Behind the Scenes

It can't be just ANY bedtime story.

This is behind the scenes.

Sandwiches

Community on the Rise. 

Church of the Reconciler.

One Roof. 

Americorps Volunteers. 

John Brown. 

The Homeless.

There are STILL community members who don't know the symptoms of the Corona Virus and are still hungry.

I gloved up, then double gloved, and made sandwiches and delivered around town today, joining with the above mentioned organizations. I felt guilty and liberated - at the same time.

I did not wear a mask, and felt guilty and liberated.

I met new people, hugged no one and sorted rotten apples. I felt guilty and liberated.

I thought, if we are all going to get this virus, I want to go down with a fever...not with fear.

First Wednesday, Corona Virus, The Picnic

Successful picnic.

Henry strums the acoustic.

Svea and her book.

Corinne roller blades.

I watch the clouds move slowly. 

Breathe in and breathe out.

Mama J Through the Window

Dear Mama J, 

You can't have any visitors right now at Fair Haven. Thank heavens you are out of rehab and can have a phone in your room. I want to call you every day.

I hate this pandemic so much. 

I wonder if you could die faster from this virus, or from this isolation? The phone and people and relationships and laughter are your entire life. Now you have a TV and a phone. A few visits from a nurse. What if you fall? What if you sit in your diaper too long?

You are almost 95yo - all these years, did you live so fully only to die alone? You rely on all things social. Now you are by yourself.

So we made signs. And stood out side your third storey window. I called you and asked you to walk to the window so we could wave and I could see your face. I thought it was such a good idea...

...but I didn't think about the fact that the path from your chair to the window might not be clear. That your phone might not reach that far. That you would remember to use your walker and remember that your life-line button was around your neck. I didn't think about all that in my frantic need to see you.

And as I write this, everything is fine and all is well. You are laughing that when I called, you forgot your lunch was on your lap and you stood up to come to the window and your butterbeans went all over the floor. You said you didn't like those butterbeans anyway. And you laughed your old familiar laugh - it didn't sound dry or make you cough.

(that's your hand waving)

But there was a scary moment when you wanted to get back to your chair and couldn't figure out how to balance yourself. You couldn't think through putting the phone down so you could use both hands. I was watching through the window and was horrified that maybe I had walked you straight into your next fall...and possibly the situation that would end your life. 

The staff in the parking lot promised they would send someone to check on you and we waited 5 breathless minutes and called you again. You were back in your chair, watching TV, and Gloria had already come to check on you. You were laughing at all the butterbeans on your floor.

I am so grateful you are alive. I am so sorry it has to be so far away from others.

(your face)

I love you, Mama J, 

Mollie Lane

First Tuesday, Corona Virus

3.17.2020

I did not hug anyone all day.

I cleaned and washed and organized.

I asked my newly 16yo child to drive me to a gym where we could arrange food donations into piles.

We wore gloves and did not get near people.

We left before food distribution to families experiencing food insecurity.

This feels so horrible.

Easter 2019

Dear Children,

This week has been a lot of church.

And this weekend is the most important part of the story.

Your dad and I have chosen this story, at our own paces, and believe in it so much that we plan our seasons, our family time, and our relationship with the world around it. It is that powerful, that important.

To tell the story, to write it, to read it - it is quite ridiculous sounding. 

But to believe it...will change every inch of your life.

You know what else is ridiculous?

All the bunnies, the baskets and butterflies.

Is the cocoon the empty tomb that could no longer hold the butterfly?

Are the plastic eggs cracked open - to give you treats - also a reminder of the empty tomb?

And the fuzzy bunnies...my mind was too fuzzy when you were babies that I never made you an Easter Basket (admitted).

We would go to church and old ladies would ask y'all, "What did the Easter Bunny bring you?" and you would stare like they were asking a creepy question. 

Did I ruin you? I'm sorry...and you are welcome.

I went to Target yesterday and there was a sign that read:

THE TOMB IS EMPTY...LET'S FILL IT WITH TINY LITTLE THINGS! HECHO IN CHINA!

Not really. But I would have loved that sign.

I claim that I am not a Fun Parent - does claiming it make it okay? Either way, I'm sorry...and you are welcome.

All of these things, do they tell the story that shapes our calendar, our clothes, our culture?

I don't know. But if I am ruining your childhood, I'm sorry...and you are welcome.

Back to the story - it sounds ridiculous...so maybe we have permission to act ridiculous. Bounce like bunnies! Hunt for eggs! Carry around baskets! Take silly pictures!

Today is the happiest day in the Christian calendar - it's the REASON we are Christians. If I don't show it the way Target does, I'm sorry...and you're welcome.

Welcome to the World, SW.

Dear S,

Welcome to the world!

I made you this measly blanket.

I wanted to finish it before you were born, but it took longer than I planned. Which is a good lesson for us to share: some things take longer and it’s best to let them grow at their own pace. Also, attachment to completion dates and deadlines can crush your soul.

This blanket is crocheted with two skeins of yarn that were dyed different colors. Which means I did not plan when the colors would change, they just did. Sometimes that happens in life: colors change and we keep going.

When you “keep going” in crochet, that means you keep loop-ty looping over and over in whatever pattern until we are all loopy and land on a soft blanket for a big family hug.

