dignity

As you can see, I still get lattes sometimes. :) Last week, I spent a while sitting at a cafe reading this book. I had attended a book-talk by Donna Hicks at my favorite bookstore a few weeks ago, and ended up with this book in my to-read pile. When I first saw this book, I was intrigued by the topic, but did not think it related too much to my work or life, since it was largely based on international conflict resolution.

However, I got the book because one thing I am trying to grow in right now is treating my clients with more dignity. As they have often gone through shameful and belittling experiences, it seemed like an important part of my contact with them is to counteract this sense of powerlessness, and to treat them with a sense of importance. But it was still not clear in my mind how this was to happen - how do you treat someone with dignity?

This book addresses this - not only on the international nation-states scale, but also on the personal face-to-face level. It's been helpful in not only thinking through how I treat my clients, but also how I treat my neighbors, friends, and family. It has provided a lot of fuel for thought in terms of what I want to teach my kids - how to treat others knowing their God-given worth. As I think about what it means to teach my children about God, His heart for people and His heart for justice, this seems foundational.

But even as I start thinking through how to teach my kids, I am struck by how much I need to learn and live out. How do my actions foster an environment of inclusion, especially to those who are easily left out? How do I acknowledge another's history and sensitivies in conversation and decision-making? Am I able to give the benefit of the doubt and do I desire to understand more than to share? Am I fair in the ways I treat and think about others?

As I think about this concept of "justice" and what it means for myself and my family, I think more and more, I'm drawn to the fact that at the foundation of it all is the need to see and treat people for who they are - created in the image of God, with inherent dignity and importance, and a desire to be known and understood. I hope it is out of this that I may enter into works of justice and, by God's grace, teach my children what it means to be just.

the year of the knitted footwear & small beginnings

Since this blog started out as a craft blog, it seemed time to give an update on the knitting that has been happening this winter. I think I will coin this year the year of the knitted footwear. I just kept finding patterns for our feet! It's funny how there seems to be random themes that run throughout each knitting season - scarves and shawls, hats and hats and hats...and now, footwear. I will say I am starting to get intrigued by sweaters...but not right now. Springs seems to be in the air, and I am itching to go out with the boys and leave the warmth of knitting needles behind...just for a little bit.

The other thing that has been brewing at our house (and in my heart) is how to spend less and spend better...on many things, but starting small, beginning with our coffee. We don't drink a lot of coffee, but I was falling into a rut of always buying coffee out. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just didn't like the way it was adding up...and the way I was always tempted to upgrade to a latte (yummm!). Occassionally, a latte is a wonderful treat (and I am not banning myself from ever buying lattes or coffees out), but regularly spending $3-4 on a cup of coffee was not my preference (don't worry, if you do, I don't think any more or less of you - everyone is different, I'm just speaking for myself!). I will say now that I have kids, buying a cup of coffee is so much easier than bringing out a mug of coffee, along with the kids and their gear and my bag and everything else. But it's doable. Or we slow down a bit more in the morning, and I actually just enjoy some coffee at my dining table. :) Well, anyway, I wanted to spend less on coffee. But not just spend less...spend better, spend smarter, spend more justly. And so I was excited to come across Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company at the Justice Conference. They not only make great coffee, and not only pay fair and just wages to the Rwandan farmers, but also they go further to try to promote forgiveness and reconciliation in a war-torn region full of a history of ethnic hatred and abuse. Many of my clients come from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Somalia and Sudan...and as I work with them, the concept of hope and forgiveness often seems so distant and foreign. The Tutsi-Hutu divide seems unsurmountable; I write about it in applications and motions, but I don't really try to engage with the actual pain of it all - too much, too deep, too brutal. But organizations/businesses like Land of a Thousand Hills gives me hope in this...that change may be possible and healing may actually one day come, however small and however slow it may seem now.