Saudades

Por Levi Araújo

Tenho saudades, não poucas.

Saudades projetadas em lugares diferentes,

lindos e arrebatadores, marcantes.

Tenho muitas saudades, não poucas.

Saudades projetadas em pessoas relevantes,

ídolos ou traidores em tempos insuficientes.

Tenho saudades, não poucas.

Saudades que unem lugares, pessoas, mentes,

amores e ódios de corações insanos e dementes.

Tenho saudades, não poucas.

Saudade de quem caminhou descrente

e por vezes seguiu confiantemente.

Tenho sempre muitas saudades.

Saudade da coragem de um “não pense”

e do resistir perseverantemente.

mal wieder chli jammärä

im Momämt sind d Nächt gar nid läss. Dä Levi wett sehr hüüfig trinkä, letscht Nacht all drü Stund   er trinkt dänn aber nid richtig, sondern schlaft nach paar Schlück wieder i. und hät dänn natürli gli wieder Hunger. also nid würkli erholsam. Aber d Hoffnig stirbt z Letscht und so alt isch er ja nanig. Hät ja na chli Ziit zum üebä durä schlafä  Sisch eifach chli Frust, wänn mir weiss er chöntis (hät ja mal viel länger am Stuck gschlafä) und rund um schlafäts durä. Zfür isch er nach wie vor am Tag äs Goldschätzli & total zfriedä – das laht d Nacht schnell vergässä

ändli hani ä Möglichkeit gfundä äs Föteli vom easy walker zmachä, wo mir beid gseht  

Camaradas,

Com a Graça de Deus, no próximo domingo festejaremos os SETE anos da Comunidade de Jesus.

Estar com os Pastores Gerson Borges, Eli Maia e Ivo Moreira e as suas preciosas famílias é sempre um refrigério para o coração.

Estar com os demais ministradores daquela Casa de Comunhão é sempre um renovo para a alma.

Aos amigos e amigas preciosos, meus parabéns!

E aceitem com toda a minha emoção a minha profunda gratidão.

Leiam novamente o que escrevi em MAIO de 2005, no auge do meu Inferno Pessoal.

Se não fora o Senhor em vocês nós estaríamos destruidos.

Valeu Manos!

COMUNIDADE DE JESUS. (09/03/05)

Por Levi Araújo

(mais uma homenagem aos meus ABBAS da Comunidade de Jesus que acolheram a mim e a minha família quando tudo parecia estar perdido)

Eles foram até onde eu não sabia que estava.

Encontraram-me com meus aleijos, demônios, lepras, mortes, febres, paralisias, gagueiras, hidropisias, surdez e gagueiras.

Receberam-me!

Consolaram-me nos desertos das tentações

E me convidaram para as festas das transformações

Alimentaram-me com multiplicações

Entre meus momentos de subtrações.

Envolveram-se!

Almoçaram e jantaram comigo mesmo eu sendo

Um Mateus, um Zaqueu, um Nicodemos, um Gadareno, uma Samaritana,

Um Barrabás, um Caifás, um Judas, uma Madalena….

Incluíram-me!

Nas minhas tempestades, ensinaram-me dormindo…

Em meus pavores, dúvidas e desequilíbrios,

fizeram-me andar sobre as águas.

Toda vez que afundei…, levantaram-me.

E diante de minhas desfigurações…, transfiguraram-se.

E voltei a desejar fazer cabanas!

Transcenderam-me!

Apontaram-me para lírios, viúvas, crianças,

Sementes, grãos, peixes, terra, árvores, ovelhas,

Pastores, dracmas, videiras, figueiras e corações.

Ensinaram-me!

Chamaram-me para fora de tanta coisa que nem sei…

Chamaram-me para fora para ser

Comunidade de Jesus!

Chamaram-me!

…and we’ve got the pictures to prove it!

Unfortunately our memory card crapped out on us and you’ll have to wait until Matthew gets home from work to see them!  Until then, here are the details about our little man!

18wks and 1 day (and his size proves it!)

9oz.

