Little Bee

I finished Little Bee on the way to the Cape yesterday. The story behind this book is amazing and eye opening. It makes you think about what it means to be born as a citizen of a country. I believe being born in a free country, where we have a functioning government, is not something that some people are entitled to and others are not. Those of us who can sleep at night without fear of "the men coming" (a line which is a binding tie throughout the storyline of the book) should thank God for that privilege and pray for protection of those who are without.

I want to protect women like Little Bee. I want to protect their families, their villages, and their innocent way of life. I want stop the men, who were only boys when they were taken from their villages, and brainwashed to do the unthinkable. And while they are still boys, I want to give them a baseball bat instead of a machete. I want to hug them and ask them what they want to be when they grow up. I can guarantee, none of them would say murderer.

Little Bee magnified the voice inside my head that says "don't get too comfortable with your comfortable life." When we step outside our comfort zone, amazing things happen. I have friends back in Memphis who are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Her name is Abigail. Read their story here.

I do not want to ruin the book for you, but I will say, it leaves you feeling a bit helpless. And I was a little disappointed and then I realized, that's how it really is. I want to save the world, but I can't. And you will have to read the book to understand this, but it's not about saving the world. It's about being willing to cut off one finger.

Three Cups of Tea

I am in the front row, upper deck of the Megabus right now, headed to NYC for the ICFF. I can't decide if my seat of choice is exciting or terrifying. This is my 5th trip on the ole' Megabus and I just have to say, for $9 and unlimited WiFi...you cannot beat it.

I just finished Three Cups of Tea and wanted to share with you what an amazing book I found it to be. I will admit, I have been reading this book off and on for a year. The first 100 pages were not quite gripping for me. But once I got into the meat of the book, I could not put it down. Greg's Mortenson's life was saved by a Balti porter after nearly freezing to death during an unsuccessful attempt to summit K2. After recovering in their village, and being catered to in a way that most locals had never experienced, Greg promised to return the following year and bring with him the means to provide something that the Balti people had never had...a school. That one school, turned into hundreds,which are now lead by the Central Asia Institute. Greg is a truly inspiring individual.

Along with the schools, the Central Asia Institute has also established several Women's Vocational Centers, where women in remote villages can gather to sew and chat. Sounds like my kind of place right? And I know all of you design lovers out there have seen a lot of this lately...

The women in these villages weave ikat and you will see on the Centrail Asia Institute website that this fabric, which is high on the trend radar here in the States, has come to symbolize strength, beauty, and resilience of the Central Asia communities they serve. I will never look at ikat the same.

I may have a guest blogger or two lined up this week while I am busy bathing myself in modern furniture, stay tuned!

and p.s. this is super last minute, obvioulsy, but if any nyc blogger friends would be interested in meeting for dinner tuesday night, shoot me an email: stephanie.sabbe (at) gmail.com

The Kite Runner

We went to the park today to fly a kite.

Watch out Amir, Mr. Sabbe's got some skills.

If you are thinking what is she talking about, you need to read the best. book. ever.

Thank You + The Help

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and cards over the past few weeks. I want to especially thank people who have shared stories with me of loved ones they have lost. I think, initially, the hardest thing about suddenly losing a loved one is feeling like you are the only one in the world who has gone through something like this. And the prayers, they work. I can feel God's arms wrapped tightly around me. And although I do not have an answer to never ceasing whys and know I may never have answers in this lifetime, I do know that one day "He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [will pass] away." and He will say "It is done."(Rev 21:4,6)


A couple of weeks ago I finished The Help. Have you read The Help? It's a good one. I found it on Brooke's blog last summer and finally got around to reading it last month. I am a southern girl and there are so many things I adore about the South. There are also a few that I do not adore, mainly it's history of opposition to integration. I cried when I visited the National Civil Rights Museum a couple years ago in Memphis. Being a southerner, who went to a southern college, joined a southern sorority, and married a southern fraternity boy, it was very easy to project myself into this book. I thought about which character would represent a 1960's version of myself. And while I hope it would be Skeeter, I fear that I may lean a bit more towards Elizabeth. You?

Thank you again for reading my blog and being my blog friends. I never in a million years would have thought that I would have found such dear, dear friends via the internet. I really mean this, I have a diary from high school that reads "I hate the internet, I can't wait until it goes out of style." Such a forward thinker.

Gilead

I just joined a book club in Boston. Has anyone read this? Please tell me it gets moving a little faster past page 30? Wait!...maybe it's better if you don't tell me.

UPDATE: I finished the book and I really liked it. It's a slow read, but it's narrated by an old man. So that makes sense. If you are a Christian you will LOVE this book. I strive to be more like John Ames (the main character) in my own life. He always ran to the Lord (instead of away from Him) when life got hard. Submission to a plan greater than mine is not always my strong point.

Dixieland Delight Tour

Last week, during our trip, I finished my book on the second day. That is never good on a four day venture, with a five hour drive home. Mr. Sabbe was reading a book recommended to him by a friend, called Dixieland Delight. Now, I am typically not a sports reader, or watcher for that matter. I route for one team and most Fall Saturdays of my adult life have involved watching that one team, whether it be on tv or at the greatest place on earth {see below}. But my husband's overwhelming urge to constantly laugh out loud and read me excerpts from this book made me very curious.

