Time for Mondo Beyondo…Back to dreaming. Back to fertile ground. Back to reaching for hope.

UPDATE: Congratualtions to Tess Marshall of Anchors and Masts! She won the Mondo Beyondo drawing and will be recieving Begininngs, Tweet, and Reka Twige Kwifasha No Gufasha Abandi (Let’s Learn to How to Help Ourselves and Others) in the mail soon! Thanks to everyone here and on Twitter who played along!

Andrea told Jen, and Jen told me how to write Mondo Beyond Lists. These are the biggest of our big dreams — the real whoppers you can hardly admitt to. Making the list is a little like a prayer, sort of a request to the universe, and if you are very brave, the beginnings of an affirmation.

Since I’ve started the habit I’ve seen some things come to fruition (living abroad, getting out of the body image trap, making a life habit of yoga) and some of those hot desires have cooled down and gone away. (surfing, adopting, living in Italy)

There are new dreams in my being these days and I feel afraid for them, because they seem so fragile. So I decided to write them down today and make them a little more real — things always seem more concrete to me if they are on a page in word or in image. Usually I would want to make a list like this pretty — with watercolors and mixed media. But today all I had was a sharpie and some cardstock. And you know what? It was enough. So here is my Mondo Beyond List for now:

-Sing my lungs out in front of a big crowd, preferably with these folks.

-Transfer (in good time) to the UK, somewhere midsized like this.

-Get a paid, monthly column in a national magazine where I can feature pieces about seasonal rites and rituals.

-Publish three books: Tales from an Urban Abbess, Soulcrafting for Kids, and A Very Mild Narcissist (an image-based journal.)

-Have at least one good Muslim friend with whom I could really share my soul (and vice versa).

-Watch a sabbath community form organically where we could co-exsist with a few soulmates.

-Find a healthy way to practice the priesthood again.

-Travel to Africa with Jen, Mada, Odette, Grace, Lillian, Eden, and Cate to watch the women there step further into thier own power.

-Keep our ties strong with Souren; see him a couple of times a year long enough to reconnect.

-Be truly migraine-free. (Wow, it took all my breathe to whisper that one.)

-Stop fighting with time and be at peace with what I get done in any given day, month, year, season….

-Be on a first-name, call-any-time friendship basis with at least one artist I admire because they are learning to master his or her craft. Right now the short list would include Sabrina, John, Tim,Ira, or any voice from this show.

What is your Mondo Beyondo dreams? Make them real in the comments, give us your top choice on Twitter, or link to your blog below. One lucky Mondo Maker will get a copy of Jen’s new zine, one of the orginals, and just for fun, one of my zines from last year, Tweet. Contest will close on Monday morning. Go on now, dream big!

Buy a Farm Animal: Change a Life
Donate a buck or a billion at ChipIn

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Original art by Jen Lemen
for Let’s Help Ourselves and Others

It’s a rare day that I find a project so solid and so personal that I’m ready to champion it from the rooftop – but this is one of them! My soulsister Jen Lemen has fallen in love with every African immigrant in her D.C. neighborhood. They inspire her ever day, and she in turn extends a loving hand of assistance whenever she can. From springing someone from human trafficking to getting a sick daughter in Rwanda to the hospital, Jen and her network of passionate folks gets the job done.

Now Jen and Odette are on a mission to take Rwandan school girls the supplies and inspiration they need to be the next generation of leaders in their struggling, determined country. The inspiring Grace McLaren passed the opportunity to Jen to go to Rwanda; Jen asked her blogging pals for some financial support; and in 24 hours there were funds for the trip AND enough to print a book. What kind of book? A full color zine in two languages depicting the story of Odette and her brother Innocent’s clever microbusiness…in a Ugandan refugee camp…when they were 7 and 9 years old. (I cry every time I hear it.)

If this doesn’t convince Rwandan schoolgirls (and middle aged American ladies!) that small attempts can bring significant change, I don’t know what will.

