Wednesday, May 25, 2011
It's been a while...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Haiku
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Community Service Spotlight: March Mural Madness (Hands-on-DC)
My second community service project was with Hands-on-DC. Desa and I participated in the March Mural Madness at West Education Campus. There were two murals for WEC – the school mascot (a tiger) and the school pledge, which is the mural we worked on. This was a pretty awesome experience, and we found out that we were working alongside a Baltimore Ravens football player and his family! It was his birthday weekend, and his wish was to do service with his family, which I thought was pretty cool. By the end of the day we were their adoptive family!
Hands-on-DC is currently looking for volunteers for their Annual Work-a-Thon on April 30th. For information on how to support Hands on DC, go to www.handsondc.org.
Community Service Spotlight: Hope and a Home
The first community service initiative during Lent was with Hope and a Home in DC. In honor of the Annual Not Quite a Gala (held tonight actually), I helped stuff envelopes with the invitations. I stuffed over over 170 envelopes in 1.5 hours!!! Go me!!
Hope and a Home is a program in DC that offers transitional housing to families. They also have a program called Work and Thrive, which supports R Street NW teens in their goals to acquire summer employment and thriving in life. Every summer, H&H staff host weekly workshops to educate the teens on filing taxes, budgeting money, and completing job applications, among other things. Hope and a Home also has a mentoring program, where I met my awesome mentee of 3 years!! They also have a tutoring program. This is truly a great organization that meets the needs of it’s community. For more information on how you can help support H&H and for volunteer opportunities, go to www.hopeandahome.org. If interested in supporting Work & Thrive or becoming a mentor, please feel free to contact Crystal Stewart at cstewart@hopeandahome.org.
Lent (April 7, 2011)
So I have been meaning to post for a few weeks now. This year I decided to observe Lent by giving up an activity and replacing it with another positive activity. As all of my close friends and family know, I am an avid movie watcher. It’s how I unwind and zone out at the end of a rough day. And lately, I’ve taken to watching movies whenever I have down time in the day. I have rented so many movies and TV DVD shows since I moved to my new apartment that couldn’t even count them all! I watched the first 3 seasons of Army Wives in less that two months, so that can give you some idea of how much time I spend in front of the television! So for Lent, I decided to give up movie watching. In addition, I am giving up watching television (with the exception of the news, as this is essential!). I knew from the beginning that this process would be a challenge and an area of growth for me. So far, I have experienced a surge in productivity. I have more quiet time to think, something that usually tends to make me nervous! I am looking into odd projects around my apartment, such as patching all those pants (something that I have never found time to do!).
In the place of movie watching, I set a goal to complete 40 hours of community service during the season of Lent!! This is a huge goal, seeing as 1)Lent is almost over and 2) I have to work the hours into my already packed schedule. I have also set the goal to do daily Bible Study and/or prayer time. As of now, I have accomplished roughly 7 hours of service. I figure if I don’t meet my goal, at least I gave it a good try and it will all bring me closer to God!! I plan to post blogs about the service projects I complete, so stay tuned 
Who are you? (June 8, 2010)
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve posted to my blog. So much has happened in the past year, and I am still in a transition phase. I am pleased to report that after 2.5 long years I have finally completed my master’s degree in counseling (Praise-a-lleujah!). Now that this chapter of my life is finally complete, I am free to do more of the things I love. The prospect of a life filled with a meaningful career, my love, being an auntie, and evenings of yoga/bellydance/volunteering greatly excites me.
I went to my fave poetry spot last week, and one of the poets spit a line in a poem asking, “Who are you?” While sitting in a small, hot room surrounded by positive energy and packed with numerous talented people, I started to think about the person I am and the person I wish to become. For a long time, my life has been defined by the fact that I was a student. A pretty good student (not to brag or anything). I have just completed my masters degree, which is the highest degree I wanted to complete. Maybe a PhD in a few years, maybe. Now that this journey is complete, who am I? What is my identity outside of me being a student? I recently realized that I was identifying the whole of me as a part. Yes, I was a student, but that was not entirely who I was. Now that I no longer have that identity, the question remains: Who am I?
No one should be defined by just one aspect of their life. I mean, I don’t want to just be defined as someone’s wife (when that day does come!), so why should I limit myself to being defined by my educational status? IN the next few weeks and months I hope to gain a better understanding of my identity outside of my educational goals. This is a difficult question to answer, and I’m sure it won’t be answered in a night or a week’s time. Like my quote says, it’s all about the journey.
Baring one's soul/sharing poetry...one and the same? (June 4, 2010)
I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. I have major catching up to do. Stay tuned for that post. So I’ve been going to my fave poetry spot for a while now. It’s one of the most therapeutic places in the world. I truly believe that art has the power to heal. I think it must be cathartic in some way to put pen to paper and get your inner thoughts out. To take it one step further and do spoken word is amazing. I was thinking about how people get the courage to stand up and share very personal pieces with people that they don’t even know, and may never see again. People who may embrace your work, and “get you” on the deepest level, or people who may have no idea of what the heck you’re talking about. how do you get past the worry/fear that your work wont be received well? Part of what keeps me coming back is that I can relate to so much of what other people have to say. I share in the collective joy, pain, excitement…whatever emotion one could feel. I am truly grateful that artists have the courage to do what they do. Many a night I leave feeling as though someone understands me, and I am not alone in the world. It’s one of the greatest feelings ever.
Cassie’s hope for me is that one day I can share my poetry and know that it will help someone, and that will be a time when the past (what I wrote about) can no longer hurt me. My boyfriend, wonderful man that he is, is encouraging me in this area as well. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’ve never been the most courageous person, though my family may tell you different. Moving to another city/trying new restaurants and baring my soul while reading very personal stuff are two different things! What if they don’t like it? What if they are talking and texting during your passionate delivery? I am mortified! Until I am able to read my poetry with no expectations from the crowd, they will stay in my world, private admit only. Maybe one day I will get the courage to go through with it. Maybe. But until then, I will remain the appreciative listen, glad you had the courage to share your inner thoughts with me. Thank you for showing me the way.
Just thoughts…feel free to share yours and let me know how spoken word has affected your life, and if you spit, how you get the courage to bare your soul in front of strangers, night after night. Thanks:-)