I Am a Privileged Woman

I am so excited and terrified for my future. This life is going to be such a long and powerful journey marked with suffering, joy, and faithfulness. It already has been.

I'm currently feeling overwhelmed with how many opportunities I have. I just hope I always always always give them away as much as I receive them. (Accountability always and forever welcome.) God is SO faithful. I am SO thankful.

Sociology FTW

Brain Drain

I've got this friend from Kenya who came to the US for a few years to work in Camden and attend grad school at the same place I go. She's one of the most intelligent, tender, and driven women I know. I found out she has a blog, and has recently written a series of posts about brain drain - the phenomenon where trained professionals leave developing (there has got to be a better word... developing into what?) countries in favor of more wealthy nations. If you don't know anything about it, you should educate yourself:

Brain Drain pt 1
Brain Drain pt 2
Brain Drain pt 3

And then, when you're done educating yourself, you should read her post about baboons. She must be one of the most patient women in the world, too, because I've asked her to share baboon stories an absurd amount of times, as does everyone else. They're so great:

Baboon Story

Individualism, How You Sadden Me

Some days (actually, most days), I just really long to live in a society where people notice and value their interconnectedness, viewing themselves as a collective first and individuals second.

"In earlier periods of Western history there was little demand that written books be attached to the names of single authors. Writing was not viewed as the expression of an individual mind." -Kenneth Gergen

God Speaks to Each of Us As He Makes Us

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, 
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall, 
go to the limits of your longing. 
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Mail

"Reading the New Testament is like reading somebody else's mail." -Peter Enns

Hurry

"Hurry ruins saints as well as artists." -Thomas Merton

Placenta Bears

Last night I hung out with a friend and looked up all of the "fun" (may be interpreted as "intensely bizarre and disgusting") things you can do with a placenta. This one takes the cake.

You're welcome.