Heart rate was 152

and he is quite the little mover and shaker! He was everywhere! The ultrasound technician was chasing him all over my belly! We got some really good pictures of him, and he’s a charmer! We didn’t get any profile pictures because he was too busy looking right at us! We did get an awfully cute one of his legs crossed and what would be his tiny butt That was my favorite! He lays just like his Mommy! Matthew fell in love with him when she showed us his little heart beating and I had to tell him to quit shaking my legs so much cause I had to hold still! It was hard enough with how bad I had to pee and I kept giggling because I was so excited.

The other pictures are:

his little leg with tiny foot and toes included!

his arm and it looks like he’s flexing his muscle!

the proof that he is in fact a boy!

and body profile shot!

Needless to say we are in love with our little boy! I am super happy I can talk to my belly now and say Levi instead of baby! Matthew is over the moon! He even teared up a little and that melted my heart! So shower us with Congratulations because we love hearing them

Goodness, I’ve been spending so much time lounging around enjoying our new rights (Thanks again, Voters of Washington!), I forgot to write about our latest obsession.

Do you know who has the best restaurant recommendations in our household? It’s Levi. He has a great memory, a good sense of direction, friends/family who take him to interesting and diverse places, and a discerning palate. So if you need to find some place good or something specific, just ask him.

I’ve been complaining for months, maybe years, about a lack of vegetarian pho in Olympia. Everyone I have consulted has agreed with me – no veggie pho, or at least none worth mentioning. So, we would drive to Tacoma to eat at Nhu Thuy when the pho cravings were too powerful to resist. And then, one night when Krista was at work, Levi was like, “Can we get pho for dinner?” I reminded him there was no good veggie pho and I didn’t feel like driving to Tacoma, and he told me he found a place in Olympia. They have tofu pho with vegetarian broth, which is actually not even on the menu. The first time we went, the lady there was so sweet to us, asking how long we’d been vegetarians and complimenting us on our lifestyle choice. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often get that kind of response when I order vegetarian food. Since then, Pho Hoa has become a hotly anticipated biweekly treat. With thin slivers of onion, lots of basil, crunchy cold bean sprouts, lime juice and a some chili sauce, it’s the world’s most wonderful winter dinner.

Hüt sind mir zu dä Sandra go fötälä (sind bi ihrä scho gsi, wo dä Levi na im Buch gsi isch)   Mir händ Family Föteli und Jungs Föteli gmacht. Vorallem Levi Föteli, trotz Müedigkeit hät er’s super gmacht. Nu lachä hät er nid so wellä obwohl mir alles probiert händ und er ja sucht so viel lachät.  Sind scho total gspannä uf d Föteli – leider gahts sicher drü Wuchä bis mir all händ.

dä Levi isch so erschöpft gsi nacher, dass er grad Stundälang gschlafä hät, zerscht im Maxi cosi und dänn i dä Hängematte

Op-ed by Frank Rich

Frank Rich/The New York Times

New York Times/Frank Rich—AT last the American right and left have one issue they unequivocally agree on: You don’t actually have to read Sarah Palin’s book to have an opinion about it. Last Sunday Liz Cheney praised “Going Rogue” as “well-written” on Fox News even though, by her own account, she had sampled only “parts” of it. On Tuesday, Ana Marie Cox, a correspondent for Air America, belittled the book in The Washington Post while confessing that she couldn’t claim to have “completely” read it.

“Going Rogue” will hardly be the first best seller embraced by millions for talismanic rather than literary ends. And I am not recommending that others follow my example and slog through its 400-plus pages, especially since its supposed revelations have been picked through 24/7 for a week. But sometimes I wonder if anyone has read all of what Palin would call the “dang” thing. Some of the book’s most illuminating tics have been mentioned barely — if at all — by either its fans or foes. Palin is far and away the most important brand in American politics after Barack Obama, and attention must be paid. Those who wishfully think her 15 minutes are up are deluding themselves.

The book’s biggest surprise is Palin’s wide-eyed infatuation with show-business celebrities. You get nearly as much face time with Tina Fey and the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in “Going Rogue” as you do with John McCain. We learn how happy Palin was to receive calls from Bono and Warren Beatty “to share ideas and insights.” We wade through star-struck lists of campaign cameos by Robert Duvall, Jon Voight (who “blew us away”), Naomi Judd, Gary Sinise and Kelsey Grammer, among many others. Then there are the acknowledgments at the book’s end, where Palin reveals that her intimacy with media stars is such that she can air-kiss them on a first-name basis, from Greta to Laura to Rush.

