Rethink

I took a walk today to clear my head. This is what happened:
I thought about communications. I thought about Rethink church. I thought about "being in the world, but not of it." And around and around. Which made me think about my original purpose of the walk. To clear my head. To be in silence. To hear God, but in essence just to be quiet. But I found there are different types of noise: one you hear with your ears, the other is noise in your head. We live in a world inundated with noise. New tools have made communication almost instantaneous. Between emails flowing through my inbox and tweets coming through Twhirl there is no rest for the eyes, fingers or mind. So, from rethinking church to rethinking communications I had to ask...should I rethink Sabbath? Is sabbath more important now than it has ever been? Is sabbath something that should be taught more from the pulpits and from a campaign? As we think of church as a verb to do, should we include church as a verb to be?

Technology...again

Me oh my. Technology. Is technology adding value to our lives? Does it take away values? Does it make us better friends or does it distract? Yes, yes yes! I must argue that Skype adds value to my life. I can see and talk with my family (and new niece!). Everything else is a toss up really. I learn a lot every day by using the social networks, amazed at who enters into conversation and how fast. But, what if my status on Facebook is not clever enough to get a response? What if I send a Facebook message to a "friend" to have it ignored? I must have some acquaintances pretending to be "my friend". I suppose it works both ways. How much of what I do should be private vs. public? Twitter can be a great resource I've read, but what if I only have 14 followers? How good can it be then if I have a question?

There is still much for me to learn. I'll keep trying, but when my husband and I begin to "tweet" or IM while sitting right beside each other what should I do?

Too much tehcnology

How does one keep up with all the information found on the web? I find such interesting articles, web sites and information, but I don't know what to do with them. Most I happen upon at work while searching for topics about sustainability, how to use Twitter, social networking. Almost always there will be something that catches my eye that I must follow. I get lost in the labyrinth of information. If I find that it's not work related what do I do? I usually send myself an email with the link so I can check it at home. The problem is, I rarely check email at home because I don't want to spend a lot of time on the computer. Is there a book on how to balance life in a technological world?

Reading

So, I've been reading a lot lately. Ryan got me a Green Bible for Christmas and it's fantastic. I've actually read the Bible and have wanted to as well which is more impressive. The Bible is the same as any Bible except that anything about the environment is written in green, similar to Jesus's words being written in red. I really enjoy reading all the forewards by such great people as Desmond Tutu, Dr. Matthew Sleeth and others. There are great quotes dating back long ago. I've also read "Serve God, Save the Planet" by Dr. Sleeth. If you've not read this book, do! It's a fantastic way to read about the environment and see how it can affect your relationships with others and God.

I am reading "Vegetable Mineral Miracle" which has been a fun, disturbing read. I'm not even a third of the way through and it's still changing the way I am thinking about things. I also read "Satan, I'm Taking My Health Back". It's a good, short read.

Basically, all of this to say that I want to be healthy. I want to be good for the planet, not bad. I want to learn more about food and how it affects health. With the increase in cancer and diabetes there has to be a link. I don't want to eat food that's been delivered to the grocery an average of 1500 miles (that one is going to be hard) or sprayed with toxins. I want to be a good example. It may take me a while, but I have to start with something.