Now that the books and supplies are taken care of, Jen is doing one last ask for a little more money. Innocent needs a cow. I know. It doesn’t sound like much, just one cow. But his niece (Odette’s daughter) is sick, and the meager little house flooded this year, and the cow, well, it will keep his family afloat in a highly tenuous situation.

Do you know what a cow costs in Rwanda? $600 – the equivalent of three trips to Costco or one really crappy dresser from IKEA. Now the Cotsco thing might keep you rolling in frozen lasagna, which I will admit, feels like a lifesaving act some nights in Americana. But a cow will produce enough income to keep this large extended family feed for as long as it lives.

Paul and I are down for $100. Let’s see if we can get her the rest of the way there, shall we?

Donate a buck or a billion at ChipIn.

Friends, thanks so much for reading this. Hold on to hope: all is not lost, Africa can thrive, Rwandan schoolkids can change their world, and one cow can make a difference.

In Kindness and Hope,

Rachelle Mee

For the whole Rwandan Project in orderly detail click here.

Catie displays her hope note for a soulmate in Rwanda.

There was no church for us today, at least not in a cathedral. Still, I’m pretty sure we were playing in heaven’s backyard when we joined up with HopeRevo. This afternoon Cate and I worshiped at the altar of hope–crayolas and markers our consecrated objects, water and paints our bread and wine.

The women of Rwanda have taught me more about grief, hope, and forgiveness than any sermon of hymn could convey, and I’m happy my daughters and I can join them in their knowledge, exchanging hope across the miles.

Here’s Catie’s hope note to a Rwandan girl her age. They haven’t met each other, but very soon this card will unite their hearts. You can play in the fields of hope too! Click here and join our church service already in progress. Here’s to Hope and all her siblings!

“mukobwa-wurwanda niwowe mbaraga zigihugu uwize aramenya, abakobwa babanya merica bwaragu shyigikiye.” Translation: Rwandanese girls; you are the power behind your country! Someone who learns is the one who knows best. American girls are supporting you!

My soulsister Odette, inspiring me to trust that mama-god will get hope where it needs to go. photo credit: jen lemen

Our Small is Beautiful soulsisters Jen, Odette, and Krystyn, are at it again! They are conspiring to get a suitcase full of hope to some beautiful young women in Rwanda.

When Jen called me saying, “I might be going to Africa in May.” my first thought was, “Of COURSE you are.” These things happen to and for Jen, because she’s dangerously compassionate; because this is her creed; and because she is always ready to say ‘yes’ to the universe. Well, now she’s off to Rwanda to extend a handful of love to the schoolgirls Odette loves, but can’t get to. And even better, she’s taking YOUR hope notes with her.

Got a few minutes to write a message of hope to the next generation of women in Rwanda? Hop over to Krystyn’s place and find out how. The little 3×5 bits of hope need to be postmarked by May, so don’t delay!

In other SIB news, I know the html links aren’t working, and I know the blogroll needs to be re-categorized and updated, and I know there are 90 emails in my inbox waiting to join the rota. I am practically a technophobe and I’m at the mercy of my hacker friends to get all the SIB ducks in a row. We’ll get there, slowly but surely. In the meantime, please remember Your Story Matters. Sing it from the rooftops and the world will be better for it! Thank you for bringing all your energy to our friendly revolution!

Yours in Tinyness,

Rachelle

a little something from my bulletin board to help keep me where the light is…

I suppose it goes without saying that moving to another culture is sometimes hard. There are a lot of exciting new things, to be sure. But there are sadnesses too, and mine tend to gang up on me around midnight. (Nasty little buggers.)

There’s been a kind of low-grade depression riding around on my breastbone these past few weeks. It seems to be always waiting for me—there, on the other side of the threshold, like the Wolf waiting until my Grandmother is weak enough to devour. I’ve been holding the sadness at bay fairly well, but when my hormone stew starts boiling, or if something goes awry – say, your semi-truck sized shipping container full of all your earthly goods arrives with a hole in the roof and two weeks of rainfall in the bottom –well, let’s just say things get a little shaky.

