Evy & Friend

"Why, she's got a panty on her head!"

("Raising Arizona")

Handy De-Puffing Hint

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     1
     Place at least two metal teaspoons in the freezer. Let the spoons sit in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

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     Dry the area around your eyes.
   • 3   Lie down and place the bottom part of the spoons on your eyes.

     4  Once the coldness of the back of the spoons dissipates, turn them over to the scooped side. Leave the spoons in that position until they get warm.
   • 5
     
     

     Apply eye cream or gel to the area to complete the de-puffing
     
     I've added a number 6:

     Remember to remove all spoons from the ice maker.
     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     

     
     

Teach 'em early

Sawyer joined us for our morning meeting with our 

favorite financial advisor, Mitch!

Suite 1117 in Progress

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Doesn't take much!

PapaRob kept Sawyer today while I worked.

They have a great time together!

 Dollar Tree purchase...

Text photo from PapaRob with quote from Sawyer:

"My favorite dark blue balloons."

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

A man hacks another man to death in broad daylight on a London street. In Miami, a man chews another man's face off while he is still alive. In Paris, a man blows his brains out in front of a dozen wide-eyed schoolchildren.

  

Is it now time to sing more loudly our songs of bitterness, defeat and unbridled rage? Is now the time to give up? Was the philosophy of nihilism correct in the end? Is the world a meaningless mistake, an aberration of consciousness, a waste of everyone's time?

  

When confronted with 'news' like the above we can often feel so powerless, so unstable, like we are living in a world that's gone mad and out of control. It all seems like a nightmare, like some evil or dark force must be taking over. Some start talking about the nearing of the Apocalypse. Certainly it can feel like the end of the fairytale world we once believed in. Out of our powerlessness and disappointment, rage may arise, the final attempt of the ego to control things.

  

In the midst of the devastation we seek answers, causes, someone or something to blame, an outlet for all this confusion, this unprocessed life energy. Do we blame the killers? Their parents? Society as a whole? The human brain? The food we ingest? Chemicals? The stars? Our governments? Religions? Do we objectify the killers as sick, twisted, deluded, evil madmen? Do we go to war with them as they have gone to war with us, wishing more death upon them and their kin? Do we enter into the age-old story of good versus evil, us versus them? Do we further solidify our identification with a mind-made sense of self?

  

Do we curse the universe and wish we hadn't been born? Do we try to numb ourselves, distract ourselves from the realities of this world, with alcohol, with sex, with work, with material comforts? Do we simply dismiss the horror, detach ourselves from others and turn our backs on their plight, muttering and complaining about how "awful" and "terrible" things are but doing nothing to help bring about change and healing?

  

Do we turn to spiritual teachers who comfort us with talk about the illusory nature of life and the unreality of all we witness? Do we regurgitate words like 'nothing matters', 'it's all just an innocent play of maya', and 'nobody has any choice anyway'? Do we call what we see an 'illusion', sparing ourselves from the pain of having to confront the messiness and seeming uncontrollability of this relative and impermanent manifestation? Do we pretend that world events have nothing to do with us, that everything is disconnected and we are islands unto ourselves? Do we descend into solipsism? Anarchy? Do we close our hearts even more tightly than they are already closed, build our walls even higher and live in a protected state of fear? Do we give up on this world and dream of a perfect afterlife?

  

Do we come to conclusions about how good or bad the universe is, fixate on an optimistic or pessimistic view? Do we use the 'reality' of the news as an excuse to give up, to shut down, to forget who we truly are? Do we let the 'terrorists' win by living in terror ourselves, and terrorising others who we label as 'evil'? Do we add to the problems that we see? Or do we use the appearance of problems to look deeply at ourselves and the way we live and treat others? Do we see the madness as a call to clarity? The violence as a call to love? The pain as a call to compassion? The terror as a call to remember and express more deeply and with more conviction that infinite intelligence that we are?

  

Do we condone the killings? Absolutely not. Do we feel the pain of the victims, and the victims' loved ones? Of course, for we are not separate. Would we do everything we can to prevent this kind of thing happening again? Certainly. Do we work for justice? Yes. Do we sit back and simply 'accept'? If acceptance means detachment and passivity, no. If it means coming into profound alignment with life, knowing that intelligent change and healing always emerges from a fearless plunge into the mystery of the moment, then yes. True acceptance and creative change are lovers.