There was no telling which color would be the end of the skein.

I worried I wouldn’t have enough and the final row wouldn’t be smooth…but wouldn’t you know it? (No you wouldn’t because you are an infant) but you will learn that sometimes rows and loops and numbers just work out and you find out that from the very beginning YOU ALWAYS HAD ENOUGH.

No matter how much you worry in the meantime, you always had enough.

That’s my wish for you: end in a family hug, trust that you are enough, feel welcomed in this world.

I can’t believe how much I already love you,

Mollie

Plastic Project 4 of 5: Oh, Brothers...

This is Elijah's 4th entry. The first is here, the second here, and the third here.

Scrapyard Adventure’s (Brother’s recycling)

Saturday morning, I woke up and got ready to spend time with my mentor, Mr. Cliff. Little did I know he and I were going to the scrapyard, in search of a new motor with a gearbox already attached.
When Mr. Cliff told me to look for a motor with a shaft that was ⅞ inch diameter, I thought... I was just overwhelmed.  

But at the same time I was happy just to experience something like this. After we found the right motor we walked back into the front office to ask David (the eldest brother) how much we owed him. That's when he said, “Take it”. I said, “Thanks” and shook his hand.

David let us drive into the scrapyard. We passed heaps of everything, car parts, trashed appliances, a lot of S.U.P. and a scrapyard dog.   

Above: Large pile of Single Use Plastics (S.U.P.)

After visiting this scrap yard, I was overwhelmed by the heaps of waste. I’m more open minded when it come to the way we consume single use plastics.

(From iMollie: This is 4 of 5 entries)

Plastic Project 3 of 5: S.U.P.?

This is Elijah's third installment for his English project. You can read the first one here and the second one here.

Meeting Mollie: What S.U.P?

When I met Mrs. Mollie the first thing she did was gave me a hug & A cup of hot chocolate in a styrofoam cup.

She showed me her binder full of ideas & images of a

larger scale model of what she wanted to accomplish.

(Image is Mrs. Mollie’s Drawing her concept)

What is S.U.P?

Mollie explained that S.U.P stands for Single Use Plastic. Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. Examples include things such as milk cartons, water bottles, spoons, straws, egg cartons, this is just a short list but the list goes on.

               

When Mollie asked me what i was going to do with the styrofoam cup that held the hot chocolate & I said i was going to throw it away. Then she told me that styrofoam was usually a type 6 plastic.  

What I learned from Mollie is that i don’t normally think about this type of thing and i made a connection  with the breakfast bowls in the lunchroom. And how we just throw them away.

Why do we just throw them away ?

How does that make you feel ?

(From iMollie: This is 3 of 5...)

Plastic Project 2 of 5: Involving Reconciler

Here is the second essay Elijah wrote about us working together to get plastic off the street and turn it into something usable!

Consideration of Reconciliation (Week 2)

Greetings readers! I’m Elijah and for my English class this year, I’m creating an 20% project based on an idea from Google Corporation's practice of offering their employees 20% of their work time to work on a project which started in 2012. Every Friday, I get to work on a project of my choice.

“There is no such thing as 'away'. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.” - Annie Leonard

For my project this semester, my mentor and I will be helping a pastor's wife (Mrs. Mollie) at Church of Reconciler in downtown Birmingham. Mrs. Mollie started a homemade recycle system that shreds and melts plastic, so we will be able to mold and shape different thing to sell or give. A lot of homeless women mostly live by the church. And the reason behind this project is to better this community, and to give those homeless women another chance by giving them a job.

In the picture in the last blog post I was cutting a pipe with a hand grinder to attach it to the motor

to be able to run the shredder shown here..

(From iMollie: This is 2 of 5 installments...)

Plastic Project 1 of 5: Elijah's Four Hour Vegan Week

I can't get over how much I love to recycle.

I can't even have a conversation with someone without referencing it.

As busy as I make myself recycling things, I haven't known how to tell the story or teach others what I'm doing. I was blocked.

Then I met Elijah! Elijah is a 15yo high school student procrastinator, and friend of Cliff, who is a scattered brilliant engineer with a lot of fancy tools and knowledge of dangerous things. Cliff is still 15yo on the inside, though his body hovers in the 30yo decade.

With Elijah and Cliff's help, we have successfully powered up the Shredder and Compressor using Precious Plastics designs and ideas (hooray for community-based business models!!)

Elijah wrote this for his first assignment:

The Four-Hour Vegan (Week 1), by Elijah

I had good intentions. I tried. It all started when I was told I would have 15 weeks to work on any project of my choice. My friend wanted me to become a vegan with her. I never wanted to do it. I realized that I’m a young man, I need meat!

veg·an

/ˈvēɡən/

noun

1. a person who does not eat or use animal products.

Shortly after deciding not to go vegan, my mentor (Mr. Cliff) said he needed help designing and making machines for a homemade recycling system.

I decided that this was the project I wanted to work on. I didn’t quite understand the concept of this project, but

jumped right into it literally, with a saw.

                    

(This is a picture of me cutting a piece of pipe to attach to the machine)

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”

• Winston Churchill

From iMollie:

(This is post 1 of 5)...