enjoy the third quarter of 2008 by having one NEW and FULFILLING experience in July, August, and September

My challenge to the team is to join the next goal in the series for the last bit of 2008 AND invite some people to join the team there.

In the last several days I have been helping someone with a somewhat troubling domestic violence situation. I can’t give any details here, but as nerve wrenching as being an advocate, friend, and chauffer to the person, I see how totally screwed up the government, including police, really is.

Of course I am journaling this situation, and now sure how things will come out on the other end, but I see how horrible the situation can be, and how defenseless people when seeking help in the system.

I know that somehow this experience will lead to something more in the future, aside for campaigning for Obama/Biden with earnest in the next few weeks, I know that I will be among those who advocate for the families and particularly the children caught in these webs. Not sure how yet, but I know I will.

No child should ever be admonished by a police officer for calling his father a “big doofus” when an hour earlier that “father” punched him in the face because he was trying to stop daddy from beating mommy.

Funny how those horoscope things show up in my email toward the end of the day and they are often dead on. Todays was :

A unique opportunity comes your way, probably fairly early in the day and you should definitely jump on it! You may find that it’s easier to go it alone, but friends and family won’t hold you back too much.

I visited a new church this morning and was quite pleased with the experience. Its a smaller congregation, but more fluid than the one in which I have been participating, and I like that. A second visit is definitely in store for me.

Word on the street is that my purple heart decorated Korean War Veteran father has put a Verterans for Barack Obama sticker (not even the magnets, but the permanent sticker) on the back of his car!

New, fulfilling, and TOTALLY surprising.

This evening I had a chance to serve Cheesecake (how ironic) to a drag queen who was a dead ringer (pun intended) for Anna Nicole. There was a talent show fund raiser for the Soup Kitchen and I worked it this evening and had my first up close and personal interaction with a drag queen. It was new, it was fulfilling, and I am not sure how I am going to answer if I did anything interesting if asked at church in the morning.

WOW!

someone on 43T posted their picture as their avatar image and all I have to say is …

Hot-rageous!

Where there is still a month plus a few days to goal with this goal I have decided to declare that I will also have new and fulfilling experiences in the last bit of 2008 so I have created that goal well in advance.

Okay, at first I though PR was Puerto Rico, but alas, the shining star of the Caribbean is still part of the United States so that position does not exist, but…

...for my new Toastmasters Group, Speak and Lead Toastmasters the PR role (Public Relations) does exist and as of last night I have assumed the role of Vice President of Public Relations.

Since the time I was a child I have suffered from what the French call Mal d’Afrique: it translates into “sickness of Africa” but it really means how Africa gets into your body, your mind, and soul, almost like an infection, and never leaves. My parents still have some of my first crayon drawings (elephants and giraffes of course) and a stencil kit that was sent to me by one of my Tantes in Bonn when I was five is in my Safe Deposit box for safe keeping. For as long as I can remember I have heard Africa call me, and as I got older I knew her call was to be more than a tourist.

Today I met the most incredible woman today who imports some incredible items from Africa. She travels to Africa often and has teamed with other Americans who have moved there with the goal of bringing freedom to those enslaved in a web of poverty. Some of the items are carved wooden items – some “African art,” others are highly functional items that would fit in more traditional homes and dining rooms, she also has several lines of hand knit animals made by rural women in Kenya and will soon have hand made cotton baby items from urban women in Kenya.

In a few weeks I will start receiving the first items from Kenya; and instead of my childhood dream of going to Africa coming true, a bit of her will be coming to me. And if I manage my business well, I will be reaching her in ways I never thought possible.

The Lord works in the most incredible ways, often on tangents. I see today how I am becoming His instrument.

Nikosi Sikeleli Africa!

Fulfilling: I’m on a regular schedule of working at the Soup Kitchen and find that to be the most fun of the week – in any other situation I think I would consider the food to be crap, but something about spaghetti and meatballs (again, I know) in that setting makes the food special. Usually I have lunch with the guests when I work the kitchen but today one of the older women decided that she could move a 30 pound pot of tomato sauce on her own, and she dropped it. Yuk! But then again, something about being on my hands and knees with a scrub brush scouring up a mess in a place like the soup kitchen is SO rewarding.

New: The church at which the Soup Kitchen is located had one of their garage sales today. The church “garage sales” all manner of things that were donated to the church, and rents lawn space to families that want to sell their own things. The church also sells hot dogs and cakes on the lawn and that money is earmarked to cover the utilities and such for the soup kitchen. Since someone donated fruit loops to the soup kitchen, someone decided to make rice crispie treats with them. They were sweeter than Mary Kate and Ashley Osteen and just as weird, but definitely something I would consider making and donating to a bake sale myself!