My Life In The Wings @eeleirrehs-blog-blog - Tumblr Blog

New Website!

I have a website now, so instead of posting blogs to tumblr, I will post them directly to the website. :) www.sherrie-lee.com

I just completed another Order on the @TWLOHA Community #fancorps! #Ad http://fcrps.me/bestmistake

Someday, we might all get along..

I’ve found myself in an interesting position a few times this week. That is, the topic of homosexuality and the church, has come my way a handful of times. And I get it. The church, historically, and in some cases presently, has not and does not treat homosexuals very well. I get that a significant amount of faith-based people treat homosexuals and bisexuals like dirt. I get that there is hurt. And if that is being voiced, I’m behind the people voicing their concerns 100%. I am all for Bill 18. I left a church I attended /because/ they weren’t LGBTTQ-friendly. However, more often than not, in the past year, I have seen the reverse. I have definitely not seen perfection from the side of faith, but in a lot of instances, I have seen attempts by faith communities to build bridges, and people in the LGBTTQ community denying those attempts. Not even denying the attempts, but outright throwing them back at the faith community. I have seen more effort from the faith community to reach an understanding and be accepting, than the other side. I have seen the LGBTTQ community say “well you’ve oppressed us like this, so we’re going to oppress YOU like this”. I don’t believe that fighting fire with fire works, ever. Especially not here, when the issue is that some parts of each side, don’t think that the other side is decent. Again, I’m not saying that the LGBTTQ community has no reason to be upset. They totally do. But, I’m saying that if one side is reaching out, the other side should meet them somewhere. I’m saying that the LGBTTQ community has a lot of issues, and anger, towards people who put them all in the same stereotype of “promiscuous” and whatnot. Well, I have an issue with the fact that because I’m of faith, I get put into a category of “homophobic” and “naïve”. I’m saying… I don’t care if God can’t be proved. Love can’t be proved. A whole heck of a lot can’t be tangibly proven. But we choose to believe. I choose to believe in God. I choose to believe in love, and hope, and a better tomorrow. I choose to believe, regardless of the overwhelming lack of evidence, that someday, we might all get along.

#lgbttq #church #faith #hope #community #equality

WV Job Update

Hey there, So, I'm just sending out a job update. I was contacted tonight by the job I was interviewed for in Zimbabwe - The e-mail said that it took longer than anticipated for them to reach a decision due to several strong candidates, and that they will not be moving forward with my application of that position. HOWEVER, have you ever heard: "when one door closes, another door opens"? Well, two doors opened. She said that there are two other Internship positions that they are trying to fill, both in Laos. She asked me to review the positions and let her know: "asap if you are interested in these positions. If you are interested, I can set-up interview/s asap." I reviewed the positions, and am putting my name forth for both. Which means that my future is still uncertain. While I am bummed that I was not accepted for the Zimbabwe position, I look forward to seeing where these new interviews might lead me. Again - I am not going into these blindly. I anticipate that these, too, will be competitive positions. But I am thankful and honored to be considered a strong enough applicant that they would even offer the opportunity to be interviewed. I will keep you updated as I find out more. Blessings, Sherrie-Lee

#employment

Another Order completed for @TWLOHA on #fancorps. Help spread the word! #Ad http://fcrps.me/bestmistake

thebestdefenseprogram

I was asked a question:

You keep saying you’re not a ‘women’s self defence’ instructor. Why not?

Simply put, “Women’s Self-Defence” can be one of two things: it can be a women-only safer-space, in which case I am not allowed to be there, or it can be a contribution to rape culture; a...

eeleirrehs-blog-blog

A bit of a different situation, but this brings me back to one of the most important techniques that we used when interviewing children in Africa who were afraid to talk to us; make it less interviewy/structured as possible. After five minutes of them not talking, we asked if they wanted to go outside and walk around. Instantly, when we weren't divided by a table, when the interviewers weren't holding pens and notebooks, when we weren't in their classrooms, they opened up. I've used this several times since. It's more comfortable, and almost like hanging out with a friend that you can learn from, as opposed to an "I'm the one with the notebook, and you're going to tell me information so that I can evaluate you and your community."

