love in action

Love is messy...I think mainly because we are imperfect people trying to love other imperfect people, imperfectly (did you get that?)

By the power of God is the only way we can have protection and grace through which we can love others how they truly need to be loved - with the love of Christ.

What do you think?

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

everyone loves...

...a hat made just for them. Here my point is beautifully modeled by Allie Brooke. 

Your Auntie Em loves you!

beautiful

We define beauty in so many different ways. I like to define beauty as my mother taught me to - "pretty is as pretty does." That would be with giggles, sharing, listening with an open mind and lots and lots of smiles.

This is exactly what the women of Abarikumwe Association are like. Azizi Life is blessed to be working so closely with them. I am blessed to be able to do most of my research for the last couple of papers in my Master's program with them.

They are beautiful.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

dancing monkey bear

One of things I enjoy most about working with Azizi Life is product design. Watching a sketch come to life into exactly what you imagined is a magical experience. However, sometimes...it just doesn't work our so great the first time, and you have to go through several cycles of communication with the artisans...

...for example:

This is what we gave the artisans to provide the general idea of what kind of wooden monkey toy we would like:

And this is what we got...

We are rather fond of dancing monkey bear, even though he is not exactly what we were looking for.

We have discovered that not only can he break dance, 

...but he can also ride an elephant like a cowboy.

So here's to monkey bear and all the samples that go awry, yet leave our hearts warm and happy.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth


P.S.  monkey bear is also very personable...here he is with his friends, eye-less giraffe and flat face lion

today is the day...

...that my favorite band graces us with another wonderful album about the struggle that is to exist between this world, worldliness and the Kingdom.

And this is why they get so much love from Emily Elizabeth. Jon Foreman, lead-singer of Switchoot, writes for The Huffington Post about their newest album, ViceVerses (I know it's a lot...but it's so good):

Yes, humanity's song is the absurd, the tragic, the comic; the profane and the beautiful; the fallen and the redeemed. Our society is fraught with inconsistencies and absurdities. We claim to believe that all of humankind is created equal in a country torn apart by racial tension. We deem killing to be punishable by death but honorable under the title of war. We claim to serve a God who loves the poor in rich cathedrals and gold plated steeples. We objectify women and wonder why daddy's little girl has low self-esteem. The highs and lows, the dark and the light. This is the absurdity of our bipolar existence. Stretched thin between the dichotomy of death and breath, ashes and cash, pain and beauty. The scope of it all is enough to drive a man crazy.

And yet, we are yearning for certainty, yearning for authenticity. We are longing for the final absolution, the face that will never go away. The tension drives us to look for resolution. We look for safety in possession or position. We look for redemption at the bottom of the bottle, or on the tip of the needle. We look for justice in the overfed breasts of the government. Looking for enlightenment in the numb conformity of the suburbs. We're looking for deliverance, for the melody among the cacophony. The vices. The verses. And yet, all of these vices offer only a temporary release.

For me, the song has always helped to restore sanity. The melody can help to string broken things together, bringing me back from the ledge of from depression. Sometimes, the music says it better than the words do; the melody brings the tension and release into a dance rather than a struggle. This isn't to say that music stops the pain. Rather, music contextualizes the pain within the larger human experience and thus brings a certain timeless meaning and depth to the temporary despair and hopelessness I feel. And to this end, I love music. I love to find myself there in the songs of others. I love to find joy writing my own songs. Yes, even songs about the madness: trying to push through despair towards hope, singing into the storm.

Recently, my friends and I recorded an album about the the struggle that we call life. We wanted a record that would speak to the polarity of our existence, the darkness and the light, the despair and the hope along the way. These vices of ours, we wanted to make 'em sing. We wanted to make a musical world that was held in tension by the poles of darkness and light. Maybe my songs have always come from the tension, the things that terrify me, the things that stretch me thin and keep me up at night. As much as I want to run away from these things, I can't. The strings of our hearts were not made for safety. No, these strings are made to dance. I cannot to hold the temporal too closely for the final freedom I long for was never hers to give. Safety cannot be found in the transients. I struggle to look beyond all of this. The transcendent alone can give meaning to the tension, purpose to the release. So I give up hoping for safety. I've given up hoping in the overstuffed pockets of the powerful and well fed. I've given up hope that I could ever buy what I truly need. Indeed if the world knows no justice, we're better off staying maladjusted. Stretched thin...

And indeed, I'm still optimistic; still looking for the final release. That final chorus which will conquer pain once for all. I want more than simple cash can buy. I'm looking for "that majesty which philosophers call the First Cause." The eternal Redemption who taught us how to die. I look for him among ashes of American flags. The dust of Babylon, the remains of all of our the broken promises. I look for him in the ashes of our fathers. I see his face in passing glances on the streets- in the eyes of a single mom, trying to make ends meet; in a faded photograph; in the hands of a homeless woman talking to herself. Yes, I'm still idealistic enough to believe that everyone matters. That the kingdom of the heavens might be at hand, knocking, beckoning me to pursue. I run like the oceans, longing for the shore. I'm still looking for a place where open arms still welcome the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Bigger than rock and roll. Bigger than America. Bigger than the darkness. I want to sings songs for the disenfranchised, for the ones on the edge. Stretched thin. Somewhere below me, Lady Wisdom still crying out in the streets. "To them's that's got ears let them hear." I look for her among the ruins of postmodern despair, where the last shall be first, and he who is not busy being born is busy dying...

-Read the rest of Jon's article here...gave me chill bumps the entire way through

You see I had a hard time just picking a few words from his article. This album is a little harder rock than resonates with my soul presently, but the words are pure truth (like always). So thanks again, Switchfoot, for being so free to be.

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

sister love

A very special Happy Birthday to my sister, today! I love you very much, and am very thankful to have such a caring, creative, fun and cat loving sister such as you :)

We are ever so stylish...just another thing we share :)

Etsy

And here is a pic of the present I got her...and her cat, Dori.

The hubbs and I dream of a day where we can share life on a daily basis with you. I hope that day comes sooner than later :) Love you!

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

this one is for Pawpaw

I thought you would appreciate this. Love and miss you!

Much love, 

Emily Elizabeth