Let's Talk About Social Media

For my first topic in this November challenge, I ended up drawing the slip of paper that corresponded to the first day of the challenge - what are the odds of that?

Seriously, somebody *cough* mathematician-brother-in-law *cough* figure that out and tell me, because I actually kinda want to know.

I'm supposed to write about "Five Problems with Social Media" and it shouldn't be too hard for me to come up with those, but really?  Could we not start this out on a more positive note?

Let's just see what I can do with this:

• We're constantly competing with our friends' phone screens/social media accounts for their attention.  I personally don't watch movies for entertainment.  I could count on one hand the amount of times I have sat in my house by myself and thought "I really want to watch a movie."  This is something I do with friends as a way of spending time with them, but lately I've noticed every time a friend suggests movie night, we're not sitting around looking at a glowing screen and talking about what's happening 10 feet in front of us.  We're really just each individually absorbed in the glowing screen one foot in front of us instead.  Same goes for dinner out - this was once a time reserved for spending face-to-face time with people, but no more - we're constantly checking our instagram, twitter, facebook, blog, etc.

What is the deal here?  Are we afraid they're going to disappear if we don't connect with them every 5 minutes?  What about the actual friends in front of us?  What'll happen if they really do disappear because we ceased connecting with them in significant ways?

• Social media is a great vehicle for jealousy.  We're all putting our best foot forward, so to speak, and we're all afraid to put our mess out there for everybody to look at.  Consequently, we think we're the only ones in the world that have a mess, because we don't see anybody else's mess on social media.

Preaching to the choir, but seriously.  What kind of messed up logic is this that we assume we're the only ones masking our life here.

• Social media inhibits our ability to acknowledge each other's basic humanity in a major way - it's so easy to shoot off a quick, maybe cruel, comment or message when all you're looking at is a perfect smiling face on a 4.7-inch screen.

Let's all just agree to take a breath and re-read before sending anything that could be even slightly hurtful. Just consider for a minute how we, in all of our tender thin skin, would feel if somebody said exactly that to us.

• People find you.  Creepy people can find you, and you can even engage with them thinking that they're harmless.  This is a reality a lot of us become numbed to, because social media is so easily logged out of or locked, but it's also super easy to unwisely put too much out there and get into trouble for it.

Sometimes even, as sad as this might sound, you just need separation from a person in your past - maybe a past relationship that will keep holding you back unless you cut ties, or just someone who has hurt you emotionally.  These ties to our past are So. Much. Harder. to cut than they were before the advent of facebook, etc.

• Social Media is MURDERING good grammar.  Maybe I punctuated that last sentence in the above paragraph the way I did because I wanted to make a point here, or maybe I did it just because it somehow seems appropriate since everybody else does it.

I'm as guilty of this as the next person, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make me sad that "proper grammar" may be a thing of the past by the time my children are old enough to learn about it.

People, what if a sentence someday becomes just an old-fashioned convention nobody uses anymore?!

Somebody please stop me before I really become a drama queen about this.

Whew!  I just wrote a list of five negative things about social media!  Where's my award?

But really, I couldn't close this post without saying a few good things too:

Social media keeps me in touch with people I would have lost contact with by now if I'd lived a generation ago.

In my past, I was blessed to work with people from all over the world (I'd like to think I'd have housing, or at least connections, if I wanted to travel almost anywhere on this big planet).  My mom at my age would never have been able to keep up with as many people in as many different places as I have.

I can make friends with people anywhere - I'm not restricted to meeting people in person.

Before I say anything else about this, let me be perfectly clear - no one should ever have only online friends - there is no substitute for an actual make-eye-contact, touch-your-hand, buy-you-ice-cream friend in your real world, but I am learning that online friends are fun too.

Remember pen pals from when we were little?  I have one of those that I met on Instagram, and I am so happy we're in each other's life "for real" now.  Maybe I'll actually get to buy her ice cream someday.

Also, no one should just throw personal information out there willy-nilly because they think they made a friend - always always be careful and wise in your actions and words.

And finally, networking! Most of us could theoretically get a job anywhere on this green earth through just putting out feelers to our friends on social media. 

In more personal aspects of life, even - tonight, I sent an email to a random blogger, just to tell her she'd sprinkled a little inspiration onto my life, and she actually replied, expressing interest in supporting me along the way.  How wonderful is that?

Social media is truly amazing if used wisely.

I would do it all over again if I could.