Equally revealing is the one boldfaced name conspicuously left unmentioned in the book: Levi Johnston, the father of Palin’s grandchild. Though Palin and McCain milked him for photo ops at the Republican convention, he is persona non grata now that he’s taking off his campaign wardrobe. Is Johnston’s fledgling porn career the problem, or is it his public threats to strip bare Palin family secrets as well? “She knows what I got on her” is how he put it. In Palin’s interview with Oprah last week, it was questioning about Johnston, not Katie Couric, that made her nervous.

The book’s most frequently dropped names, predictably enough, are the Lord and Ronald Reagan (though not necessarily in that order). Easily the most startling passage in “Going Rogue,” running more than two pages, collates extended excerpts from a prayerful letter Palin wrote to mark the birth of Trig, her child with Down syndrome. This missive’s understandable goal was to reassert Palin’s faith and trust in God. But Palin did not write her letter to God; she wrote the letter from God, assuming His role and voice herself and signing it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.” If I may say so — Oy!

More @

Hüt sind mir mit äm Grosi & äm Grospi in Atzmänig uä. Dä Papi hät müessä schaffä   Isch ä schöni Gugelfuhr gsi – sind mit äm chliinä Auto gangä & s Grosi häts glaubs scho chli äng gha, zwüschät äm Rian & äm Levi

s hät ganz viel Attraktionä gha, uf äm Atzmänig und für alles hät mir müessä zahlä, ussert fürs Äntä aluegä nid     s Mami hät sich chli gnervt, so we d Grosseltärä vo paar Jahr hüt händs fliessig Gäldgwächslät  

dä Rian häts gnossä, hät chönä uf äm Karusell ä Rundi drähä & mit äm Grospi go Töff fahrä

Au dä Levi-Bär häts gnossä, im Ergo bim Mami, bim Grospi & uf äm Arm vom Grosi

It’s here and it’s causing quite an uproar. No full-frontals, but PlayGirl claims that it’s only the first set of pictures. So, there might be peen in the future. Click below for a relatively NSFW gallery.

Sorry for the recent scarcity of posts — the semester is winding down, and spare writing time will be pretty slim until mid-December. But in the meantime, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity…

In the 1930s, German cultural critic Walter Benjamin wrote an essay called “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”  In it, he talks about the loss of “aura” (authenticity, uniqueness) when art is reproduced and distributed en masse, appropriated by what fellow critic Theodore Adorno would call “the culture industry” for political or economic purposes, rather than aesthetic ones.

When that happens, has it ceased to be art (or literature)?

Bringing this debate up to the present, I recently came across an interesting discussion posted by Alexander Russo at This Week in Education: Poetry in Ads: Can We Live With It? and the related Levi’s Uses Rare Walt Whitman Recording To Sell Jeans. See video.

So does poetry lose its aura once it has been inculcated with a message for consumers?  I think there are several possible answers. On one hand, the advertisers are attempting to raise their product to the level of something artistic, powerfully American, and poetic. On the other hand, they are forging another link in the minds of consumers between art and consumption.

On one hand, they are acknowledging the power of the spoken word; on the other, they are, one could argue, debasing that power by employing a great poet to sell a pair of jeans. But then again, is this any different than hiring talented writers to inscribe Hallmark cards and magazine ads?

It’s worth considering. And to re-quote Seth Stevenson of Slate Magazine: “At least it’s not all about sex.”

Let me begin with the Levi update. There was a school-wide assembly where they acknowledged the kids with 4.0 GPAs, including ours! He came home and said, “I have good news for me, and bad news for your wallet.” Yes, we pay for A’s. I’d pay him to clean his room, too, if he would…

He also recently wrote the funniest book project for school. They had to create a whole newspaper based on a book, which is a pretty difficult project. His stories and advertisements were so clever and the illustrations were fantastic. He is definitely one of my favorite authors. Maybe someday he’ll bring the newspaper home & I can post part of it here. He got 130 out of 100 points available, and special recognition from his teacher in class for the quality of his newspaper.

