Lark & Bloom Has Moved

Hey! Lark & Bloom has moved. You can find the blog at it's new home over at Wordpress. Here is the link:

Lark & Bloom

See you guys over there!

          Liz

Pea Head Takes A Vacation

Source: Ignite Lite

Pea Head is taking a vacation. I am Pea Head. I got that nickname in Turkey. Someone there discovered that my head is in fact, very small. It is hidden underneath really fluffy hair, so you probably haven't ever noticed. That is another story for another day...

But, this Pea Head is tired. September was one of the busiest months I have ever had in years. Full time mom, speaking engagements, helping build an anti-trafficking organization, writing guest posts, dealing with a family member who is having some challenges...it was a bit out of control to be honest.

In the midst of my stress headaches I began to evaluate Lark & Bloom. I love writing & telling everyday stories, but I feel as if God is wanting to clarify somethings for me regarding this blog. It has been a total hodge-podge of thoughts, which is a pretty good reflection of it's author. 

This image puts it well. I want to take the month of October to create Lark & Bloom's future. Nothing major - it isn't suddenly going to become a recipe blog or a place to find do-it-yourself tips. In fact, you may not notice much of a change at all. 

However, I need a bit more internal direction when I sit down to write. So, Pea Head is going to take some time to get inspired, envisioned and have a bit more of an understanding of what I want Lark & Bloom to be.

Look forward to seeing you all in November! 

Advice I Need

Source: Pinterest

I need this advice. It sounds silly, but I often forget to do what makes me happy. I bought a ringtone for the first time EVER the other day. The song makes me smile. My phone rings at least 20 times a day, so this purchase insures that I will smile at least 20 times.

Not a bad investment. This week I am trying to figure out how to incorporate more of the things that make me smile into my week.

I am hoping to add more of the following:

• reading
• aimless walks
• roadtrips
• chat with friends 
• hot drink parties
• cooking from scratch
• meeting interesting people
• finding design that challenges my view of something
• finding buried treasure. I haven't actually done this, but I bet it would be fun.
• Visiting new places
• learning about topics that aren't practical, but I find interesting. Things like the history of American feminism. 

You can ask me in a few weeks if I have actually done more of these things. 

What things make you happy that you should do more of?

Babysitting For A Murderer

This isn't too far of a throwback, but I have been thinking about it lately. Enjoy!

A popular sticker around Seattle.

It was 2005 and our apartment was on top of a Safeway & a Starbucks. I got in the elevator, went down one floor and the smell of brewing coffee met me. Have I mentioned how much I love Seattle?

I spent lots of time in that Starbucks and became friends with a barista named Autumn. She had dyed black hair, plugs in her ears, piercings in her face and tattoos on most of her skin. We hit it off from the beginning. I would invite her to church up in my living room on Sundays and she would return the warm gesture by inviting me to her burlesque parties. Neither of us ever took the other up on the invites.

Slowly my friendship with Autumn began to grow. We couldn't be more different and yet oddly we found the other refreshing. After about a month she was my closest Seattle friend. I would meet her when she got off work & ride the bus with her. She lived near the campus I went to regularly to meet college students. We would talk about God and she would ask me questions I didn't have answers to. "I can't answer that. You just have to meet Him for yourself" I would say.

Autumn had a one year old little girl named Opal & a boyfriend named Merlin. Like the wizard. He changed his name to Merlin because he hated God and felt that naming himself after a wizard would reinforce that point (this is Seattle remember).  Meeting Merlin was nothing compared to what came next.

The big news came in a parking garage when I was about to give her a ride home. She was talking about slam poetry and mentioned that she started performing in prison. Uh...prison? That's when it came out. She was a murderer. Mind you we are alone in a dark parking garage when I make this discovery. Freaking out inside, faking a causal smile on the outside. The crime wasn't intentional, but it happened all the same.

Two weeks later I found myself driving to Autumn's house at 6:30am. Opal needed a babysitter while Autumn went and got her drug treatment at a nearby rehab clinic. I sat with a sleepy Opal for an hour in Autumns room. Very much a reflection of Autumn's life, her room was a wreck. It was decorated with black ravens and pornographic pictures of herself. It was the darkest place.

I would sit and rock little Opal while singing worship songs to try and keep my sanity. I would bring my Bible and read scripture , pray & declare promises over Opal's life. Autumn would come back and we would walk Opal to her daycare. Then we would drive back to my apartment. She would start her shift at Starbucks and I would go home and make breakfast.

I did that for about two weeks until Autumn was able to get Opal into daycare earlier. You may read this and think me some sort of Christian hero, but I am not. If I had visited her house before offering to babysit, I would never have volunteered.

 I learned a few things during my time with Autumn & Opal.

First, I learned that in really dark places God's presence glows the brightest. Autumn's creepy bedroom changed completely when I worshiped and prayed with little Opal. The ravens were overshadowed by the goodness and lightness of God. All else melted away. It didn't matter how dark and oppressive the environment was, it mattered that I met God there.