The first writing prompt in the Blogtember challenge was to write about where or what I come from.
First, lets just say that my cousin pretty much said it all last week with her Where I come From post.
Also?  I've already written this, and the end of this pretty much sums up what I call home.
If you want to see pictures of one of my many country homes, you can go here.
And these two poems say a lot about growing into who I am today, and what family means to me.

I'm big on being aware of your past, of knowing the building blocks of who you are today, and I think most of my poetry would tell you that.  I write almost exclusively personal poems dealing with my past - the good and the hard.

But sometimes, "where you come from" is not so distant in the past.  If you're like me, who you are today started about 5 years ago, and who you were then is someone that you hardly even know now.

I came to Camp Tejas in the Summer of 2008, hardly having any idea what I was in for.  Yes, I had learned all the facts about my job in my interview, and probably the words "Live, Serve, and Grow" were tossed around in that interview, but I had no idea just how much living, serving, and growing were going to happen in this place.

My first two summers - 2008 and 2009 - were filled to the brim with living and serving.
So much living.
And so much serving.
I was exhausted at the end of both, but so happy.  That living gave me the best friendships I could ever hope to have.
(The highlight of 2009? Meeting this girl, and knowing within the first five minutes that we were going to be friends forever.)

The growing, though, oh the growing.  That part is hard, and not always happy.  I am so glad we grow physically the most when we are tiny children and our memories are not fully developed enough to store that pain.  Growing emotionally is hard.  I can't imagine how hard growing physically is.

2010 was the year of growing - of fighting battles and learning there isn't always a clear winner.  Things aren't always as black and white as you think they are.

I stayed away from camp in 2011.  I realize now it was probably a mistaken effort to avoid more painful growth, but I also realize that it was a needed absence.  Without that absence, I wouldn't have returned after I graduated and become full-time in camping ministry.
Sidenote:  It's still weird to me to say "Oh, I work in camping ministry" like someone would say "Oh, I'm a banker" or something.

And if I thought 2010 was hard, I had no idea what was coming for me in 2012 and 2013.  I have fought more Apollyons than I thought existed in my life, and most of them stemming from unrefined parts of myself that I wish would just hide in dark corners, so I wouldn't have to chase them out.
But that's not the way it works in real life.  We have to fight those dark things out of the corners and into the open, or we will never grow.  We will never come from anything.

So, all that being said, I'm going to go ahead and cover the second writing prompt for Blogtember:

If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

First of all, when someone says three months, regardless of what they're talking about, my first thought is Summer - May to August - three little months in which so much happens.  I can't help it.  That is the 3-month time frame that my mind jumps to.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the thing I would really love, more than anything else in the world is to do Summer 2010 over again - to open up to all that growth that wanted so badly to happen, but had to wait; to more quickly welcome the me who would eventually come from that time.

I've never had a big desire to travel or do something crazy different with my life than what I'm doing now.  Sure, I have dreams, and I've been to some places, and I'll probably go to some more.  As a result of camp, I now have friends in Australia, Thailand, South Korea, South Africa, Kenya, Wales, and Ireland, for goodness' sake.  I feel like I will probably do some traveling in my time, but the thing I would actually spend my 3 months on without regretting a minute of it?
Washing dishes, and fixing bloody noses, and cleaning cabins, and laughing, and crying, and growing.

How You Know You've Really Backed Yourself Into a Corner

I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions in general. I just sort of make resolutions whenever and for whatever length of time I please (such a rebel). But this year, I did make one New Year's resolution - not to buy a single stitch of clothing for myself for the entire year. Some of you may not realize what a big deal this is, but trust me, it's HUGE!

So far, I've been successful, and it's been a lot easier than I thought it would be. Hooray for that!

However, I've recently made another resolution which is equally important to me. This summer, I've decided to hold myself to a stricter standard of modesty even than the one to which we hold the girls on summer staff here at camp.

I've decided to enforce the fingertip rule on myself. Dun dun dun.

The reason this is such a big deal is that I have "monkey arms" for lack of a better descriptor. My fingertips are almost at my knees when I relax my shoulders and hang my arms by my sides.

I am not in the habit of wearing shorts that reach my knees.

In going through my wardrobe, I've found exactly 5 pairs of shorts that comply with my new rule, plus 4 more pairs that do, but are a little small.

Guys, I cannot survive the summer with only 5 pair of shorts!

Neither do I want to overturn my original resolution.

I guess the solution is to lose a little weight?

I had no idea this resolution thing would suddenly get really hard.

I Took a Little Road Trip Last Week

(Yes, this road trip did coincide with the policeman encounter, and yes, I am just now posting pictures of it.  The road trip, not the encounter.)