The next school project he’s working on has something to do with black holes eating giant stars. No, seriously. We’ve been hunting down all the monster black hole resources that the library system has to offer. I think we’ve been to the library 3 times this week. I know about 1/20th as much as Levi already knows about black holes, so hopefully some of those resources are good.

Krista and I have been working on the house. Lately we’ve been spending a lot of time shopping for light fixtures. It’s hard to imagine what a light fixture would really look like in your house. We’ve made a solid effort at finding antique light fixtures, but have mostly been striking out. We found a spectacular light at an antique show in Puyallup a few weeks back, but it was way outside the budget. I have spent hours this week on Schoolhouse Electric, Rejuvenation, and Ebay. I have had some bad Ebay luck this week, but Krista has been successful, scoring a lot of antique black porcelain door knobs. She won more than we have doors in the house, so we can resell the extras to offset the (already very low) price. We are saving at least $100 on doorknobs thanks to her lucky win. Have I mentioned that every single door in our house is a different size? I don’t know enough about the house to even begin to guess how that happened, but with the new doorknobs, something is going to be consistent about our doors.

We finally found the best furniture arrangement for our living room, after spending several hours moving the furniture around and hanging out in all the different seats. All that time was well-spent. Every time I walk into the living room, I am overwhelmed by how much I love that room. Exciting stuff, I know. I estimate our house will be ready to show off around 2015.

I’m not a high maintenance type of person.  No, really, I’m not.  Stop laughing.  I appreciate the finer things in life, but where clothes are concerned my idea of “finer things” is a cozy LLBean sweater and some sturdy and comfy cowboy boots.  Quality over quantity and all that.

I’ve shared my affection for 518’s in the past, but I realized just how singularly devoted I’d become when I went into the Levi’s outlet a couple weeks ago.  An employee greeted me with “Hi can I help you find anything today?”

All I had to say was: “518’s”, and he pointed me in the right direction.   I grabbed a couple pairs of size 5’sand a couple pairs of size 7’s (I’m right between sizes; since every pair of jeans is slightly different I try to find longish biggish 5’s or smallish 7’s.), tried them on, and that was that.

Two pairs in hand, I headed to the checkout.

I was in and out of the store in 10 minutes.

This brings my total to seven pairs of 518’s, five that are in “wear out of the house” condition and two that probably aren’t.  I love these jeans.  I’m curvy, and the low rise accentuates them in all the right places (with absolutely no muffin top).   They’re amazingly comfy, and the quality is superb.  What’s not to love?

As far as jeans are concerned, me and my 518’s are NOT high maintenance.

(Let’s just not talk about “high maintenance” regarding tops and bras and shawls and shoes, mm’kay?)

"Ó SENHOR, quem é como tu entre os deuses?" Ex 15:11

Antigo Testamento

Acabe | Adão | Eva | Caim | Abel | Seth | Enos | Cainan | Jared | Henoch | Metusala | Lamech | Noé | Sem | Cam | Jafeth | Irad | Meujael | Metusael) Gomer | Magog | Madai | Javan | Tubal | Mesech | Asquenaz |Tarsis | Dodanim | Cush | Mizraim | Canaan |Nimrod | Patrusim |Caftorim | Sidon |Eber | Elam | Assur | Arfachad | Lud | Aram | Uz | Peleg |Uzal | Ofir |Nephilim | Baal |Basemate | Maalate |Bila | Elifaz | Reuel |Raquel | Lea | Ruben | Simeão | Levi | Judá | Issacar | Zebulom | José | Benjamim | Dã | Naftali | Gade | Aser | Tema | Amaleque |Zerá | Samá |Jónatas | Davi |

Veja também
Os patriarcas e profetas de Israel, nossos pais na fé

This past Sunday we discussed the calling of Levi by Jesus.

The question we walked away with as a challenge was, “How do we, as Christians, avoid sin but reach sinners?”

We were each challenged by the thought of reaching out to those around us and living a life of intentionality, rising above surface issues that tend to keep us as Believers, closed off.

We hope you can join us this Sunday in The Vintage Class.