A Person's Measure

If I were to express in a single sentence who it is that I was created to be, I would say that by God's grace and in His strength, I am a woman of integrity who tenaciously shepherds people to live life and love others fully.

I occasionally find stories of those whose lives reflect my passion and am inspired to model my life after theirs. If, then, I seek to shepherd, let it be with a tenacity of this sort; may I find my worth where he found his... read on.

Archbishop Osar Romero was assassinated while conducting mass on March 24, 1980 for his bold defence of the rights of the poor during a bloody conflict in El Salvador that the UN Truth Commission called genocidal. Reacting to the archbishop's stubborn advocacy for repressed El Salvadorans, right-wing groups were leafleting the nation, "Be a patriot, kill a priest."

Moments before a sharpshooter felled him, reflecting on scripture, he said, "One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives." --Archibishop Oscar Romero, March 24 1980

We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves, to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work. --Archibishop Oscar Romero, November 27, 1977

If we are worth anything, it is not because we have more money or more talent, or more human qualities. Insofar as we are worth anything, it is because we are grafted on to Christ's life, his cross and resurrection. That is a person's measure. --Archibishop Oscar Romero, March 4 1979

More on Oscar Romero

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Joyce is back, Button Tree and all! This may not be a big deal to you yet, but I frequented Bags for Darfur (and Joyce's personal anecdotes at Chronicles of Blunderview) so regularly that bags4darfur appears in the title bar if I so much as tap the b key with my left index finger. Besides the fact that I'm attached at the hip to one of her beautiful creations, I am also inspired by Joyce's tenacity and creativity in taking on one of the world's biggest issues. May we all learn to, like her, grow where we're planted and give what we've got.

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Check her out at http://www.bags4darfur.blogspot.com.

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Re-joyce. I've always been a scrounger. Raised by a frugal prairie farm woman who reduced, reused, and recycled long, looooong before it was trendy; I've come into the concept of re-purposing honestly. I am silly-in-love with anything vintage-ish, and am powerless against it when I discover it stacked on card tables in someone's garage, or stale and lonely in a thrift shop. As a responsible consumer, here's what you can feel good about: *the bags are primarily made from recycled fabrics purchased at thrift shops, garage sales, and fabrics donated by generous supporters. * Most of the thrift shops are themselves humanitarian aid fund raisers. *while keeping this stuff out of the landfills, you get to enjoy little pieces of history. Fabrics that used to function as tableclothes, aprons, bedspreads, sheet sets, coats.... Well, you get the idea. *the proceeds of the project are intended for food aid to people in camps in Darfur, Sudan via the United Nations World Food Programme.

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I would also like to take a load of fabric to this lovely lady when I move to Manitoba in January. Move?!?! Is that news to you? Mwa ha ha... more on this later.