Angel's Landing (or angels landing???)

This Thanksgiving weekend my family and I went to St. George to try to find more sun and warmth for a few days (SUCCESS!!!). The first day my sisters, Mom, and I hiked Angel's Landing in Zion's National Park. (Okay, so here's the confusion: is it angel's landing, as in the place where an angel lands? or is it the act of angels landing??? My gut instinct is the first one, but I'm not making any substantiated statements.) I thought about a lot of things on the 4-hour hike (going slowly up the backbone of a mountain for a half a mile sure takes a while....). First, here's a picture of me and the mountain:


So, you basically ascend this tiny little precipice while holding on to a chain. I've done the hike once before, but that gut feeling of "why am I doing this?" crept back into my little head and heart. I wouldn't have done it unless I had my sisters and mom supporting me and leading me. I thought of people in poverty...it requires a lot of them to get out of where they're at. It may be pretty scary staring down a road that seems strewn with difficulty. But if they have a mentor or someone to urge them forward--or even go before them--then they will be more likely to do it. My economics professor once talked to me about his belief that mentors was the best way to confront poverty on both ends--the poor end and the rich end. I am beginning to think he was on to something.

Here's a picture of me and 2 of my 3 supporters:

running on a Friday night

Tonight was the first Friday night in about a month where I didn't have a social activity taking place or where I turned down opportunities to go be social. Do you ever have a need to just take time for yourself to think things through and chill out? Well, I decided to go running. I thought two things while I was puffing out white drifts of breath under the street lights' glares:

1. Running is so much more fun when you have cool clothes to run in. (Thanks to Tao, a Chinese MBA student I tutored last year, I have matching running pants and jacket. Black with orange stripes. Sweet. And yes, I mentioned she was an MBA student on purpose--be impressed.)

2. Running really clears your mind and body.

I came home and stretched (which is usually my most favorite part of running), and I reveled in feeling my body relieve tightness. My mind felt open and clear, and I was at peace.

APPLICATION: I have been wrestling with a quote by President Benson for the last little while. He says that the world takes people out of the slums but Christ takes the slums out of the people so they can leave the slums themselves. I am bascially learning how I can work in the "world" and take people out of the slums. I was TIGHT, you might say. I was really struggling, working hard to make things balance. And then I was chatting with my sister late one night, baring my soul, and she said, "Tricia, do you remember why you started this program?" I stopped and looked at her. "So that you could help people stop worrying so much about daily survival and more about accepting the gospel?" The tightness left, and all the sudden my mind was open and clear. Even now the vision and purpose of where I am right now is bringing me so much peace. I saw people in Argentina struggle to survive the next 12 hours. How could they listen to a white missionary tell them about God when their body was screaming for attention? THAT is my target and THAT is my motivation. It's nice to let that sit in my mind.

Saturday night thoughts

Today's post is going to be a little different. I am settling down for the night, and I just want to write about whatever is floating through my head. I have taken some time to think about the next week because tomorrow is Fast Sunday, so I have thought about what I want to accomplish through my fast. A scripture in Isaiah sums up my desire: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that hou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" My desire is to undo heavy burdens...by thinking more about others than myself. This scripture is so beautiful, so calming, so exemplifying.

I have a children's book called The Three Questions. It sums up the moral by saying, "Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side." I wonder, as I get necessarily caught up in taking care of life's details, do I miss these opportunities? I went through a period of time when focusing on myself was frustrating for me because I wanted to focus on others. I have lost that sensitivity, I think, and I want to return to it.

My purpose in fasting, then, is to allow Heavenly Father help me see how I can help others. That will mean, of course, that I will need to be on top of my own life details so I will have time and resources to open up to others. More. And meaningfully.

follow the leader

I am pretty tired right now, but I just have to get in a post. I went to a conference last weekend in Chicago (the Net Impact conference), and I came away with bajillions of ideas that are floating around in my head. So, I am taking a moment to at least get one down before I drop off.

One thought that keeps swimming through my head about how to make changes is working through and with leaders. If you want a family to change, work with the dad. If you want a community to change, work with the respected town patriarch. This goes back to my ideas surrounding microfinance...get in with the FAMILY! And the way to heal them is to go straight for the jugular (in this case, the father or leader). I would like feedback on this idea, if anyone happens to have any.