if the fruit is nourishing

may there be joy in your giving

Morning, muses

I thought I would record this outside today because it is truly a dazzling spring morning and I'll at least include a photograph that I took of the forsythia in full riotous bloom or maybe the party poppers of the Birch tree that are hanging down against the blue sky

I just snapped a couple pictures while I was out there because it's so beautiful and so alive and sunny

& at the same time, it was a very trafficky, noisy time to be out because I was out doing my qi gong in front of the house in the grass a little later in the morning than I usually do

And it feels good to sleep in a little bit; I mean sleeping in for me is 6:30 …but it feels amazing that my body is rested and relaxed enough at this moment in time that it knows how to sleep a little longer than it has for months and months.

It's good to be home in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

I've been traveling back and forth to Philly, which is where my family is, and I'll be doing more of that, I know, in the future,

but for this moment I'm so grateful to be in my body which is always my home but also in this chair with a particular configuration of stuffed animals around me and beautiful reminders in the form of various figurines that give me a sense of who I am and what matters:

everything from full access to jewelry, like the locket with my paternal grandmother Jean Lucille's parents inside of it to the candlestick that Jean gifted me when I was in my 20s

& of course everything around here reminds me of ancestors and friends and beloved soul sisters and brothers

& there's a sense of deep gratitude when we allow ourselves to take enough time to feel grateful for the people who know us and love us and the people who walk beside us in all kinds of times.

Last week - I spent most of it in Philly - I made the very conscious choice to uplift the voices and the work of people who I love and I did that some days of the week, not every day;

But two people who came to mind immediately were my friends Jess Kruse Eriksen and Maile Cannon, who are two of my very favorite people on the planet.

We became good friends when we were nerdy misfits at Kealakehe Intermediate School in Hawai’i, the Big Island; and I may be able to dig out a picture of us from 8th grade graduation: you'll see how beautifully awkward we are

And just last week, or maybe a week and a half ago, we were on a WhatsApp call together Maile lives in Beijing; Jess lives in Perth, Australia; and here I am in Amesbury MA USofA, home of the Penobscot people;

And we see each other, hear each other, support each other all these years later

And within the past year I did a conversation with Jess for the muse that I believe we called Pillars not Platforms where we talked about the importance of the people in our world who are standing up strong, firm and rooted, and who aren't really particularly concerned with you know stepping on the stage and making a splash or shining bright; but are willing to do the grunt work, willing to …

I mean, I see this along the lines of you know, your car mechanic, the plumbers, the electricians, the baristas, the people who are making the world keep running; which maybe is just all of us.

Mary Oliver talks about the work of a grasshopper or an ant; I forget which exact poem this is;

She talks over and over again about the smallest, most ordinary beings that are building the universe:

Whether it's an anthill or putting a car back together, or in the case of Jess Kruse Eriksen, doing missionary work;

And in our conversation of months ago Jess and I talked about my inner conflict with this idea of What does it mean to be a missionary? just because I know there's been so much harm done by my ancestors literally, but also just by this notion that one group has The Truth and should force feed it to other groups

And when she and I spoke it's so clear that Jess is so open hearted and you know, Maile works in the film industry, but also in many spaces where she offers this joyful but also just open-hearted, loving, generous energy;

And when I get together with the three of us - and sometimes it's years in between times that the three of us talk, but I hope that's never the case again - there is always a sense of creative energy and that it doesn't matter that we have different things that we care about and do;

What matters is that we love each other and that we want to find vocabularies that are common between the three of us.

And because we have so many shared memories of Mr. Halling’s classroom and [Konawaena] high school before I moved to Pennsylvania; they have plenty of stories that come after the time that I moved to Pennsylvania;

Because we have memories of being in Mrs. [Faye] Ogilvie’s English class in middle school or putting together The 8th Dimension anthology of writing and art that we created for our 8th grade year thanks to Mr. [Brett] Eshelman and all of the other English teachers - Mrs. Ogilvie was our advisor, I think;

I say names and they don't matter specifically to all the people listening, but hopefully each person listening can remember important pieces of their own history and think,

Yeah, there are people who I might not agree with or we might have very, very different work to do in the world now; but there is a shared understanding of love

& there's a sense of hope that there is possibility in the world

& that the fruits of a tree, if they are nourishing; Who cares if the tree has hangy-downy things like the Birch tree in my front yard, or if the tree is forever green like a pine.

