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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

An Amazing Article I Wrote for personalgrowth.com: My Life Being Born into a Game of Thrones World




Just wanted to drop you a note with an exciting update.  A little while ago I woke up to an email of the editor of personalgrowth.com She had stumbled across my work and was incredibly impressed and asked me to write articles on relationships for their website. I was incredibly flattered and there was no way I could turn them down. So I dug deep within me into the deepest, most painful and delicate parts and poured my heart soul and mind into an article for them. As of today the article is now live on their website.  This is just one of many articles I'll be doing in the future for this website. Here is the link to the article where I talk about what it is like to be born into a Game of Thrones World.


https://www.personalgrowth.com/life-born-into-a-game-of-thrones-world/






Sunday, September 06, 2015

A Marvellous Magnificent Moment When Words Brought Love Liberation and Life



My head is still swirling at an unexpected moment that happened tonight at church where unknowingly my words brought life love and liberation to someones life. But first let's back up abit and let me explain. I am part of a church called More than 12.  You can throw all your ideas away about what your impressions of going to church means because we are far from conventional. At our church we have DJ's spinning, rap artist rapping during the song and worship time. And we like to throw some flashing lights and fancy media stuff. At more than 12 we are gifted in areas of media. But more than just the exterior, our community is made up of people who don't fit the traditional ideals of church.

http://morethan12.org

Even the structure of our service is different. We meet out at the pastors house in Surrey, we'll have our worship time and songs. Then pastor will give a talk. After the talk there is a time that is like a round circle time where anyone can give their thoughts, feelings and impressions. The idea is to offer up something that builds and strengthens the community. After that we take communion and then EAT. My favorite part of the service haha. But the idea is that we do a potluck and everyone brings something so that we eat and bond with each other and any leftovers we give to those who are low on food and struggling.

I had taken a break from going to church for the summer but I assure everyone that I'm not on a downward spiral of any kind and I'll be back. And when I got up this morning I felt like I should go so that's what I did. It amazes me that my first time back after a long while, someone would have an encounter with me that would rock their world.

We had gotten to the portion of the service where it was the round circle time and pastor was opening up the floor for people to share things to build the community. I asked for the mic and shared what had popped into my head not knowing the impact it was going to have on someone's life.

Many of us know the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, the story that when the disciples came back and saw him talking to her they were in shock. However alot of people don't know the backstory from the jewish cultural side to why they were so floored. So I this is what i explained....

I explained at that time jews didn't talk to samaritans. Men didn't talk to women. And this particular woman had been around the block with 7 husbands so she was considered the lowest level of society. So let's put it all together, by talking to her Jesus was talking to a woman (cultural taboo), a samaritan (another taboo), who had a sleazy reputation (BIG TABOO).

Saturday, September 05, 2015

A Heart Shattering and Eye Opening Afternoon in Vancouver: The Memorial for Rehanna, Ghalib, and Alan Kurdi

Timah lighting candles


As a prayer in Arabic was being uttered my eyes fell on the shrine set up with pics of two smiling boys, Alan and Ghalib with their Dad Abdullah. The room was filled with press,  media personnel and most importantly Vancouverites who had felt for this family's plight and had come to stand beside the aunt Timah.  It was her nephew that we saw the picture of on the beach and has now become a symbol of the refugee crisis in Syria.

Timah had the assistance of her close family and friends who on short notice put together this memorial that would change my life and the life of every single person who was willing to walk through those doors. If seeing a pic of a toddler on the beach over and over again had any way caused desensitization, this memorial did the opposite, it humanized them.

Amorous Alpacas

Amorous Alpacas