative"! Who would think that creative could be used as a detrimental descriptor!

My point is that we do no more damage to our girls that to our boys. Our society has twisted the perception of women into hyper sexualized power hungry creatures. Boys have been twisted to support staff or "Bad boys" (aggressive, uncaring, hyper-competitive). And the disservice to both is extreme, like the two ends of a pendulum.

In an age where defending a woman's ability to be any man's equal has become the standard, I feel as though we have forgotten the beauty of being different. The physicality of men, the softness and flexibility of women. The competitive drive of men and the grace and patience to succeed of women. The deep soul strength of women and the support of men. The way that each and every one of us was created with a foil for our personalities. We are missing out on the search for balance. 

As humans we are blessed with an incredible range of personality possibilities. I know powerhouse women, passionate, and driven and committed - And I know women who are quiet, gracious, and intuitive. There are men who are protective, staunch providers, and competitive to a fault - but I have also met men who are calm, artistic, and the very last people to get in a fight! 

We have lost our way in finding balance. Trying to force everyone to be able to do everything, or shaming them because they can't achieve societies ideal of a "whole" person is a sad reflection of our current state.

Every"one" does not have to be every"thing".

...Nature girl

Nature girl vs Arizona bill SB 1062

Some of the things you should know about me:
- I am a faithful Christian
- I love my family, all of them...even the crazies, of which I am one.
- I am not overly political, mostly I want the government to leave me alone, and adhere to the Constitution.
- Polarized and reactionary people make me crazy.

The state of Arizona has a bill burning through the legislature, lighting all kinds of fires, on the way to the Govenor. I read the bill, and I'm a little bit upset at all this uproar.

My friends and family are split and I'm not sure if all this craziness is worth it.  

How many of us have seen the sign "No shirt, no shoes, no service!"? Growing up in a little beach town I knew that sign and what it meant for a predominantly barefoot little kid. It meant that I could run in and use the bathroom, but if I wanted to sit and eat, or shop, I better find some shoes!

Now before I start getting hate mail from some of my friends, let me clarify.

I am not saying that the right to refuse service on the basis of faith is the same as requiring shoes. One is a health hazard and the other is a religious choice! But I am saying that if a business wants to refuse service to anyone, for any reason, they are protected by the law to run their business as they see fit, as long as it doesn't limit another individual's civil liberties. Now if that business wants to run itself into the ground by limiting the population that it services, good on them, get businesses into the market that want to succeed! 

This AZ bill says NOTHING about a particular group of people to be targeted or impacted. What it does say is that the religious beliefs of the proprietor can be exercised in the practice of the business. Which means that a conservative Islamist restaurant would not have to serve an unaccompanied woman...if they chose. A Christian bookstore would not have to sell books to a Buddhist, and a Buddhist monastery could limit attendance to practitioners (which some already do). 

Would/could whole communities such as LGBTQ be affected? Of course. And I am not trying to minimize the impact of legislating religious practice in business, either to protect it, or minimize it. Our government was framed by outcasts from a religiously oppressive government, and they purposely designed their new country to be independent of religious affiliation. Bills like this were NOT what the framers had in mind.

As Christians we are called to be Christ-like.  Imitators of a radical man who preached tolerance instead of condemnation, love instead of division, and a rejection of judgement in favor of a more qualified judge than we are. We are called to be beacons for his message, fullfilling the needs of the people around us whatever they are, and whoever has them. To understand that each individual on this earth is a part of his plan whether they are broken or whole, full of grief or full of joy, a BS artist or a genuine soul - Christian or not!

I am ashamed of these religious groups pushing for the bill - they are missing the point completely. I am ashamed of the people fire branding and polarizing this bill - they are limiting their business in the other direction.  

I got a little off topic here, but let me sum up.  If the bill passes, and it may, express your displeasure with your wallet.  Move out of AZ if you don't like it (on either side), stop shopping at places that refuse service, don't eat at those restaurants, and don't donate to those groups responsible. We have lost our individual voices  and that is one of the saddest things I can think of.