One of the things that is bothering me the most is that even here, in a country where I know virtually no-one and have no outside obligations, I am still fighting like mad to put pen to page. First I lost a week to migraines, then the children were out of school for Easter vacation, then there was a week spent getting ready to move, and another actually moving, then half a week waiting for the children to switch schools (again). Today I marched them into the local school, and when the teacher said this was just a meeting and not their first day, I had to insist that the schoolmistress had told me otherwise until the girls were given desks and workbooks, and I was able to escape to my desk for two quick hours before school was out again.

I feel so frustrated by the limitedness of my ‘success’ as a writer. At least as a pastor, at least at the church, there were concrete things to do, things that seemed to matter, something to show for my time. This accomplishing of things is much unlike writing, where a thousand days of pen-to-page may yield only a $50 paycheck and a stack of rejection letters. Still, I know in the core that there is no going back. I must write, compulsively and widely, even if the right combination of reader, market, and printing press never yields a dollar.

“This is the year for publishing, I think.” I wrote that in my journal a week or two ago. If a real live publishing house picks me up, so be it. But if not, there will still be books of mine on the market, even if the market is just the print-on-demand of self-publishing and a link to LuLu. Right after I made that decision, my soulsister told me she had launched this, and the self-publishing world transformed. Through Jen’s lens, sisters doing it for themselves was a not a second-class compromise, but a tool for artistic empowerment.

We may never make money, the soulsisters of the world and I, but we will put pen to page goddammit–we will testify.

Lukie grills his millionth s’more over the backyard fire pit last summer.

I’m in Texas for a few days visiting my sister’s family before we make the big move to Denmark. This is one of her middle children, Lukie of the Four Years. I got to say, he’s got a little piece of my heart.

For a long time Becky had all boys, which resulted in one of my favorite mothering lines ever:

“Boys! Stop spitting on the carpet! (pause) I just had it cleaned!”

It was the pause that did me in–as though if it hadn’t just been cleaned, well, she just would have let it slide.

Another motherhood quip I love came while I was talking to Jen on the phone:

“Mada! Stop hanging shovels in the neighbor’s tree!”

This was during the ‘we live dangerously era’ when Jen’s kids would regularly build towers taller than their heads out of any available sharp or heavy object.

Or how about this one, coined just this past weekend at the cousin-fest:

“Boys! Give Catie and Gillian a weapon…everyone gets a weapon.”

I don’t know…kids, they do things to ya.

What’s your favorite parenting one liner?

Me and my Lukie.

An UPDATE: Yikes! Jen just called and said they’ve had major problems with their zine files and have to abort the project of this season. (So sad!) So the prize for the Tip Rally is now two beautiful hardcover holiday cook books: Christmas: A Cook’s Tour with reciepes and tradtions from around the world, and The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast with wonderful meals for the Jewish holidays and essays on food history and the holiness of gathering around the table. Keep tipping!

Hello Small and Passionate bloggers!

Like it or lump it, the holiday season is upon us. And don’t you just hate it when you let yourselves over-book and over-buy during the holidays? It sure doesn’t leave you feeling merry and bright!

You know what we need in the midst of all the superstore craziness?

Tips.

Yes my friends, tips — ideas and suggestions for maintaining a small but beautiful holiday. It’s time for the first annual Small is Beautiful Holiday Tips Rally.

Got a short cut for the turkey? Figured out how to downsize your gift list? Learned how to make the season holy instead of harried? Let us know!

Put your tips in the comments below by November 25th. A couple of lucky tipsters will be given a copy of The Soulsister’s Guide to a Very Merry Christmas, a fabulous guide for tiny, meaningful celebrations. So good! You’ll love it!

