Far Away.

With happy days of sunshine and island life just a day away, I find myself on repeat with this little tune...

Backstage Sessions : Ingrid Michaelson - Far Away from Hard to Find a Friend on Vimeo.

Far away far away, I want to go far away

To a new life on a new shore line

Where the water is blue and the people are new

To another island, in another life

Break Time.

It's finally Spring Break... let the adventures commence!  

Friday was my first day off, and I awoke with a heart pressed with an unexplored city and a newfound freedom from schedule and routine.  Breaks are refreshing because just for a slice of time, you get to live the life you dream of while you're at work.  In an effort to bring the mystery of travel in Spain back to Chicago, I hopped on the El without a fixed destination, coffee in hand, new tunes on the pod, and a good read from B.  Mid-ride, I remembered the exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center featuring the recently uncovered work of Chicago street photog Vivian Maier that I had always hoped to visit... A little gem discovered via my dearheart Suzy. (and her inspiring Viv post...)

With my destination set, a hopeful expectation filled my spirits, and I knew a day of beauty lay ahead.

Everything's better with coffee.

Despite the cold, the city out the windows of the train brought life.

There she is. In all her mystery, she at least left a self-portrait.

Viv's hats on display.

Sun setting over Mill Park.

Dome life in Chi. (cue: Mikey.)

Sometimes I call myself a tourist in my own city.  But I think a more accurate depiction is a life of discovery... even in a place that becomes home.  Chicago has so much to do and see - no matter how long you've lived here.  It's a refreshing approach to life when you view it through the lens of New. If you're open and willing, you will always find surprises.

Tomorrow, I head to the sunshiney shores of Captiva Island with my travel buddy bestie, Kate.  We thought Europe was our last hoorah, but we managed to squeeze in one more before the Big Day (July 9, 2011.)  It seems appropriate to repack the backpack, headscarves, shades, and gear for the ocassion. Even if it is just the US... who's to say I can't pretend?! Never been more ready for quality time & beach life.

"We have to make room for other people.  It's a wheel - you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place.  There's nothing new under the sun."

- Vivian Maier

Spring Signs

First robin sighting of the season.

Growing up, my aunt and I competed to find the first robin of the season.

Because that meant after the long Chicago winter

spring was finally here.

So... it's spring now?

Out my window it's 23 degrees and snowing.

False hope.

Sigh. Maybe next week...

Meet Mary.

She is a 60-something lovely woman.

She lives in a hotel down the road from Soul City Church.

She has 4 children: 3 scattered around Chicago, and 1 in Florida.

She works outside Union Station selling magazines and newspapers.

She also loves to sit in Dominick's and wonder about people.

We expected a conversation, and maybe a story, and definitely to give a few dollars...

but what we didn't expect was to receive wisdom, insight, and love from a complete stranger.

Our conversation was prompted by SCC's 2 dollar challenge. (Who knew going to church could involve receiving money...?!) The service concluded with a charge to "shuffle around God's money," to come to a greater understanding of what it means to live outside of ourselves in a world so focused on Getting and Me.

So, there we were... restless minds, but hopeful hearts.  Three of us, given $2 each, and no clue where to go or how to use it. So, we stood mid-Dominick's Aisle 3, lost in endless dreams rooted in no reality with where to spend this money.  After reading and re-reading the list of options on the SCC flyer, it appeared a very time-convenient option to buy some stuff for a ministry, leave the grocery, and be on our way.

But, no. We were stopped in our tracks. It was clear : there was something Bigger here. 

A fellow 2-buck SCC challenger with a brimming spirit and mutual zero-clue-where-to-use-it look approached us with the familiar "What do we do now...?"  He held up the bright green SCC flyer as if to offer an immediate point of bonding: we were now in this together.  Pooling our resources, and a simple prayer - God, where? our new friend Eric and his wife, Rachel, (+baby) led us to someone they had spotted around the corner.

And there she was. Working lotto numbers. Mary.

How do you start a conversation with a random stranger? 