In this moment, I want to uplift Jess Kruse Eriksen and the work she does for Youth With A Mission. I grew up hearing the story [of YWAM] over and over again, because my parents and Jess’s parents worked for Youth With A Mission, having both beautiful and complex experiences as members of a missionary community that was really focused on the story of Jesus.

And I think I've mentioned already the beautiful book We Will Be Jaguars that I'll link again in today's muse that talks about some of the inheritance of missions from my family’s lineage that has been incredibly painful;

[Note: Nemonte Nenquimo, who wrote We Will Be Jaguars, won the Goldman Environmental Prize after leading an indigenous campaign and legal action that resulted in a court ruling protecting 500,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest and Waorani territory from oil extraction. Nenquimo’s leadership and the lawsuit set a legal precedent for indigenous rights in Ecuador, and other tribes are following in her footsteps to protect additional tracts of rainforest from oil extraction. This paragraph & more info on how to support this crucial work, can be found here.]

But also I know, because I've been part of it, and I have friends like Jess Kruse Eriksen who continue to be part of the work of Youth With A Mission: some of that work is immensely beautiful and glorious & I have friends who document and research the work of missionaries, like my friend Gina Zurlo, who works at Harvard and is a global expert on women in Christianity;

And I just wanted to name that the story of one person after another opening their heart and sharing love - whatever that looks like - whether you're wearing a rainbow flag every day or whether you are telling the story, the very specific story, of Jesus of Nazareth;

When we encounter love and creative action and deep, deep, embodied curiosity about the experience of somebody else, we are evangelists: it just literally means bringing the good news; I believe the original language is Greek, evangelos, it has to do with bringing good news.

And I can talk for hours (and I do!) about the things that I'm passionate about and the changes that I want to see happen in the world

& if I refuse to listen to the people around me and the way that they see the world;

If I choose not to listen or not to see;

If I turn away from an empathic standpoint of deep curiosity, then I am not a bringer of good news.

And I'm just so grateful for friends and family and beloved people around me who keep growing and who keep showing up with curiosity, learning and changing & transforming.

And so, as I come to an end of this muse, I want to particularly uplift Jess Kruse Eriksen: her family could use a new [that is, new to them] car sometime soon!

And when I asked her, Hey, I want to uplift you in the week to come; it took her a while to get back to me

& she also was like, “We're going to be OK” … I don't remember her exact words because sometimes audio messages from Perth are a little hard to hear; but she wanted to make sure I gave context and said that the big picture of the organization is more important than her family's specific story.

I know the big picture of YWAM which is Loren Cunningham's vision from 1960 of seeing waves of young people share passion and love around the world; and I don't think personally (I'm not speaking for YWAM, I’m speaking for Hannah Lynn Mell) I don't think that always has to be done in the name of Jesus Christ, because a lot of people coming in the name of Jesus Christ have done immense harm.

Whatever it looks like to share good news - gospel - in your life, I hope that you will find a way to do that today; even if that means just smiling at a stranger or giving an extra tip to someone who is providing a service for you;

But if you have some spare money and want to give it to a place that needs it, think about someone in your life who could really use something right now; and in my case I'm thinking about Jess and her family of three beautiful daughters and her incredible husband; I always talk about baristas and tipping baristas because I love a good coffee shop, and they run one in Perth through YWAM, and you may want to contribute some money to Jess's family in Perth as they are needing a new [to them] car.

I myself am figuring out a car situation right now and I'm not worried about me, I would say give some money to Jess if you have 20 bucks, 30 bucks; I'm going to link the PayPal;

But it doesn't have to be Jess, it could be somebody in your life who you actually know who you could give some money or some love or some attention to …

As a missionary kid, I will forever believe that the loving energy we send is far more important than the resource of finance;

So, say a prayer for the spaces where you see need;

Show up with love and hands ready to work, if that's something you can do;

Whatever it is, I hope you come from a space of bright yellow forsythias blooming and seeds that look like party poppers hanging down from green tree branches.

May there be joy in your giving, whatever it looks like today.

Blessings