Respect your Body

        I recently watched a trailer for a documentary called Miss Representation (which I have posted below) and it talks about a lot that I have been dealing with in my life for the past decade to be quite honest. I want to take the contents of this video one step further by speaking out as a young women influenced by the media who has found new Life.

The video and many others I've watched (campaign For Real Beauty by Dove) bring to light how advertising and the media portray women. And it is a vicious cycle because the media produces it and we watch it, so they produce more and we watch more, they make it more shocking and we want to be shocked, where will this cycle end? t can end with you and your friends and your family. When you decide it is no longer worth even the time that goes in to making and the time you spend watching it because it is crap and it is not the truth.

I will go one step further and say that the media does not only sexualize women and make us objects of lust, it makes men look like animals and that all they really want is a good lay and a women to stand in her bikini and clean the house. This is not true either. We are human beings and we all deserve respect. We are all sexual beings who want love and pleasure, but as Humans we can control ourselves. This means men, too. Men are not animals who have no thought except for sex. There are women who are doing amazing things in this world and trying to help make it a better place AND there are men who are doing that as well.

My next step is this: It is up to YOU to put and end to this in your own mind. You will see images, shows, movies, you will read books and magazines that show women as sex symbols and men as animals, but it is a lie. You can tell yourself this and you can choose to watch and read and portray the truth. The truth that we are human beings and we can love and respect each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5pM1fW6hNs&feature=related

Romania

See my new blog Vanessa in Romania for, hopefully, updates on getting me to Romania sometime in 2012.

ROCK Ministries/ Bedrock Falls Ranch

I got an e-mail today from the organization I applied to for a mission to Romania, ROCK Ministries. They have put volunteer applications on hold while they work on the project Bedrock Falls (www.bedrockfallsranch.org) and see how the year will go. I will be in contact with them again in the fall. This is kind of hard for me as I feel the emotional high wearing off and it seems as if everything is in limbo. Please pray for wisdom for me and for success for the Bedrock Falls Ranch.

Application

Got an e-mail from ROCK, they are processing my Application. So Excited to see how things will work out! Please pray.

Sea Glass

In the last few months I've picked up the habit of collecting Sea Glass. My friend and house-mate, Jackie, showed me where to look and how to find it. It's quite exciting to find these little treasures. Here is my collection...

This is one of the most unusually shaped pieces I've found

This is one of the newest pieces, the edges are still sharp and the piece i large for how thin the glass is, I pretty sure it's from a Jones bottle.

These next two pieces are older, the edges are worn and the sides are soft from the waves wearing the shine away

Heart shaped. White is uncommon, I only have threes white pieces

I like the edge on this one, it reminds me of a fingerprint. It is one of my largest pieces

Most uncommon color: light blue, this was the first light blue piece I found

And this is the second, amazingly it is also the largest piece in my collection. I spotted it from about four feet away.

This piece is the only one I've found in this shade of green, it is quite different. I really wonder what it came from.

Largest and smallest

Almost 4 oz. in my Mason jar

The End.