Bill 18

These are a series of messages between myself and a friend about Bill 18. She sent me this: http://www.upworthy.com/a-stand-up-comedian-sums-up-the-gay-rights-debate-in-30-seconds Sherrie-Lee R Chiarot: Anybody who uses the bible or Christianity as a reason for their homophobia is a moron who doesn't understand scripture. Scripture is contextual. It was written at a specific time period. Take tattoos: I got a tattoo, and somebody at booth commented. They used Leviticus 19:28. Well, just a few verses before that, it says that you can't eat any fruit of vegetables that haven't been cultivated for something like 3 or 4 years. The bible also says, 100% more explicitly than "being gay is bad" (because the bible doesn't say that at all), that people should love one another. So by being homophobic, and NOT loving one another, they're breaking that. For as many bible verses there are that MIGHT, OUT OF CONTEXT be taken to say that homosexuality is a sin, there are double that which DIRECTLY state that those people who judge others or are cruel to the oppressed are sinners themselves. People who call themselves "Christian" and then uses arguments that aren't even from the bible that they claim to so closely follow, are hypocritical idiots who need to grow the fuck up and get educated Friend: Pastor Ray HOLLA!!!!!!!!! http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/sermon-rips-anti-bullying-bill-195817061.html

Me: What is this guy ON? REALLY? The bible is "hate literature"? It's "hate literature" because people like him are using it as an excuse for their petty, meaningless being afraid of change. The bill isn't REQUIRING there to be an LGBTTQ club in schools, but simply saying that there CAN be. They aren't going to make schools have a club, if the student's don't WANT that, but they're saying that schools do have the RIGHT to that club if they want. So, why don't schools leave it to the community of STUDENTS to decide? If the students don't want the club, then it's a non-issue to them. And if they do want it, they have to allow it. It seems pretty simple to me.

#bill 18 #lgbttq #politics #manitoba #winnipeg #gayrights

Satellite

Life is uncertain and strange. Sometimes I don’t understand a damn thing. What am I doing here? Why am I not there? What will I be doing soon? Why did I do this then? I am a skeptic. I trust rarely. Sometimes I wonder if I really trust at all. I ask a lot of questions. And I’m pained by a lot of questions. I don’t like questions and often, don’t ask them because its exhausting. “Why?”, “What if?”, “When?”, “How?”. It’s fricken exhausting. In January of 2011, I went and saw Jamie Tworkowski of To Write Love On Her Arms speak at University of Manitoba. I was just starting to attend church again. I was just starting at the Laurel Centre. It was also around the time that I started to publicly comment on issues surrounding sexual assault. I was a mix of hurt and excited and wonder and joyous and nervous and confident and scared to death. And I love Jamie Tworkowski. He is a large part of the reason that I am who I am. He’s a large part of the reason that I can smile and laugh. It was through him that I first learned about hope, and redemption, and community. But Steven McMorran has changed my life. I laugh a lot at how funny and ironic God is. I couldn’t understand a good 50% of the words that Steven was singing that night. It's funny that I don't like questions, but 50% of the lyrics to the songs that Steven sang were a mystery to me. I hate the unknown. The unknown has hurt me too much before. But that night, the unknown became a friend who understood me perfectly. What I did know, is that whatever he was singing was real and true. I knew that I didn’t need to know all of the lyrics to understand the emotion. So I closed my eyes and listened. And cried. I cried throughout his entire set. I talked to Steven after the concert and on my CD, he wrote “thanks for crying”. It was the first time somebody ever gave me permission to cry and feel. I was listening to their new CD tonight, just because I haven’t listened to it all the way through. And now I’m here. Writing about music, and about the first time I felt free to feel. About being hurt and excited and wonder and joyous and nervous and confident and scared to death about everything that life has to offer. http://originals.last.fm/video/satellite-ring-the-bells/rO7_wMTJ4cML/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ShYywPwAkQ

#Satellite #music #Steven McMorran

misschloe

*sigh*

This is what breaks my heart. I was trying to convey a message of people picking and choosing what to believe / use as the basis for an argument from the Old Testament, that Jesus talked about Love, and to not judge others. But instead, I get this. Proving my exact...

eeleirrehs-blog-blog

Chloe perfectly explains why using the Old Testament as a reason to be homophobic/not let same-sex couples wed is silly.

WV Prayer ask

Hi, Friends, As you know, I will be graduating in April. I have been looking for jobs since January, and applying to many, even if it is a position where I can simply “get my foot in the door”. Recently, a job has found me, and it has caught my eye, as well as my heart. It is a 10 month, paid Internship with World Vision. This particular position would have me spending four months in Canada, and six months working in Zimbabwe as a Community Engagement and Partnering Assistant Intern. The primary tasks in the field for this position include conducting gender analyses and working together with the program management team to develop a partnership framework and will help facilitate the initial planning processes together with these partners. This job combines everything that has shaped me greatly since the start of my post-secondary education five years ago; a journey that is coming to an end in about a month. It allows me to work with World Vision, an organization that I did my first Internship for my degree with, and an organization that I have come to greatly love. It will allow me to go back to Zimbabwe, a country that has had my heart since before I ever arrived there in 2011. A country that taught me everything I know about hope, and faith, and community. Through this position, I will be able to work to provide hope for a better tomorrow for the people of Zimbabwe. This job also will allow me to put to use my knowledge of gender issues, a subject that many of you know I am deeply connected to. The timing is also perfect. I will graduate in April, so this is the ideal time for me to take a once-in-a-lifetime position for 10 months. I’m e-mailing you in hopes that you would be willing to pray for me; that if this job is what God wants me to do, He make that happen. I am not going into this blindly; I know that I might not get this job. With that being said, if it isn’t who gets the position, I ask that you pray for whoever it is that does get the honor of this role. With hope, Sherrie-Lee R. Chiarot