  

In the Middle East, a Jew donates a kidney to a sick Palestinian, saving her precious life. In India, a woman feeds and washes those with leprosy, because she sees that we are all expressions of the very same consciousness and it brings her joy to live in this way, despite the names that others call her. In San Francisco, a son holds his elderly father's hand, and suddenly forgiveness happens as if by magic, unexpectedly, the weight and violence and resentment of a lifetime falling away, as if it never happened at all.

  

What 'news' are we teaching our children? Are we teaching them that they have been born into an essentially scary and bad and sick world, and they should live in fear and hate? Do we teach them that violence is inevitable, and 'built into' to their nature? Or do we teach them that the murder and torture we see in the news every day stems from a deep forgetting of who we are, a false and misguided belief in separation?

  

Are we teaching them to give up on their dreams because there are bad people out there intent on stopping them? Are we teaching them to give up on love, and give up on compassion, and give up on change, and give up on humanity, and give up on joy, because of all the 'news'? Are we teaching them to focus on what is wrong with the world, to cling to the 'negative', to sing songs of defeat and disillusionment? Are we blinding them to the 'negative' by focussing only on the 'positive'? Or are we teaching them to acknowledge the violence of the world, the pain of it, but to see that all this sorrow is part of an infinitely vaster picture, a picture where everything is interconnected and everything makes a difference and everything is in balance and nothing is set in stone?

  

Don't use the 'news' as an excuse to stop living your truth, even for a moment. Don't believe for a second that there is a force called 'evil' in the world with any power whatsoever to win over Life. Terror cannot win, for it emerges from a gross misunderstanding of our nature. We are only hurting ourselves, stabbing ourselves, blowing ourselves up, and deep down, we know this and have always known. A wave can never be separated from the ocean, or from any other wave, and beyond our differences in opinion and belief, we are all movements of the One Life, the true Power, beyond the worldly 'power' of guns and meat cleavers dripping with blood. Teach your children the realities of the world, yes, but, more importantly, teach them the realities of their hearts and the hearts of those they call 'others'. Let the current play of violence actually serve to deepen your conviction in that timeless and unshakeable gift of Presence that you have always known, and reconfirm your intention to end all violence in yourself, to live as you know you can live. Don't allow the 'news', or at least the stories selectively presented to you as the 'news', to distract you from Truth.

  

Keep your eyes on the prize. ~Jeff Foster

Jeff's Thoughts 1

A CONVERSATION WITH LONELINESS

 "I feel lonely."
"Wonderful! An invitation to meet loneliness. Drop the word 'loneliness'. Feel the sensations directly in the body. Where do you feel it?"
"In my stomach. Like an empty feeling..."
"Great. So drop the word 'empty'. Contact what's actually there".
"It feels... alive. Tingly. Warm."
"Yes. Good. Stay with it."
"It feels soft. Tender. A bit sad....... It feels like... life."
"Good. Let's stay there awhile. Let's give the sensations the gift of kind attention, without trying to change them. Allow all thoughts and images to come and go too. What else do you notice where you are?"
"It's strange. It's easing. There's more space around the loneliness. Like it's held in... space..."
"Does that spaciousness feel lonely?"
"No. Not at all. It feels... intimate. Close. Alive."
"So not lonely then?"
"No, not at all. I feel like I can breathe again..."

When we stop distracting ourselves, and courageously dive into the heart of any feeling, positive or negative, right or wrong, we rediscover the vast ocean of who we are.

  

Every feeling is made of unspeakable intelligence.

Jeff's Thoughts 2

ON RECEIVING UNEXPECTED NEWS

You receive some unexpected news. You notice a sinking feeling in your stomach. The mind projects all kinds of pictures about how life could or should have been. It feels like life has gone wrong, like a dream is dying, like something that was yours has been lost. Not fair! You focus on what is missing, what isn't here, what went away, what will never return. You no longer feel at home in the moment. You feel disconnected, like you need some external circumstance to change for you to be at peace again.

But wait. Nothing has died except a dream of how it was 'supposed to be'. But it wasn't going to be that way. Not now. It is THIS way, now. Perhaps nothing has gone wrong in the universe at all, and this moment is not a mistake, not an enemy to be feared or rejected, but a friend, here to be honoured and embraced.

  

When the focus is on what's missing, what's gone, what's lost, we feel lost, homesick, ungrounded, separated from source, divided against ourselves, and a house divided against itself cannot stand. The never-ending story of lack begins with present-moment resistance. 