(We're so polite sometimes - we don't want to interrupt.) 

If only we believed that people really are looking for people to talk to.

After moments of engaging Mary via some chatter about lottos (I happen to know Nothing about the lotto...), I decided to just dig right in - reveal my heart behind the night's challenge, and see what happened.  My stammering words were met by a blank stare. My thoughts wavered on the edge of - either she'll cuss me out or she's mute. I also sat in silence.  

Then a reply completely unexpected: "I work these numbers to receive a miracle. But now I realize the miracle isn't always in the numbers."

Boom. Door = opened. The conversation spiraled into anything & everything - how can God love you when you do foolish things?  There are so many religions - is He really it? He promises life - what if we don't feel life? How do I become more myself - the way He's created me to be? What is my purpose? And does he really love us when we don't go to church? 

Lindsay, Jordan, and I didn't always know how to respond... but we also knew that it wasn't about us.

Without prodding for information, or asking too many questions - Mary readily revealed the deep places in her heart.  The places she's bottled up her whole life with lack of an outlet for a voice.  Sitting in Dominick's, we listened as she told us that the grocery is her entertainment - how she loves to watch families and couples and love and laughter take place in the store.  That she feels love through their love - and that's enough.  We watched as she struggled with the answers to her own questions, and searched for meaning and clarity. Her eyes filled with tears as she heard simple truths -
God loves you, Mary. He has big plans for your life. You were created for a reason and a purpose. To Him, you.are.perfect.

Although foreign words to her, "deep calls to deep" (Psalm 42:7), and something in her spirit shifted.
4 of us together in Dominick's - different seasons of life, and yet so similar in the search for identity and purpose - our souls knit together in the moment.


What we don't realize as we walk these busy Chicago streets with our schedules floating through our minds, thoughts circling around our day, and our ipod running through our ears - is that people are looking to be heard when they have an avenue in which to talk. And His presence is in this city - in every conversation, in every smile, in every penny. See - a world of opportunity can be opened with even the smallest dollar. Because it's not about the money... it's about the opportunity money presents.  To view money as a tool to open doors into others' lives, to invest and bless others, is something I'm training my mind to believe.  Money is an invitation to conversation... when you choose to allow it to be.

(*Disclaimer: I realize conversation can happen w/ strangers with or without money. Money isn't the token. But I do believe He uses money for His glory - to bless others and as an entry into a piece of their story.)

Hearts and lives can be changed in an instant. 

Who knew it would take $2 to believe it.

Outside the Lines.

Sometimes I feel my life falling into this system the world carves out for me...  This unspoken knowledge of "Do this, not this. Go here, not there. Be this way, not that way."  I feel ruled by everyone speaking their can's/can't's over me and I start to dream even further outside the lines in search of something uniquely mine - nobody else's. Because anytime my life starts looking like the "should's" I start to freak out a little.

I dream Bigger things than daily routine.  Life exists outside of status updates.  Beauty and inspiration are something you have to create on your own without relying on others to make it happen for you.  I'm trying to live the life that looks like me.  How easy (lazy?) it is to get caught up in the identity the world wants you to have - or what works for them.  It's refreshing to have an outlet that gives you your own voice - a place to feel heard.

March's focus in my class is finding beauty in art, and noticing shapes in artists' famous masterpieces.  I showed them a Jackson Pollock the other day, and they were surprised to find that not ALL artists use shapes and perfect lines to create a masterpiece.  Art is art, no matter how perfect or imperfect it may appear.  They were even further mystified when I proceeded to pick up a paintbrush and haphazardly thrust paint at a blank sheet on the wall. They watched in silent amazement - wondering if their teacher had gone outside the usual version of crazy - then started a contagious giggle, soon turned to outbursts of laughter as they considered the prospect of "breaking the rules" a bit.

Throwing out the expectations.
Allowing freedom and independence to let something be what it is without judgement.
Even at 3 years old they recognize there's so much freedom in coloring outside the lines.
You'll find their Masterpiece located above.