As promised, above are some pictures of my sweet tattoos from the Staten Island street fair last week. Bonus points for the first person to tell me which ninja turtle that is!
Today we took some kids on a hike. We took eleven, and again it was a great experience and a trying experience for many of my youth. They are definitely outside of their element in the woods and its always interesting to see how they react. My favorite part of the day came when we reached a small park with a playground. I expected that the kids would want to take a break since we had been walking for a while, but they surprised me. As soon as they saw the playground they ran to the swings, slides, monkey bars, etc. Because of the way many of these kids were brought up, they didn't have parents to take them to the park, or to the playground - this was a special event. They were genuinly having fun, running around amidst the rest of the kids who were at the park already (ranging in ages from about 3-10). Most striking to me was one of our girls who didn't know how to swing. She had never been taught to swing. No one had ever taken her to the park to swing. Today I witnessed a 20 year old girl learn how to swing.
It is simple instances like this one that remind me how much I take for granted, how many aspects of my life that I consider "normal" that some people never get to experience. This is definitely one of the biggest things I've learned during my time here. I'm learning how to enjoy the things of life and not take them for granted, how to live in the moment, how to enjoy this life that God has given me because only then am I really able to give Him thanks for it. Peace.
5 comments:
that's leo... fo sho.
nice work, erica - you win
hey, just wanted to say thanks for the comment on my blog! :) i have really enjoyed reading yours over the summer (periodically when i get to it! :) and it is amazing all the great things you have gotten to experience! :) good luck with school starting up soon!
hey guy, can't wait to see you, I don't know why but for some reason I feel that even though things may not get better when your home, but maybe they won't seem so bad, it's strange because it's not like I burden you with all the sad upsetting things that I'm dealing with when you're here because I tend to keep those things to myself, it just feels like things will be brighter when your back, maybe it's because you are Jesus's teachings in action at least to me and you give me hope that people really can be I don't know, like that, those tattoos are quite unholy lol j/k, although I have to say they are quite manly, definitely not the type a kid at the National Comicon Convention would have, is it strange that I still find them sexy lol ttyl i was gonna be wrong by the way i was gonna say donatello but he's purple, right? and michel is orange, raphael is red right? oh well i probably have them all mixed up i havn't seen either movie in ages i think i will rent them immediatly and also the first batman maybe something with tom hanks lol rambling i'm going to bed love ya night ~kate
Nice ink, Zack. I hear tattooing can become addictive - be careful.
More TMNT trivia: in 1985 I attended a comic convention in Atlanta. The Turtles were just starting to take off and the creators, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, were in attendance. I'd heard the buzz about TMNT, so for $10 I commissioned a Raphael sketch by Kevin Eastman. Remind me to show it to you the next time you’re in town.
One of the advantages of a) getting old and b) never throwing anything away is that you sometimes end up with some cool stuff... and the occasional Phil Collins CD.
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