Mindful Living

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Mindful Livers in D.C.: Social Justice, Lobbying, Heartfelt Talks, Hospitality, Love.

On a mission to learn about and practice non-violence, peace, faith in action, solidarity and l-o-v-e, on November 13th to 15th, Therese, Cassie, Greg, Janine and I ventured off to D.C. in a Campus Ministry van, with an SGA gas card and enough PB & J supplies to feed us for a week (with the proper peanut butter to jelly ratio. After a week we would have been rationing jelly and possibly eating open faced sandwiches--and that's a crime) courtousey of Activism Club. Thank you to the trifecta of Stonehill organizations that supported the trip.

Last but not least for thank yous--We stayed with Therese's Aunt--the most lovely woman who welcomed us into her home with lasagna, air mattresses and two precious dogs (and a cat...). We all agreed that our time in DC would not have been as wonderful if it weren't for the hospitality and home away from home that Therese's aunt offered us so graciously!

We were in D.C. at the conference center at Georgetown for the ISN Teach-In. ISN stands for Ignatian Solidarity Network. Check out more information here.

What's ISN? The Ignatian Solidarity Network brings members of Jesuit schools, parishes etc together by educating its members on social justice issues. The Teach-In is like a celebration of non-violence and peace.

Why did we go? Well...Stonehill is not a Jesuit school...but Stonehill students have been participating in the SOA vigil at Fort Benning Georgia for years. Coinciding with the protest at the gates of Fort Benning, the Teach-In is an annual event marking the anniversary of the slain Jesuits and laywomen of El Salvador by SOA graduates.

The ISN Teach-In is usually in Georgia as well at the same time as the vigil. This year, the ISN moved the teach-in to D.C. to allow for lobbying training and an advocacy day that allowed students to meet with Senators and their staffers to lobby for laws regarding specific social justice issues, namely the Dream Act, climate legislation and a bill to close the SOA. Therese and Janine were able to meet with Senator Scott Brown's staffers to lobby for the immigration reform, namely the Dream Act. We were all able to meet with Senator Kerry's staffers to discuss climate legislation and the Dream Act. It was a seriously awesome experience in "speaking truth to power" if you will.

I'm happy I'm finally posting about our experience. It took about a week for me to get my thoughts together on what actually happened, what I learned, who I met, how I felt during my time in D.C. I was lucky enough to reflect with Therese, Cassie, Greg and Janine during every spare moment we had while there. We all had a more formal reflection with MaryAnne and Joe from Campus Ministry and it was beautiful, uplifting and very much needed. All of the students/friends/mindful livers who went clearly soaked up everything--all the stories we listened to, all the empowering words and moments were heavy and a lot to carry on one's own. I'm so grateful to have been able to talk through what I was feeling with my wonderful friends who were there with me. Thank you all.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Need to share...

...this website with you all.

http://crazysexylife.com/

It's a site dedicated to living well and being happy. Check it out--it's full of inspiration and beautiful things like "Love Lists"and articles on activism.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween ROMP!

A few weekends ago, a handful of Mindful Livers got the opportunity to volunteer at the Easton Children Museum's "Halloween Romp." The event provided numerous Halloween-related games and arts & crafts for kids around the South Shore, including a bean bag toss, musical chairs, a "mummy wrap," and "snitch-making." The children were able to showcase their costumes while partaking in the various activities. Later in the evening the kids trick-or-treated around the building with the volunteers were placed at various stations with different "treats" (silly bands, stickers, goodie-bags from the dentist, etc...).
Here is a picture of Helen and I waiting for the kids to hand out our treats!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Our Community

Some of you might be wondering what the Mindful Living Community is all about.

We'll here's a bit of an inside look into the lives of our members and what we're up to.

Composting veggies, fruits, coffee and tea to reduce waste

Using drying racks instead of the electric dryer

Opting for tap water in place of bottled water

Recycling galore

Low flow shower heads

Less electricity usage

Cafe nights

Sunday family dinners

That's right. If it's yellow... it mellows

and of course, building community

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tie Dye!

Hailey, our wonderful RA, put on a great event to make Tie Dye shirts! : ) After we chose our colors, she even let us know what that said about our personality- how cool!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Aaaah! Bottled water! Look out!

A friend of mine showed me this website and I thought of everyone in the house and what we've been recently focusing on. I've always chosen tap water over bottled, but before watching the video on this site, I couldn't have given anyone an intelligent statement of why this was necessary to do. What I like about this video is that the information it provides is very accessible. This is definitely something that the entire campus should watch and (hopefully) be influenced by.

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/