When the focus is on what's still here, and what never left, and what's always here; when we remember who we really are, presence itself, we know that nothing fundamental has been lost. We feel aligned again, back home, even in the midst of devastating news. 

Perhaps the news was not a mistake at all. Perhaps it was yet another invitation to align, to turn towards the moment, to breathe deeply, and to remember who we are, which is never lost, never absent, never truly forgotten, and never far away. It is our peace, our joy and our unshakeable strength, our deeply rooted tree in a raging storm, silent and unchanging. And that's the best news of all.

Happy Anniversary!

 Rich & Deb - 34 years!

 Beautiful Gals!

 Melissa & Daniel - 4 years!

Memorial Day 2013

Our handsome daddy, serving proudly in WWII

Emmy Day 3

Not much to show for it...Emmy is pooped!! 

Making a milk-run to Allison's...

 "Here, Emmy...take this picture!"

 Glad to have PapaRob home...

The Day I Let My Hair Down

Don't know how I forgot 
to post this beach vacation photo!

"You can't get me!"

Sunday Memory

Sawyer is playing outside with the big kids. He's wearing his Lightnin' swimsuit and shirt and having a ball. Right in the middle of the "baseball game", he yells out, "Hey guys, look! I'm tee-teeing and it's coming right out of my pants and on the grass. Isn't that amazing?" That's when I realized I'd forgotten to put a pull-up on him before he put on his swimsuit. I guess this was a brand-new, awe-inspiring experience for him. 

Amazing, eh? 

"Now you're five..." Words from Cjane

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Idaho Turns Five

The night before he turned five years old he was bouncing and sinking on the big king bed in the hotel room. The crispy white linens were shushing over every movement he made.

"Hey Idaho?" I said to him.

"What Mommy?" he answered.

"How about I snuggle you like you are my little baby boy again? Just for a little tiny bit."

And he thought about it, his body language prepared to resist, but then he collapsed in my arms. The linens shushed again and his lean, tan body cradled right up into my arms.

I couldn't believe he let me cradle him.

I remembered what it was like when he was my only baby and really, my whole world. Before he was old enough to resist being held by me. Before I knew what a brave, real, unapologetic, athletic, sensitive, inquisitive, mechanical and silly boy he would become. Oh how I love love love him.

Seventeen seconds I got to hold him on the night before he turned five. His birthday, the anniversary of my motherhood, is the date my life hit a fast forward button and everything started sinking rapidly into a vortex of time and information. I never knew this was motherhood--watching life disappear into memories at a speed you can't control. It's a rush of so many sorts.

"That's enough Mommy," he said, his "rock star" hair shaggy and handsome around his face.

And the linens rustled back alive with his resumed bouncing.


From Anson's Birthday Adventure.

Emmy Day #2

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Saturday Memory

We've taken Allison home, and Caleb and I are heading to his house to meet up with the rest of his family for a cook-out. He's diligently working on a "tissue-box-house" in the backseat, using bits and pieces of stuff he's found lying around back there. I comment to him that he might one day be an architect or an engineer, someone who is good at building things. He says, 

"But Emmy, you know that art is in my blood, 

because you are such a great artist!" 

Well, I'm taking that as a huge compliment, although, as we all know, he doesn't have a drop of my blood in him, at least not the red kind. 

I do love that boy!

Found in the Aftermath...

What a Saturday!

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Evy & Mommy

The Transformation of Suite 1117

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This Girl Is Loved!

2 Grandmothers at One Time!!

3 R's

More Boston Goodness

 Geoff, Megan & Evy

Reading Time for Mimi & Evy

Susan is soaking up all the Whitley goodness 

while she's in Boston...

and this time with Evy is so special.

Nothing wasted...

Stages of Team Building 

(CQI at HMC)

Forming

Storming

Norming

Transforming

Breakfast on the Farm

Aaaaah...

Perspective

Amazing how things look so obvious one way,

until you see them another.

And it's always exactly what we see it is,

until we can see it differently.

But once we do,

we can never NOT see it differently,

even if we try!

Our Forever Friends...Lee & Stephanie!

