Art Show!

The art show was a success! It was my first time discovering how intensely tiring setting up and getting ready for an event, especially an art booth, could be. As you know, proceeds went to Chab Dai (www.chabdai.org) which aims to fight human trafficking. The organization was started in Cambodia in 2005. It was interesting to talk to and inform people about the tragedy that exists in the US and outside our country.

Wreckage Fashion Show filmed by my friend Aaron Sjogren-talented young man attending Art Center.

Clothes I designed and created.

My friends! My friend on the left, Isabel, was a model in the fashion show.

On another note, I found this cute Domo cup in my brother’s car, apparently, after playing with the cup, the lid flew open and revealed all this moldy green residue. For which I yelled, AHHHH. But it was still cute.

Wreckage Fashion/ART show TOMORROW

Come out to support me! I’ve created all kinds of goodies- unique one of kind garments, greeting cards with my artwork, framed art, necklaces, accessories, purses, you name it- I got it! All proceeds are donated towards Chab Dai, a non-profit fighting human trafficking. (chabdai.org)

Hope to see you there! Questions email me at rebekkalien@gmail.com

Overthinking can become a disease

There’s some, a majority of people, that never think. They never think about the implications of what they do, who they are, and what is really happening in their life. They live passively, letting circumstances and environment form them into who they become…which I think is a product of society.

And then there are the few that think and reflect deeply about everything.

But then….like me, they overthink. Which can also become a fatal disease. This causes them to pass by the good moments of life…honestly, thinking. Many forget to feel, they are over logical and overthink everything. I am asking God to restore unto me the joy of my salvation, the joy of being a child, the joy of dancing, the joy that supposedly people say i have. I heard this the other day, “you are the most joyful person i know in my life”. I laugh inside, what? Really? Well, maybe you haven’t seen the sorrows in my life, out of my sorrows came joy. I can only say that’s God inside of me.

But. The childlike unabandon I used to have seem to be dwindling down into moments of. pieces.

because…i am too deep in thought. I need my spontaneity back- give me back!!!  Just give me a dance floor and I’ll show you who I really am. Too much schooling is bad for a child!!!

what is home when it has become prison

Release me from this prison called home dwindling into pieces and echos

the food delicious has gone awry with anger and tears

release me from this prison called home

this expectation that shadowed your head all your life is meant for you to forgive

not for me to carry as a burden on my back

sorry to you. that you gave birth to me

sorry to me maybe that i was born.

but i was born with a clean slate. and ima keep clean from the past

whatever it takes, God release me from this prison. or make her somehow face her pain.

it is not mine to carry, release me please.

i am not god, nor am i able to be a security or happiness for anyone. no one i must say.

what is home when it has become. just that. a prison of expectations?

What I’m doing this Summer

“Contemporary Chinese History & Society is the core course for a 6-week summer study program based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China’s top-ranking institution of higher learning. The course is designed to help students develop an understanding of China’s historic, economic, and social transformation, its emerging role as a world superpower, and the global implications ofthis transformation. It also seeks to promote understanding and appreciation of contemporary Chinese culture so that students can become bridge-builders between North-American and Chinese people.

Tsinghua professors will begin with an overview of the cultural-historic foundations against which contemporary China is understood, including the early development of Chinese civilization, hallmarks of traditional China, early East-West exchanges, and the historic significance of China. The focus will then move to key concepts and historical developments in China from mid 1800’s to the present, with emphasis on understanding the worldview of the Chinese people, including China’s interaction with the West, with a focus on the last 100 years. This interdisciplinary course provides insight into China’s contemporary social and cultural issues with an overview of its political system, economic system, social structures, as well as the non-profit and religious sectors. Examining a broad range of topics from an interdisciplinary perspective, students are asked to think creatively and critically about the profound socioeconomic transformation that China is currently undergoing and how these changes are impacting the Chinese people as well as China’s larger role in the global context.

