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Have Hope; Will Travel

with Katie Axelson

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They warned us when we got home from a year abroad

They warned us when we got home from a year abroad that the grocery store would be triggering.

Too many choices in the cereal aisle.

Too high a price in the produce section.

Not enough flies in the deli.

I'm glad they warned me. Because it was triggering.

My coping mechanism became: shop like I did in the market.

I came home with heaps of potatoes, dozens of tomatoes, and a collection of fruit.

Years later, I still shop very similarly: always buying the same things plus what's on sale and maybe a few extras to complete a meal.

I'm bored with it.

One of my pandemic projects has been to learn to cook new vegetables.

Eggplant. Acorn squash. Butternut squash.

I saw a vegetable (fruit?) at the grocery store I'd never seen before and almost bought it just so I could remember to google what it was and how to serve it.

I need your recipe ideas.

I'm bored with the things I know how to cook. And a little intimidated by the things I like that I don't yet know how to cook (falafel anyone?)

What are your favorite recipes?

Comment here or there's a question box in my stories for links.

Thanks for your help!

(PS: I don't have the patience for fussy recipes. I cook because I like to eat not because I like to cook).

The ice dripped down the back of my neck as I bent

The ice dripped down the back of my neck as I bent over to unplug my Christmas lights.

Like I had predicted to my email friends, my neighbors and I were still boasting our exterior illumination until we got a nasty-gram from our HOA reminding us Christmas is long over.

I shivered, emotionally unprepared for the water crystals now running down my spine as if they were some surprise here in a Minnesota February.

They're not.

Yet one of the tricks to staying #snowpositive is remembering it will eventually go away.

Unlike love.

Love must not go away.

Being an ally is not a month-long commitment once a year.

It's a daily commission to support, to align, to fight for.

To actively learn every day how to be an antiracist.

To love better. Even once the snow melts.

Listen to Have Hope; Will Travel podcast episode {34} for more great wisdom like this from @lisefarah.

I read Deuteronomy 15 this week about the cancelin

I read Deuteronomy 15 this week about the canceling of debts every seven years.

I felt like the Lord asked me what debts I was still carrying from seven years ago.

I had to pause and remember: where even was I seven years ago?

Seven years ago I was a nomad missionary carrying everything I owned on my back.

While a lot of beauty happened in that season (see my ebook Jesus Shoes), there's also a lot of baggage (no pun intended).

Things I wished would have happened.

Things I wished wouldn't have happened.

Things that left me traumatized, scarred, and spent.

My body will never be the same after sleeping in a tent for a year.

My heart will never be the same after seeing the man die on our favorite surfing beach.

My spirit will never be the same after some warfare we were part of.

Debts.

I'm still carrying seven years later.

Not anymore.

Like the rocks we threw into the Pacific Ocean (on the same beach where the man died), I'm letting go.

I don’t want to be owed payment from my sending organization. From my ministry hosts. From my teammates. From God.

I want to be DEBT FREE!

#11n11 #after11n11

•

What debts are you still carrying from seven years ago?

What’s God teaching you right now?

All last week I made fun of my neighbors for havin

All last week I made fun of my neighbors for having their windows open even though the temperature was well below zero.

Over the weekend, I was the neighbor with the window open.

It warmed up (27º) and I needed to run my self-cleaning oven.

Do you know what I noticed with the window open for the first time five months?

Birds.

I heard the birds! For the first time in probably five months.

The majority of birds migrate south for the winter. They don't stay here in Minnesota. (Sometimes I think they're smarter than we are because why do we stay here when it's -15º?)

Birds are a sign that spring is coming.

Or a reminder that spring *will* come because I do realize it's only the end of February, and we have a month (or two) of winter left ahead of us.

Spring *WILL* come.

The pandemic *WILL* end.

This too *WILL* pass.

Someday.

A little birdie told me spring *is* coming.

Never in seven years was I pulled over for my Wisc

Never in seven years was I pulled over for my Wisconsin "tags" in North Carolina.

Every month my friend of color is pulled over for Georgia plates in Minnesota.

Both legally driving cars with out-of-state plates.

One Black. One white.

In seven years my Wisconsin driver's license was questioned twice (and frankly, it should have been):

1️⃣ A college student on the far side of town buying beer and cough syrup (and nothing else) at CVS.

2️⃣ Picking up an unaccompanied minor at the airport when she flew from Minneapolis to Atlanta.

Both times I answered the questions that were asked and nothing more.

Both times I never offered a good story, an explanation, or even a lie (the minor's parents and I had agreed on a lie if I needed it).

Both times they let me go.

No one even called the manager to ask for input. Much less the police.

They gave me the benefit of the doubt.

Why?

This is white privilege. Explained in license plates.

What's getting between you and God? Where do you

What's getting between you and God?

Where do you want to grow?

What does it look like to take one step closer to Jesus in these 40 days?

What little step can you take today to look more like Him when we get to Easter than you do right now?

Have Hope; Will Travel episode {35}

They told us to stay home during Carnival (Mardi G

They told us to stay home during Carnival (Mardi Gras).

They said it was a pagan practice and Christians shouldn't participate.

So we didn't plan to participate.

But we needed groceries. And money. And internet. So we went out.

What they didn't tell us is that as Americans, we'd be a hot target for the world's largest shaving cream fight.

Call Guinness because the entire city of La Paz was "playing."

Taxi drivers laughing as passengers bought and shot shaving cream out the windows (or into the windows, as this little girl demonstrates).

Water balloons and squirt guns are also fair game.

Oh the joy!

Maybe Carnival has some pagan roots.

But joy is also a fruit of the spirit.

Maybe this is an approach we can take to Lent this year.

Or maybe when the pandemic is over, the whole world can have a shaving cream fight?

Listen to Have Hope; Will Travel episode {35}

(📷: @KarliNewton10, March 2014)

This week we celebrate Ash Wednesday. Which for t

This week we celebrate Ash Wednesday.

Which for those of us who grew up in a liturgical church, our bodies just tensed up a bit because the question coming is:

What are you giving up for Lent?

This week on Have Hope; Will Travel we're talking about where Ash Wednesday comes from (hint: it's not the Bible), the practice of fasting, and how maybe we need to take a different approach to Lent since we've already given up so much this year.

Find episode {35} on your favorite podcasting app. Full transcript available at KatieAxelson.com

Thank you for the kind words, @caitiewrites! Have

Thank you for the kind words, @caitiewrites!

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