Subject: Fletcher Family Update

Dear friends and family!     We hope you're doing great these days!  Wanted to send you a note to let you know how grateful we are for you and for your interest and support of our journey here in Peru!  Life, as always, is an adventure.  From highs and lows in ministry to crazy jungle diseases, our adventure here has and continues to be full of memories.     By way of update, we are doing pretty well.  Many of you know I had a nasty bout with malary and leptospirosis (look it up...its gross) a few months ago but, thank the Lord, I'm finally doing well.  It was a crazy, crazy ride but, amazingly, with many blessings.  God took care of us in tremendous ways and we were blessed to witness loving Christian community at its best.  As for our family, we are moving right along.  Sofia and Maddox and Liam are hands down the perfect kids for us!  Lots and lots of work but with precious smiles, spunky attitudes, and lots of fun we thoroughly enjoy getting to be their parents.  Sofi is now in 3rd grade and still surfing. Maddox is in kindergarden and is just now starting his 2nd season of baseball.  Last be not least, Liam is not far from 4 years old and is a star in his class at school.  Steph, too, is doing well.  With lots going on from ministry to her bootcamp classes, she is always on the go touching lives right and left.  And, as for me, well, like I said, thank the Lord, I am world's better.  My last few months have been beastly.  Ministry is good, though, admittedly, difficult at times.  Still amazes me how the irony of that is so true.  Ups and downs are so common.  People get excited and wonderful things happen and then things slow down, people are unsure of their budding faith.  Through it all though, I am still so impressed with the strength of the faith community.  Growing up in a small church I experienced wonderful Christian community.  Thankfully, only 3 years into this work we enjoy deep community here too.  People want to be with one another.  They want to know how you are and, beautifully so, our paths contiually cross on so many days besides Sunday.  This is one of those things we had hoped for early on and are now so grateful to get to see.       There are a number of exciting things we want to share with you.  To name a few, a recent retreat our youth from church put on for 60 high school aged kids at a public school was awesome.  Guys and gals...in all honesty, it was amazing!  The teachers raved about the job our church did and the students themselves were very complimentary.  We spent 4.5 hours with these teenagers doing activities and talking about the importance of being leaders in our context, whether school, job, home, wherever.  We were blessed by the school to be able to talk about Christian leadership and what that looks like.  This invitation we have is incredible and we love getting to work with these precioius people that have become such dear friends.  To date, we've been involved with this school for a little more than 3 years and have been able to do numerous workshops for parents about social issues their kids face.  This year we'll be doing leadership retreats for the students.  Our work here is a great opportunity for us to be able to meet some tremendous needs while openly teaching the example of Christ and the values he taught.    Other cools things happening... The church has a new home! We are now renting a location on Sunday mornings.  Drop by if you're ever in town!!! We'd love to have you. We've got a group of Aggies coming to visit in July that will be helping with our 2nd retreat at the school as well as helping put on a retreat for our young adults group. Our church is currently putting on a once a month marriage workshop that has been an interest to quite a few people and has helped us to meet some real relational needs both inside and outside the church. We're excited to again host a group from ACU that will be here in October.  This study abroad group came last year for the 1st time and will return this year for short course on Peruvian/Inca culture and to help us in our ministry needs.         Carlos & Carlitos     Summer fun with the youth     Some very dear friends      1st wedding at ADV     Studying the Word     Youth retreat team     Sagrado Corazo Retreat     Sofia - 8 years old     Maddox - 6 years old     Liam - 3 years old   This little guy was 5 weeks old when we arrived in Peru!   Ways to stay in touch:   Rleefletcher@Gmail.com Stephanie.A.Fletcher@Gmail.com www.alientodevida.pe AlientodeVidaPeru (fb) Things to be praying about:   Our physical health as we enter winter, always a challengind time for us. Church growth as we reach out to our new neighborhood Youth retreats in Villa Maria Loco Amor conversation, an opportunity to grow in our understanding of the Lord. Monthly marriage workshops     Capitán Maddox     Pirana infested river?  No problem!     1st Tee-ball League in Lima started by  Aliento de Vida A note of thanks...   To say thank you for all you do for us seems so insufficient.  So many of you pray, email, send money and love on us in tremendous ways.  Our journey here, as a missionary friend once said, is often "the best of times" and "the worst of times." Oh, how right he was.  You being on this journey blesses us and encourages us.  Thank you for being that example and for serving along side us in Peru.     Much love,     the Fletchers       Liam to the rescue!   lee, Stephanie, Sofia, Maddox & Liam Fletcher Ca. Jose Sabogal 294 Urb. Las Violetas Saniago de Surco Lima, Perú   A thought to ponder today...   If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."  - CS Lewis

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