Disclaimer:  Before anyone (i.e. Daddy) gets too upset, I'll have you know all pictures which look like they were taken on the road were taken on the road, but not with me looking through the viewfinder.  I just had the camera next to me and held it up when I saw something I wanted to take a picture of.

This one, in fact, was taken at a stop sign.  And maybe I did look through the viewfinder, just this once.



Really, I've got to get over this obsession with crooked pictures, but you have to admit, sometimes things just beg to be photographed from an angle, while some things need to be perfectly horizontal.



This is a road I travel quite frequently, because it takes me to one of my favorite places.

(You should totally click on that link, especially if you live in Texas.  I worked at that favorite place for three summers in a row and loved every minute of it.  While you're there, you should check out the photos from the summers of 2009 and 2010.  A lot of them are mine and I'm just a little bit proud of them.  Okay, end of shameless plug for self.)

This road also leads to one of my best friends, and, this summer, it lead to my sister and this lovely.
And when you're going to visit those three, it's almost a crime not to have a Sonic drink.


Sorry.  Private joke.

Have I mentioned that this is one of my favorite roads?  So wide open with nothing but the sky above you.  I tell you, it's fantastic when you're driving into the sunset.  I've had some pretty good times with Jesus on this road.


Don't worry, Daddy, the camera is zoomed all the way in, and I definitely had both hands on the wheel before that truck was even close to me.


But this summer hasn't been very kind to the fields round-about my road.  I saw lots like this.


Even that sky looks parched!

No.  That picture has not been edited at all.  That is really the color of the grass.  And my apologies for the slim amount of field you can actually see.  When you're just holding the camera up without looking through the viewfinder, these are the kind of things you get.

All in all, I was happy to finally make it to this



And, after a few fun days, to leave this



behind for this



and finally, this.



I do love home.

Psalm 122:1 & Acts 27:29

Psalm 122:1
"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD!'"
Acts 27:29
"And fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come."

I was so blessed in prayer meeting tonight.  I am fully glad that I am here, right here where I need to be, for the summer, because I have the house of the Lord to go to every Sunday and Wednesday.
Every summer I was at camp and away from home, there would be a point when I felt a need, a pull to the house of the Lord which I couldn't respond to because I was busy all day.
I was doing the Lord's work and He was there right beside me the whole time, holding me up and whispering encouragement through a beautiful sky or the pure smile of a child or a verse on the wall of the Pots & Pans room, but I needed to go to His house sometimes.
Camp is a place that I truly love, but the Mission is a place that I truly love as well and I am glad that I can cast my anchors there when I fear running aground.

But you know who I miss?  My sister (you would get a link if there was something to link to) and this girl.
To you two:
I love you both.
We had Bible Study yesterday and something was missing.  That something was you two.
I was on campus yesterday running errands and wishing I could meet you two for lunch.
Tonight I cast anchors for both of you.  Everyone at the Mission cast anchors for you.
My heart is torn in between two places right now.  I think it's clear by now where those two places are.
I can't wait to see you, and I will soon.

What I've Been Up To

Summer started out feeling pretty much as busy as the semester, but there has been a good change in the type of activities that keep me busy, so I'm not complaining.
This post will be picture heavy. (You've been fairly warned.) But the first couple weeks of my summer are not documented at all.  The Friday of finals week, I headed to Camp/Austin to help out with training/visit Kae.
My camera lived under my bed and I didn't take a single picture for two weeks.  Terrible.
But since then, I've been taking pictures non-stop.  Here's a sampling of what I've been up to:

Enjoying Country Life

There's just something about denim on a clothesline.  And yes, that last is a chicken coop.  And yes, it lives outside my bedroom window just like that.  I love it.

Building fences for donkeys which will arrive soon

Yes.  I live in that forest.  Isn't it lovely?

I'm sort of in love with pine trees . . .
Also

Smiling ice cream?  Yes, please.

Baking cakes

Going to Baby's ballet recital

Being hospitable to Grandma's cat, who would have none of it and chose to live in

There?  Really? Okay.  I guess she knows where we won't mess with her . . .

Taking in a baseball game with the favorites and Grandma

And getting Baby's hair cut!

She's so cute!

And, PS, I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop, which is not playing my favorite music right now.  SO I have my headphones on and have not been paying much attention to my fellow patrons.
In a break between two songs on my headphones just now, I heard the old man across the room say, "We can't reasonably expect to create a 9,000 pound gorilla."
Well sir, I'd say you are right on track with that statement.