(If you don’t pick one up in the drawing, you can still buy one by the 30th and make the Soulsister’s final ship date. But really, you should just buy one now, because even if you win another, you will definitely want to pass this little bundle of goodness on to someone you love!)

Oh, and one more thing. In addition to winning the Soulsister’s guide, drawing winners will also be featured in a Small is Beautiful Saturday post, where they can highlight their Top 5 Posts of 2007. (Good reading ahead! Yum!)

So go ahead, start submitting your tips below!

The Small is Beautiful button is finally here!

Click here to see our manifesto and join the revolution!

(read all of our small is beautiful posts by going to the archives and choosing “small…beautiful” in the categories list. A better link coming soon!)

I love nearly all kinds of art, but my favorite is the sort that brings about justice, healing, or any other kind of general shalom-y-ness. Here are a couple of current art events that caught my eye.

Damalia Ayo, performance artists/activist, is heading up a performance art piece with audience (and passerby) participation. On October 10th she’ll be organizing the National Day of Panhandling for Reparations. The general idea is that folks will sign up to panhandle for funds from white Americans to pay back the descendants of Africans and African-Americans. Monies collected will be immediately returned to black passers-by on the street, and all parties would be issued a receipt. It’s just kind of brilliant, don’t you think? I certainly don’t have the chutzpah to take this on, but then again, I also wouldn’t have come up with “free ice cream day” in my local pocket of poverty. Maybe the problem isn’t a lack of cajones so much as a general stiffness of the imagination….?

If your imagination is a little stiff in the joints, I highly recommend Keri Smith’s The Guerilla Art Kit. From simple post-it note campaigns to more complex stealth-graffiti outings, Keri provides lots of yoga for the imagination. My weekend goal is to turn this sketch into a stencil and label all the abandoned buildings in my high-priced ‘hood.

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(Hmmm…maybe the guy who lives in the van down the street might like to come along?) Keri suggests ground-up sidewalk chalk applied with a paint roller, but that sounds a little iffy to me. Does tempera paint eventually wash off siding?

Finally, local yokels must not pass up Motel Motel’s latest project at the notorious Bridge Motel in Seattle. (Info here.)Fremont do-gooders have long been worried about this run down dive which has played host to drug busts, prostitution rings, and at least one murder. Recently sold and about to be torn down for upscale condos, local artists are trying to bring a little healing to this hot spot by honoring what the original owners of this once family-business had initially intended – hosting folks in one heck of a city. So this Saturday night every room in the joint will feature a different art installation. From performance art to band gigs, this place is going to be hoppin’ – in a good way!

Hope you have some great plans for artful living this weekend. Here’s a little exercise to get your blood flowing from Keri Smith’s friend/artist Steve Lambert. (This exercised abridged from the Guerilla Kit, go buy it, will ya?)

If you had a special superpower and could put your thoughts into other people’s minds, what would you transmit to them? The only catch? You can only use your power three times. What three things do you want to put into other people’s heads? Ready? Go!

Jen and I are this close to having the small is beautiful button done. I know, it’s been over a month since BlogHer ‘07, but we are mom/artists/community builders types. That is to say, we wear a lot of hats –this makes our work time, well, small. Plus, we haven’t have time to write in an uninterrupted manner since…um… what day did school get out in June?But be not afraid, our children are in school soon and things should progress a bit more quickly.

In the meantime, why don’t we all get in a circle and sing the small is beautiful theme song. What’s that? You weren’t at BlogHer and didn’t get initiated with that one? We’ll here are the lyrics, which capture ever so nicely the “why” behind Jen and I and our silly, blogging ways.

If you’re wondering why you keep doing this crazy thing you are doing (blogging, writing, painting, taking care of one wounded soul..), maybe Ani can help you remember why you started doing it in the first place.

Blessings!

“i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe weach other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to,
just because i want to…”

Ani di Franco, Joyful Girl

Listen to my favorite version with the dreamy-voiced Dave Matthews here (scroll down to find audio file), although this one (track four) with the orchestra is nice too.