The course also features a two-week service learning project in rural western Chinese where the students will teach in a local middle school, partner with a local community development center, and learn the basic principles of ethnographic social research as they conduct research in the local community. The course offers a total of 24 lectures, integrated with 12 cultural and historicsite visits, a two-week service-learning project in western China, and other experiential learning activities.

http://www.globalstudieschina.com



Wisdom’s Call

Plum Flowers

I had a spontaneous urge to go to the LA zoo, I did not find the animals as attractive as the flowers. It was a hidden gem most peoples walked by. But I did learn much about human nature and life in general. My goal is to scour LA before I am to leave, not knowing where and how long I will tread the earth.

Regarding Wisdom- note that this whole part is talking about WISDOM. When it says “I” it is talking about wisdom.

Proverbs 8: Wisdom’s Call

1 Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

3 beside the gates leading into the city,
at the entrances, she cries aloud:

4 “To you, O men, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.

5 You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, gain understanding.

6 Listen, for I have worthy things to say;
I open my lips to speak what is right.

7 My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.

8 All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.

9 To the discerning all of them are right;
they are faultless to those who have knowledge.

10 Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,

11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.

12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
I possess knowledge and discretion.

13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.

14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine;
I have understanding and power.

15 By me kings reign
and rulers make laws that are just;

16 by me princes govern,
and all nobles who rule on earth. [a]

17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.

18 With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.

19 My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.

20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,

21 bestowing wealth on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.

22 “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, [b] , [c]
before his deeds of old;

23 I was appointed [d] from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.

24 When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;

25 before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,

26 before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.

27 I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

28 when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

29 when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

30 Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,

31 rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.

32 “Now then, my sons, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.

33 Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not ignore it.

34 Blessed is the man who listens to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.

35 For whoever finds me finds life
and receives favor from the LORD.

36 But whoever fails to find me harms himself;
all who hate me love death.”

What does it mean to wait at the doorway?

Stop this history

Usually I’m sitting, folding into space

Other times I’m thinking in deep void

Silence praying even in sobriety

Words are simple glances into the past

past I hold.

Dreams everyday I dream in living

Dawn has spoken, birds have spoken, I have not.

Logistics, thoughts of fear, adventure, unspoken mystic

even when i speak, i am a forgotten lily in the field, withering inside

so ill fly away for now and come back when you’re ready

freedom cometh only when you let yourself be free

She once fought blood and gore on the battlefield. Who can know her story?

A man once laid in bed for 8 years, a wife feeding and mending.

She died of disease. Grief.

Daughter, daughter, daughter you were only in your 20s. You lived on. Onto

lands of mafia, blues, piano sounds tinkling, german poetry, silence again.

Stop this history.

Stop this history.

Start with me.

Mountains are reflected in Streams

I’m currently reading a book called The Good Woman of China, stories about, I feel the suffering of women during mostly the cultural revolution. This quote really struck me:

“Jingyi said hat women were like water and men like mountains- was this a valid comparison? I put this question to my listeners, and received almost two hundred replies in a week. Of these, more than ten came from my colleagues. Big Li wrote, ‘Chinese men need women in order to form a picture of themselves- as mountains are reflected in streams. But streams flow from the mountains. Where then is the true picture?'”

I find this to be sad- personally I have a pretty skewed view of males, chinese males to be specific that I will not speak of in my public blog. However, I do not put my hope in human beings anyway, we fail each other constantly, it is human. We just gotta roll with the punches and believe in a God who can transform rags.

Alice In Fru Fru Land

I call Alice in Fru Fru Land because everything was so fru fru and pretty. We went to go watch the midnight show, opening night. Whoever did the costume design, I LOVE IT. But that’s pretty much it. The special effects, 3d, trippy motions, and colors made it awesome. I can’t say the plot was any good, I mean it’s just what it is. It went by really fast. I was just dazed and confused, everything was popping up out of nowhere, running around and falling down.

Fashion At Its Wildest

Found this Japanese streetwear. I love her vibe, but wonder if adults will ever take her seriously. I still love it though.