Summer Movies To Awaken Activism

by Elisa | Jul 29, 2015 | Children-in-Need, Create Awareness, Human Rights, Sex Trafficking

Summer Movies to Create Awareness In Your Life Every once in awhile I throw one of these posts out there--keeping you informed about recent new documentaries you might want to check out. It isn't like these are the "things" as there are hundreds of short documentaries...

Six Steps to Advocate With Credibility: Sex Trafficking Statistics in the USA

by Elisa | Jul 11, 2015 | Art of Advocacy, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, United States

What About The Facts? Sometimes I wonder, are the trafficking statistics I share accurate? A few years ago I was reading about the globally misunderstood plight of women (learn more here) in the foundational book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into...

Art of Advocacy: Finding and Slaying Your Pet Monster

by Elisa | Jun 28, 2015 | Art of Advocacy, Hard Conversations, Spiritual Discipleship, Stuff of the Heart

Internal and External Projections In this week since moving back to the West Coast, I’ve noticed that people are a lot more free with their personal style than in the D.C. metro area. I’ve seen surfer hair cuts I haven’t seen since high-school, and there are more...

Storm Chaser; Change Chaser: On Saying Goodbye

by Elisa | May 14, 2015 | Art of Advocacy, Community, Family & Relationships, Hard Conversations, Spiritual Discipleship, Stuff of the Heart

How Can Anyone Say Goodbye? I'm starting to feel all panicky that I am leaving all my friends in t-minus four or so days. Thoughts keep cropping-up like "WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING?" or "WHY DID WE THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?" and mostly, "WHY IN THE WORLD ARE WE...

Prose in Honor of Those Who Help Us Who Are Blind in the Unknown

by Elisa | May 8, 2015 | Anthropology Psychology Sociology, Art of Advocacy, Busy Moms, Children-in-Need, Community, Family & Relationships, Hard Conversations, Stuff of the Heart

In life, I typically feel like I am playing house, as if it is a game. Sometimes I am blind in the unknown seasons of adulting, like now, as we are moving accross the country. The last weeks have been a crazy rush while prepping to move to San Diego (you can read...

The Ice Cream Flavor Where We Are Moving (and It is Not Milwaukee)

by Elisa | Apr 12, 2015 | Art of Advocacy, Family & Relationships, Stuff of the Heart, United States

A year ago, my husband received a call from an HR chick who had actually called him eight months earlier. It was about an opportunity in Milwaukee--yes, that frozen tundra--that had fallen off the radar. Very quickly, many seemingly perfect things fell into place and...

748 Million: World Water Day

by Elisa | Mar 22, 2015 | Children-in-Need, Clean Water, Create Awareness, Ways to Make a Difference

Start Counting Down The great thing about advocacy is that you can look back and see you have made a difference. The bad thing about advocacy is that your goal can only be achieved by working yourself out of a job. But, I think there are enough things to...

Community Living: How To Talk About Adoption/Fostering

by Elisa | Mar 8, 2015 | Art of Advocacy, Busy Moms, Children-in-Need, Community, Create Awareness, Family & Relationships

I recently read the post Six Comments about Adoption That Can Be Offensive focused on helping individuals recognize insensitivity when talking about adoption/fostering. Although I appreciated the intent of this post--highlighting what can be offensive--after I...

Five Steps to Take Part in the End It Movement

by Elisa | Feb 27, 2015 | Create Awareness, Human Trafficking, Ways to Make a Difference

Once a year, a bunch of people take a picture of a red "X" on their hand and share it with the world, declaring that we need to stop modern slavery as part of the End It Movement. A grassroots social movement to create awareness? Okay! It might be slactivism, but it...

Adventure

Swamp Wisdom: An Ecclesiastes on Human Rights

Ever heard of ancient King Solomon? He was said to be the wisest of them all as he philosophized...

Busy Moms, Community, Family & Relationships, Raising Kids

Storm Chaser; Change Chaser: On Saying Goodbye

How Can Anyone Say Goodbye? I’m starting to feel all panicky that I am leaving all my...

Anthropology Psychology Sociology, Mental Health, Recovery, Safe Spaces

Understanding Terms for Poor Nations vs. Rich Nations

Terms of Poverty Whether in public political addresses or in pleas from non-profits, we have all heard some of these terms thrown around at some point or another. But just because we can infer their general meaning, I...