...Nature girl

Nature girl vs Ken Ham and Bill Nye

Let me start out by saying that I love debates, I am naturally argumentative, and I adore intellectual discussions. The debate at the Creationist Museum almost didn't qualify as either.  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart because I believe in intelligent design, AND I am a happy science nerd!

The arguments of both sides were deeply flawed and missed HUGE key points and supports for both sides! Given the position of both these men in their respective communities I frankly, expected more.

Here is the link to the original debate...obviously, my thoughts follow.

Now, I know that this is going to spark a lot of e-mails from my deeply religious friends, but that's ok, this is something that should be talked about.  The topic was whether Creationism is a viable method of human origin to be taught to school children.

Let's start with Mr. Ken Ham.

First, I never would have picked a Young Earth Creationist (YEC) to debate Bill Nye. There is SO much that is left to faith in the young earth model that a persistent atheist (like Mr. Nye) would have no problem showing all the un-backed scientific holes! But aside from that, Mr. Ham left out key points, got MAJORLY off topic, and made assumptions about the Bible that aren't there to make! Much like the assumptions that he accused secular scientists of making!

Second, he spoke often on the differences between Darwinism and Creation "trees of life" and yet completely ignored the fact that Darwin was deeply faithful, and was trying to explain the bible in scientific terms! Now I'm not a Darwin expert, but his "warm pond" theory, to me, never negated the potential for divine intervention. Nothing offered by either side eliminated the possibility that they could both be correct.

Third, unless I missed something about the original question, nothing about the origins of morality, definition of marriage, or the fact that some proponents of YEC are highly educated is valid or relevant to discussing the viability of YEC as an education source. Morality is a faith AND societally based construct. Morays, taboos, and social structure were all in existence BEFORE Christianity as a cornerstone of the process of "civilization". The only thing that Judaism/Christianity did was define a set of rules for a subsection of the population based on an emerging religion. The definition of marriage is for me tough because I see it as a religious tem not a socio/political term. As it stands today it is interchangeable...but now I'm off topic. The ludacris implied statement that YEC is a viable scientific theory to teach children because there are lots of scientists who made big contributions to technology who believe it should have gotten him laughed off the stage, but it only gave Mr. Nye cannon fodder.

Finally, Mr. Ham walked straight into the line of fire when he admitted that some parts of the bible are to be taken literally, and some is poetry or stories. The argument that the bible can be taken literally at any point (from his comments on historical science) implies that the bible was written as the contained events occurred. All biblical scholars know that the bible was written by different authors, sometimes years after events occurred! In the case of Genesis, it was written generations later, even if you espouse YEC!

And now for Mr. Nye

If it is possible, I am more disappointed in Mr. Nye than in Mr. Ham.  As a scientist there is nothing that should be excluded from creating the best possible theory. True, you can't TEST divinity, but if it fits into the data collected as an option...it is viable.

While Mr. Nye did a much better job of staying on topic his blanket disregard for the possibility of intelligent design was, to use his word, unsettling. He also harped on the need for children and young adults to be "scientists" implying the exclusion of faith and reliance on pure science to find answers that are metaphysical at one end, and existential at the other, also...not relevant to the debate topic! He also fell victim to emotional appeals and personal instead of topical debate.

The idea of intelligent design is not ludacris, it's a belief, like science. His blatant dismissal (though I applaud him for admitting the unknowns of science, "what came before the big bang?") of a possibility that the earth is younger than he thinks and might be constructed by something else, is exceptionally maddening. For Mr. Nye it is apparently completely irrational that some unknown force may have compressed rock layers, or increased the reproductive capacity of  animals after the ark to cause a boom in population growth, or spoke the universe into being. And that is what a scientist is supposed to do, find an idea and see if the data contradicts it! Not declare impossibility and reject out of hand.

As did Mr. Ham, Mr. Nye decided to make an unnecessary and inaccurate statement about how educated people validate the system. While Mr. Nye admitted that there are faithful people who are scientists he continued to call for more students to pursue science, invent things and solve problems as if somehow YEC were unable to do that! And while YEC, believers of intelligent design, and secular scientists all believe different things, that has no bearing on the individual's ability to contribute to the scientific community!

