This month’s tenet focuses on choices and their consequences, so I’ve paid close attention to this subject all month. Conditions in the world, our community, and my heart provided ample food for thought. For me, the answer to correctly exercising our freedom to choose boils down to Cinderella’s mantra, “have courage and be kind,” from…
Spring is a season stuffed full: of damp grass and flowers emerging riotously from the earth, of the sussurating sound of bicycle chains and the grate of lawnmowers blistering the air for the first time in a handful of months, of children running from one end of the block to another forgetting in the burn…
“We are free to choose and willingly accept responsibility for our choices.” At the outset of 2020, there seemed to be so much promise: a fresh start and the promise of new hope and enthusiasm as citizens the world over hoped to move forward with greater understanding, empathy and cooperation. Since I am writing this…
I love art. For me a painting or a photo can explain feelings and emotions better than any spoken language I know. In my home I have all kinds of paintings and photos. Each of them is displayed because they evoke a feeling or teach a lesson through their image. One piece, however, is…
https://youtu.be/aweGYGgDPwQ
The seeds for the new cottage in Ecuador were planted in 2016 when Big Ocean representatives attended Habitat III there. Vilma Sagebin saw Ana Carolina Gualinga Cuji (also called Anita) and her friend enter a Big Ocean Women presentation and offered to translate for them. When she sensed their uneasiness as the hour grew late,…
Vilma Sagebin had an up-close and personal view of Big Ocean’s beginnings through her daughter and our founder, Carolina Allen. Carolina had returned from attending a funeral in Hawaii where an experience made her conclude she must do something about the current negative trends and their influence on the rising generation. She told Vilma she…
All around us there are things that are completely out of our control. I cannot change the past. I cannot change my children’s minds or make them into the people I hoped they would grow to be. I cannot end the pandemic that rages on, nor can I calm the fears that plague. Because there…
In the first part of this series, Alicia described the drought facing her rural community and started explaining her personal journey of reframing to move from a mindset of drought to one of abundance. In the second part of this series, Alicia shared how prayer and scripture study has helped as she has worked to…
In the first part of this series, Alicia described the drought facing her rural community and started explaining her personal journey of reframing to move from a mindset of drought to one of abundance. I love God and prayed many times to him with the deep concerns in my heart about money. I have the…