Men

In the past, I've met a lot of males. A lot of boys. Very few of them men. I've always ended up having some sort of relationship with them that goes beyond the boundaries of "friendship", because that's the only way I thought a male would stay in my life. I didn’t know what it meant to have a friend, or be a friend, with a male. I was unfair, and lumped males all together. Shallow. Horny. Asshole. Rapist. This year, I've met a lot of good men. Some of them have entered my life and stayed, and deeply impacted me. Some have given me music to cry and scream and laugh and dance to. Some have come and gone, but left me with a smile when I think about them, or a new perspective. Some of them back weaved in and out of my life, but every time they come back, I'm reminded of how much I appreciate who they are. But they've all been good guys. Guys who have given me some reason to smile or laugh or think about something in a new, unique way. Guys who have been friends. Guys who have renewed my faith in that there are a few good men out there. Perhaps this is step one to finding my better half. Maybe I needed to learn to trust. I needed to learn to be light. Happy. To smile and laugh from places in my being that had been hiding for seven years too many. So to the guys in my life. The friends, the classmates. The late night chatters and the early morning wanderers. The ones who have made my world expand, and the ones who have confirmed my feelings. The ones who have let me be me, and still called me a “friend”. The ones who have hugged me, and reminded me that I’m okay. And that men are okay, Thanks. Cheers to you.

#healing #relationships #friendships #life #males #men

To Pursue or Not to Pursue a Guy You Like - Alyssa Joy Bethke

This is a blog written by a great blogger. Alyssa is the wife of Jefferson Bethke, who is a poet/YouTuber. Some of the things that they say, I don't agree with. But the stuff in this blog, I can be okay with. :) “If you’re a girl who likes your guy friend, is it okay to pursue him and let him know you like him?”

The question shone on our computer from stage. The room was dark, with hot lights shining on Jeff and me. My hand grasped my bible a little closer to my chest.

Ah, yes.

Oh how I remember those days (they weren’t that long ago!) of liking a guy so much my body ached. But the hardest part was that they were clueless. Or maybe they weren’t clueless, but simply weren’t interested in me? How many times I was tempted to ask them to coffee and quietly explain how much I liked them. How many hours I spent trying to analyze him and our friendship. How many times I prayed about the situation, gave my heart and desires to the Lord, prayed for that guy, and hoped that he would see me, want me, come after me.

Yes, I remember those times vividly. What do you do when you like a guy and want it to be known…So desperately?

Thankfully Jeff started answering the question first as I gathered my thoughts and let the Lord calm my nerves.

“Let me first say this ladies: if you pursue the guy first, you’ll be doing that for the rest of your life if you do get married. The guy will play the lazy card, and gladly let you take the reigns—forever. And you’ll be miserable. You’ll have to initiate everything else from here on out. But let me add this: You shouldn’t pursue him, no. But you can get in his way. Get in his way so that he sees you and has to run you over. He has to face you and knows you’re there. What does that look like practically? Maybe it means being at his games, going to bible studies that he’s involved in, sitting next to him in class, etc.”

Wise man.

As I thought about what to add, the Lord reminded me of 1 Peter 3:4,

“but let your adornment be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

A gentle and quiet spirit. That doesn’t mean that we have to be quiet little church mice! God loves exuberant, outgoing ladies just as much as the soft spoken ones! What it does mean is that we as women trust the Lord. It means that we so trust in, believe in, hide ourselves in Him that we don’t try to take matters into our own hands and take control. As women that’s really hard because one of the things we struggle with most is taking control. But we are commanded throughout scripture not to, and we don’t need to. We have Jesus as our advocate, the Father as our shield and the One we can hide in. He is trustworthy.

What it comes down to is this,

Do we really believe that He is in control? That He is able?

Do we really believe that if it’s God’s best, He can and will move in that guy’s heart to see us, and go after us?

Proverbs 21:1 tells us that the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord- that the Lord directs it wherever He chooses. If the king’s heart is in our Father’s hands, then most certainly that guy that we are crushing on is in His hands as well.

Ladies, God is able. God is in control.

Praise Jesus, then, that we can rest in Him. We can run to JESUS. We can tell him our deep desires, lay our hearts at His feet, and trust that He will work it out for His glory and our best.

Yes, put yourself in his way! Be available, be present. But check your heart. Do you believe in HIM? The One who knows every nook and cranny of your heart and is intricately and intimately working out His plan for you, dear one?

”Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will act.” || Psalm 37:5 ESV

A letter to my future husband:

Hi. :) It is March 4th, 2013. I am thinking about you, even though I don’t really know who you are yet. Maybe I do. I just wanted you to know, though, that whoever you are… I don’t know that I’m ready for you yet. I might need you to wait for a little while before you come and find me. Before we start our love story. I’m still learning how to be on my own, without needing somebody else. I don’t want to need you. I want to want you. But come find my sometime soon, because I would like to meet you. I would like to say hi to you, and be your friend for a little while first. I hope you know that I look forward to hanging out with you. I look forward to taking walks, and singing arrogantly loud to the best songs, and dancing. I look forward to the nights that we stay up until 4am talking about nothing at all. I look forward to concerts, and road trips, and sporting events. I look forward to board games and thumb wars. I don’t know who you are, but I look forward to all of these things with you. I’m going to write to you from time to time, I hope that’s okay. Whenever I’m thinking about you, I’ll just write you a note, or a smile, or something of that sort. Then some day, you’ll get to read all of these. Have a good week, my love. Sherrie-Lee

#love #letter #future #dreams

bendoeslife

Imagine that for the last couple weeks you had been decently excited to go see this new movie that was coming out. You had watched all the previews, publicity, promo interviews, and the day had finally come that you were going to actually go watch the movie.

Imagine that the movie was decent at...

eeleirrehs-blog-blog

Imagine...

Vancouver, so far.

I'm almost done my time in Vancouver for this trip. And this trip has been great. I got to visit my grandmother, who makes the funniest side remarks to the Bachelor and keeps me smiling. And I got to see my Auntie Jodi, who knows not just my fashion sense but my heart, and I will forever be waiting for the next piece of wisdom she imparts on me. Tomorrow I get to hang out with Laura, my friend who helped me get through more tough stuff than I would have been able to handle without her friendship. But I've met some other people. I've seen some other things. The other night, I saw a man in a wheelchair, bent over on the side of the road. And in all honesty, I don't know if he was dead or alive. I don't know if he had people looking for him. But I know that he was alone. Being passed by so many people. A few times now, I've seen the group of people who play music and ask for money by where the movie theater once was. And this afternoon, I was walking home after wandering around. I met a woman who accidentally bumped into me after hanging up her phone. She looked disheveled. She apologized, and I just smiled and said "it's okay, no worries". She said the weirdest thing. She said "thank you". And I was so confused. I noticed she had a tattoo, and I asked her what it meant. She told me about herself, and I learned her story. She is a woman who has overcome so much, in such a little amount of time. She is a woman who has been made to feel as though she isn't deserving of being human. When it started raining more, she said that she had to get going, and thanked me for listening. She said that people didn't usually listen. I got a bracelet today from my Auntie Jodi, and there are three words on it. Love. Faith. Hope. Three words. Vancouver so badly needs more of these three words. The world, so desperately needs more of these three words. People need love; a community who knows them, and their hearts. What makes them smile. What advice to give. People need faith. Faith that they can lean on somebody else when things get tough. And hope. People need hope. People need something to believe in. People need to dream. Why are these three simple things, so hard to come by? Why is there a man on the street in his wheelchair, and thousands of people can walk by him? The people living in the theater... were are their aunties, their grandmothers, and their best friends? Why was the woman so surprised and thankful that I smiled, and told her not to worry about bumping into me?

#vancouver #hope #faith #love #family #friendships

glittertitties-deactivated20130

i wish we could say “rape is bad” and have people agree without comparing women to watches or houses being broken into

that’d be nice

William James hurts. Every time I read him, something feels tragically wrong in the world. Sick soul. Sick. Soul. I'm a sick soul. Homeless. Wanderer. Spirit. Angry. I read about the spirit tonight. And then life happened. And I got angry. I went for a walk, and all I wanted. ALL I WANTED. Was an angry song. What I got was Meant to Live: Switchfoot, Consider the Ravens: Dustin Kensrue, Stronger: Kelly Clarkson, and a Sigur Ros song that I didn't pay attention to the name of. Finally, when I was beyond pissed off, I got Lower Still, by My Epic. God, you are hilarious. Painfully so. Tragicomic. And God, I'll live. I'll live. Do whatever you need to do. I know that you know me. And you do everything for a reason. So I'm blind to the reason. I have four eyes, but I'm blind right now. Do what you want. Go ahead. Go lower still. Go lower. Lower. You know how low you need to go. If this is what you need to do, then do it. I have a "top ten must-haves" list for relationships. And in it, it says "somebody who will love me through moments of disliking me." Dislike is an in-the-moment thing. And love is forever. God, I love you. But right now, I dislike you.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

My Life In The Wings