I personally found Mr. Nye's persistent "dumbing down" of scientific processes inappropriate and out of place. The people in that audience know that there is no sound in space, we don't need a silent analogy of the big bang. There is also no need to bring a fossil found by the side of the road, to explain a fossil record. Finally, personally, I don't need a description of the evolutionary process of being a simple to complex method...that's what evolution is! Just because intelligent design to you means perfect from the start and then adaptation, doesn't mean that is the only interpretation!

The thing that bothered me the most...about both arguments...is that they completely ignore the concept of God's time (here is a great philosophical paper on if God is bound by time...or above it) and here is a bible verse reflecting on conquering impossibility (Luke 18:27)! Any scientist who dismisses a possibility because it seems rediculous or impossible should turn in his degree! And any man of faith who doesn't acknowledge that the impossible is what makes God...well God...is missing the point!

I hope that the debate...and maybe this...inspires people to ask questions, clarify their thoughts, and maybe be willing to accept the validity of an impossibility as an option. 

...Nature girl

Nature girl vs the peeves

I have often been prone to bouts of peevishness, melodrama, and temper tantrums...just ask my Mom, Dad and sister who managed to survive my childhood and adolescence.

Last night I lay in bed, completely unable to get comfortable (no thanks to the dog stretched out from my heels to my tush), or drowsy, and getting more and more irrationally irritated at my darling hubby who was only trying to go through his normal routine of falling asleep. He reads the same three pages over and over because he falls asleep halfway through the pages and starts over at the top. This is normal, it happens every night, and I usually put on a sleeping mask and get over it.

For some reason last night every page turn was irritating, the light was irritating, the dog was making me hot, the food wasn't put away from dinner, EVERYTHING was a major violation of what I wanted to have happen!

This is not my most shining quality. I understand that I completely take leave of my brain sometimes and I can usually ground myself again and laugh it off, but it has bled over into today. Probably because I didn't sleep much more than two winks. In my head I am laying on the floor kicking and screaming and having a full blown temper tantrum that would make a two year old take notes! 

Instead, I am rocking in my desk chair and writing...much less satisfying.

When my black moods bleed over into days two and three, that is usually when I seek out my girlfriends for coffee, or a trashy tv date, or a cookie date, or a dinner with my borrowed nieces or nephews and family, that will usually snap me back to reality.

Being so far is not helping my mood, and I never developed other coping mechanisms.

Now the sane part of me tells me that this is the perfect time to develop new life skills, the childish side is flipping the bird. I think the temper tantrum is winning.

...Nature girl

Chapstick vs. Lip Saver

It's been a while since I did an Arbonne post and today seemed appropriate because I can't find my Arbonne Lip Saver, ie. a chap stick.

Now ChapStick was a staple through my whole childhood! I remember crossings to Catalina and the smell of original ChapStick, you know the one...black label with white script.


My Dad used to put it on us when we sat for hours on the bow of the boat, so we wouldn't come back in with...chapped lips.

As I got older the Wild Cherry took preference, and then lip gloss and then Carmex, and an assortment of other products. What I didn't realize is that there was already something on the market that did what I needed, I just didn't know about it!


I have this habbit...I chew on my lips when I'm concentrating, or nervous, or even absently thinking! My lip saver is literaly my LIP Saver! I don't bite my lips because it smells good, my lips are softer and don't peel or crack, and the feel of it is just so smooth going on!

My Arbonne lip saver is now my go to everything stick. If I need help with chapping or cracking lips, a good base for my lipstick, or a little bit of shine my lip saver does it all! AND it does it all with a good smell and no waxy feeling!

 Now this is starting to feel a little like a commercial, but just to put it in perspective, I own two (maybe three) of these because I believe in it that much. It has a SPF 30 for my lips, a great feel and a non-girly smell so I don't feel bad kissing the hubby! Now he doesn't get left sparkly and smelling like fruit. This should be in every pocket or purse of kids and adults...to good to pass up!

...Nature girl