Second, I realized that the Church isn't going to change the world by promoting a certain agenda. It is going to change the world by sitting in creepy living rooms. Holding babies that aren't ours. Listening to stories that make us uncomfortable. The Church is going to change the world by loving and serving the broken & knowing that without the grace of God their mistakes could have been our mistakes.

Third I realized that the goal of loving people isn't for a happy ending. This story didn't have a happy ending at all. They disappeared without telling me where they moved. No one gave their life to Jesus or came to church. I told Autumn once that even though she doesn't want Jesus now, some day she might. And if she ever does, she can call upon Him and He will come without delay. I'm hoping she remembers that & in heaven I can find out it was a happy ending after all. We don't love so that we have great stories of happy endings. We love people because God loves them, and that is reason enough.

I Am A Celebrity In Taiwan

Taiwan was good to me. The extent of my stay was the airport, but there was so much to love. It was just a layover on the way to Thailand, but it gave me some very enriching experiences.

First, was the Hello Kitty Lounge. I would like to note that this is not a children's area. This lounge is for adult passengers & it was in fact full of adults. Hello Kitty was splashed throughout the entire space.  If you go to Taiwan you most definitely need to stop by. Don't worry, you can't miss it. There are life size cutouts of Hello Kitty pointing the way to the lounge throughout the entire airport.

Also, I had some delightful dumplings and some kind of ginger soup for breakfast. Yes, breakfast. When in Taiwan...

The best part about my visit was the fact that I am apparently a celebrity in Taiwan. My friend Amy was traveling with me and she was the first to notice it. Everyone was staring at me. Then they started whispering to each other. Next thing we know their phones come out & photos are being taken. Here I am sitting at the gate where these people had just snapped my photo. 

Then my loyal fans began to nonchalantly try and see the name on my boarding pass. I didn't oblige. They would know I am not whatever celebrity they thought I was & I would go back to basic pedestrian status. 

I would like to thank the person in the Taiwan airport that started the rumor that I was famous. It was great fun & by far the best lie ever told about me. Sadly, when I returned to America I was not greeted with the same respect & fanfare. The rumor died somewhere over the Pacific. 

Amy & I were never able to figure out who they mistook me for. Any guesses? 

The Geography of Love

Let me tell you about the problem I have with God's love. I know He loves me, but I always find myself a bit baffled about the location of that love.

Life is one big story. I know that God loves me in my big overarching story. Skimming through the chapters in my life I sense His love & purpose for me. I see His faithfulness at all the big mile markers. I get God's love on the 'macro' level.

The dilemma I find myself in is this: The story of my life is a culmination of ordinary days.

Totally lazy days.
Days full of striving.
Emotional days when I act like a 12 year old who didn't make the cheer squad.
Days when I do what I know I shouldn't do.
Fantastic moments when I say something that sounds more profound than it actual is.
Days when I manipulate because I don't think God knows what He is doing.
Days when I don't like what God is doing.
Days when I do better than I ever imagined I could do.

We live in days. Some are great & others are very unimpressive.

Too often I find myself just trying to get past the days to the big themes of the story.

I saw this verse a few weeks ago & it has become a sort of mantra for me.

"Be HERE..." Here in the awkward moment. Here in the boring moment. Here in the small victory.

"...the King is wild for you." He doesn't just love me. He is wild for me.

I need to stop trying to get to the next place & the next day. He is wild for me right where I am.

God's love isn't just some big & ambiguous 'everywhere'. It is here. It is today. And it is wild.

Naptime Abolitionist

I have always been a big fan of naps. My very favorite kind of nap is when I am the one napping. That kind is a rarity since children arrived. My second favorite kind of nap is the one my kids take.

Every afternoon around 1pm it is naptime at our house. The kids go off to rest in their rooms & I settle into work. I turn my attention from the numbers my son is learning to a different set of numbers. Numbers like these:

• 27,000,000 - the number of slaves in the world today
• 2 - the number of children trafficked into slavery per minute
• $90 - the average price of a slave right now
• 100,000 - a conservative estimate of how many American children are victims of sex trafficking   currently
• 2,000,000 - the number of children enslaved
• 13 the average age of entry into the sex industry in the U.S.
• 99% - the number of slaves who will never be rescued
• 300,000 the number of children who are being used to fight armed conflicts
• 720 - the number of children in Texas trafficked every month

Why do these numbers matter to me?

I am a naptime abolitionist.

I don't have an FBI badge, a law degree, or a social work position. I don't have millions of dollars to donate. But, I do have naptime.

So, when 1 pm rolls around I put away the laundry & pull out my files. It doesn't feel like much, but it is what I have to give. So for that hour I do my 'other job'.

I work for an anti-trafficking organization called UnBound. We have six chapters around the United States. Our work focuses on awareness, prayer, rescue & aftercare, and public policy. We are a collection of people giving up our naptimes & Starbucks latte money, and donating the skills and resources we have to end human trafficking.

Maybe you don't have naptime. Maybe you have coffee breaks at work or an extra $15 a month you can contribute.

Giving up naptime is a sacrifice, but anything worth having always comes at a cost.

If you want to learn more about human trafficking, check out UnBound's website.

27 million people have no voice. Will you lend them yours?