Executive Decisions

I hate making them.
I don't know if this is a product of my raisin' or what.  I don't feel like I was raised to doubt myself.  But somehow I did end up with practically an inability to make a decision about anything.  This may partly be a self-defense mechanism.  I've never been known for my wonderful common sense . . .

*Even more of a side-note:  It's always been one of my greatest fears that my one-day children will inherit my complete lack of common sense.  That would be bad for the world.*

Okay, back to what I was saying before.  I absolutely hate making decisions about anything.  I will always ask for other people's opinions before making a decision.  Provided there are other people around, that is.

You can imagine how I felt about being the only lifeguard at camp last weekend.  Yep.  This little non-decision-maker watched over a pool which had anywhere from two to probably 60something people in it at any given moment.
At one point, I told one particular young gentleman that he couldn't have a tube in the shallow end, that all the tubes had to be in the lazy river even though he was one of the two people in the shallow end at the time.  Actually, it probably went a little more like I didn't know that he was about to be using the tube and I asked him if he could please toss it over into the lazy river for me and he said "What? we're not allowed to have tubes in the shallow end?"  I looked at him sadly and shook my head and immediately began pondering why "we're not allowed to have tubes in the shallow end."  It's a rule from the summer that I was just blindly following even though there really wasn't any justification for applying it at that particular point.
So, I made a quick decision that I would only enforce rules that were directly related to actually keeping the patrons safe.  (Yeah, things like the always-beloved "Walk, please!")
Immediately after I'd made that decision and was feeling foolishly proud of myself for having made a decision of my own, the self-same young gentleman and his chronies took up the ever-popular and forbidden-in-the-summer game of throw-the-football-from-the-shallow-end-to-your-friend-on-the-diving-board.  I watched them for two seconds and decided that it was okay because there were no small children around in danger of getting hit in the back of the head by the football.
THEN, the young gentleman noticed me watching them and said to me "What?  You're gonna tell me that I can do this, but I can't have a tube in the shallow end?"

I just can't win with this decision-making business, can I?

Here's the Latest

I bought a camera!  A real camera!  A Nikon D3000!

It's actually the camera that I used at camp last year.

(In case you're not aware, I was a media intern at Camp Tejas for the last two summers, which is a fancy way of saying I took as many pictures of kids and campy things as I could every day.)

Anyway, this camera was brand new last summer and I was really the only one who used it, so the guy that I talked to about it was like "Well, it's really like it's your camera already."  So true!

And now I sort of regret not cleaning it better at the end of every day . . .

But when you're standing in the mud taking pictures like this

all the time, it's hard to stay motivated to keep your camera clean.

But it's really in very good condition and I'm super excited about it!

And just because I like pictures (and am a little vain about some of mine) and can't think of anything else to say, here's a sample of what might be showing up on my blog more often when I actually get this camera in my hands:

The only sad thing is that I won't have it in time for our trip to the Farmer's Market on Saturday, another thing I'm super excited about.  Oh well, you can't have everything.

I feel like I'm getting pretty close right now, though.

Oh the Things a Beautiful Sky Can Do

This weekend was wonderful.  Just the time I needed with old and new friends - people with whom I am almost more "myself" than I am in my normal everyday life.  However, despite the fact that the reunion was marvellous, the moments that were the greatest were on the ride over to camp.

From the time I left the house, the sky was full of literally every kind of cloud - stratus, cumulous, cirrus, nimbus - you name it, it was there.  There was such a conglomeration that, even though it was only 2:30ish, the horizon was already taking on a purple hue.  Since I was wending my way entirely west anyway, I actually got to watch the entire sunset from beginning to end!

Let me just say that I am very glad I was travelling on not-too-busy roads because my eyes were glued to the sky.  Okay, I was watching the road enough to not run off of it, but I was definitely enthralled by the process of the sun sinking below the horizon.

There were definitely dificult things about the reunion I was trying to emotionally prepare myself for and that slow sunset was exactly what I needed.  It was just like God was whispering to me over and over saying "I love you and that is all that matters right now."  In fact, there was one point where I just had this crazy urge to sing "Oh How He Loves Us", so I did.  I pulled out my cd with good old John Mark McMillan which has an enormous scratch on it, but still plays that one song and put it in my player, turned it up as high as it would go without blowing out my speaker, and sang at the top of my lungs.  Then came Francesca Batistelli.  There was some serious worship time going on in Esther's car on friday afternoon, let me tell you. 

It was just the beauty I needed.