He writes "I was born and raised in the South, a place where, on Saturdays, the uncertain path of a football in the air seems to float on the collective breath of the region. If you don't care who wins between Alabama and Auburn, you aren't from Alabama. If you don't cringe when you hear the first stident chords of "Gator Bait," then you aren't from Georgia. And if you don't speckly your sentences with y'all, fixin', and reckon or still call your dad Daddy even when you are seventy and he is ninety, then you are probably not going to be familiar with everything I write. That's okay. After all, not everyone can eat at Waffle House, or never get tired of whisky, or turn in every direction on a football Saturday and see gorgeous women standing in sunlight wearing a sundress, replete with heels."

Needless to say, I read the book. I had to. Everyone who went to an SEC school should read this book, especially now with football season approaching. Ever wonder what the heck a War Eagle is and wish you had never heard it? Or why someone would carry a cow bell to a football game? It's all in the book. It made me long for the days of waking up to the sound of Rocky Top blaring through my dorm window, while doing my best to dress myself from head to toe in orange, and having my roommate assist me with placing a temporary tattoo on my left cheek. Those where the days.

So for those of you who did not grow up in the south and can't quite picture what we're talking about, here are some photos and a link to the anthem that gets full grown men all over the state of Tennessee dancing a jig, while shaking an orange and white pompom over his head.

And for those who are still in the south, dusting off your car flags and tailgating tents...send the SEC and particularly our Vols my love. We'll miss her this year.

Phil, may you rest in peace {he's retired, not dead} But to some SEC fans that equals the same thing.

where all the magic began

and p.s. if I had a dollar for everytime someone (including myself) commented on my hair also being orange in relation to me being a true fan, I would be a rich woman.

PLAY

The Time Traveler's Wife

I finished this book a couple weeks ago during our 7 day trek to Boston and I've been meaning to post about it. Awesome book. SO AWESOME. There are some scenes of I wouldn't want to read aloud to my preacher...but other than that...totally awesome. I heard they are making a movie about it. READ the book! There is no way this book, with it's crazy back and forth time line, could be as great of a movie as it is a book.

This book was so good and I got so wrapped up in it that I will occasionally catch myself missing the characters. You know, while I'm making dinner, just wondering what Clare and Henry are up to or what decade he's in....totally normal right? God forbid I ever finish the Twilight series.

Update: I just Googled the movie...and Clare is SUPPOSED to have long red hair, but Rachel McAdams hair is totally not red, or long. But I do love Rachel McAdams. They did better on Henry. Don't get me started on Hollywood casting. Like any MIT card counter ever looked like THIS.

Read the book, it's good.

The Shack

I liked it. You've probably heard about it, it's pretty controversial. I didn't think I was going to like it. You should read it for yourself and decide if you like it. It helped me wrap my mind around the Holy Spirit...the most confusing person of God. This girl talks about super Christian's comments. Read her post, she summarizes it pretty well. I don't agree or disagree, but I liked the book. That's all I know.

Random Things I Would Like to Chat About

I have many different topics I would like to post and in lieu of saving them to post one by one (as I've noted is the blogger way of doing things) I want to post them all together. This is how my brain works. I am like spaghetti!

First thing of importance on my mind is my project I've been posting here and there over the past few months. It's almost done! I'm very excited and I like the way it turned out very much. I think it's like a big cup of coffee. You take a sip....then you say ahhhh.....so warm. This will be the new SunTrust Memphis Headquarters office.

From there my mind wanders over to the Old Testament (told you...I'm so spaghetti it's not even funny). As you may have noticed, I have not been posting fun books that I've read for a couple of months now. I miss my fun books, but I've put them aside because I'm currently going through a program called Downline and one of my goals of being in Downline is for me to read the entire Bible. Bah, I know...we've all tried, but who has actually finished?To date I've read Genesis-1 Samuel and I'm going to tell you...Leviticus was a struggle! But the fact that they teach us what we're reading before we read it, plus this handy dandy Zondervan Handbook to the Bible that I found over at Burkes... and low and behold...I love to Old Testament. I never thought I would say that out loud...but I do. Read it, it's good stuff. And if you have questions, ask me...it's also part of my duties of the program. Other good bible helper books I've read recently are 30 Days to Understanding the Bible (read this before you start Genesis) and The Master Plan of Evangelism.

Next up...we have this super sweet gift a rep gave me yesterday. I've mentioned before that reps give us stuff (reason #81 to be a commercial interior designer) So I get this little gift on my desk and I open it and I tear up. It's a hand painted ornament from the Mustard Seed, which after I googled I found was a center where mentally challenged adults are taught to express themselves creatively through the arts. Then they sell their crafts to help raise money for the program. I mean, I could cry again just thinking that something so wonderful exists out there. Their motto is "...if you have faith even as small as a grain of mustard see, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you" Matthew 17:20...ok, tearing up again...must move on.

To wrap it up I would like to give a shout out to Lotus Blossom Designs. I ordered some special, custom gifts from her Etsy shop last week and she was a delight to work with. I wanted to take the handmade pledge this year, but I knew what our gift to one another was going to be and I didn't want to break the pledge...I know...how Kyoto Treaty of me. Maybe next year.