* Michelle Thoughts

Time: Voluntary Simplicity cont.

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Chapter 4: Do  You Have the Time?

“Our task is to balance the many roles we play and refrain from volunteering to understudy everybody else’s.  It can be tough to say no, especially to causes we recognize as worthy.  The goal is to realize that, since we can’t help with everything, our time and stamina need to go into what truly speaks to our hearts.”

“The time you spend preserving your health  is like time invested in a savings account: you’ll get it back plus interest.”

“How much time do you choose to spend with electronic companionship?” (i.e. TV, internet, video games)

“If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert and a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of doing these things joyfully. With the cup in my hands, I will be thinking about what to do next, and the fragrance and flavor of the tea, together with the pleasure of drinking it, will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment. The time of dish-washing is as important as the time of meditation.”

Time is an interesting subject for all of us, I think.  As someone who is “a planner” and an “achiever,” I am constantly spending my thoughts on the future.  Pushing forward,  working toward, planning ahead. It’s a struggle to be present to the moment I’m in. Our time is such a precious thing because it passes without hesitation, like a strong current, and it doesn’t come back. Am I spending my limited time on what I’m passionate about? Am I using my limited time to invest in meaningful relationships or in TV shows? Am I joyful with what I’m doing now or am I always looking to the next thing?

* Jedd Thoughts

“The Challenge” Update: Review of Week 1

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Mount_Everest

They say that after doing P90X for 90 days that you’ll be in shape to climb  Mt. Everest. Great. While I doubt that is true, it still sounds cool. That’s definitely not the goal though. Anyways, week 1 has come and gone, still feeling good, and still able to get up early to work out. Here’s some thoughts after the week:

1. It is kind of a luxury to “work out” –  To find the time to work out is difficult, especially if you are working a typical 8-5. You either have to work out before or after work and depending on your commute and other commitments, this can be tough.

2. Set realistic goals – For many of the work outs I can’t do each exercise. In fact I have to take many breaks while the people on the video plow through. I think the most important thing I learned from Michelle is to not give up and just jump back in when you can. I’ve often just given up but this week, knowing I have 83 more days to go, I just have to believe that you start slow and get better and better.

3. Results are slow and steady – I keep asking Michelle if she sees any noticeable results to which of course she just laughs. I’ve only done 7 days (not to mention haven’t changed too much of my eating habits). What do I expect to see??? I will tell you this though, I feel stronger, more flexible, and overall just better in general. I’m hurting on the days after but I just see that as a sign that I’m working decently hard enough.

4. Yoga, totally sucks and is super awesome all at the same time – I would like to apologize to all the people I made fun of for doing Yoga. It’s the hardest part of the program and probably one of the most beneficial. If you haven’t tried any type of Yoga, I strongly suggest it.

Well….7 days down, 83 days to go. Thanks for the encouragement and support, especially to those of you who understand that by 9pm these days I’m wiped and not going to be a good contributing member of society at that point. If you are following along with the P90x schedule, note that it’s the same as last week

* Michelle Thoughts

Voluntary Simplicity

mcmeeshi

image_previewThis is the title of a short discussion course by the Northwest Earth Institute I recently got to participate in with some college students.  Even if you can’t participate in a discussion group at some point, I highly recommend the reading materials for Voluntary Simplicity (which you can order off their website). I can’t think of a better way to express the things I’ve learned from this course than offering a few quotes from the book to speak for themselves.

Chapter 1: The Meaning of Simplicity

“Simple living is about making deliberately thoughtful choices. The difference is that you are fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully.”

“Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.” Simone de Beauvoir

Chapter 2: Living More With Less

“Americans today [compared to the 1950’s] own about twice as many cars per person, eat out more than twice as often, and commonly enjoy big screen color TVs, microwave ovens, home computers, air conditioning, Post-it notes, and gobs of other goodies. Materially, these are the best of times. … Since 1957, the number of Americans who say they areimage_thumb ‘very happy’ has declined slightly, from 35 to 30 percent. We are twice as rich and no happier. Meanwhile, the divorce rate has doubled, the teen suicide rate has more than doubled, and increasingly our teens and young adults are plagued by depression.  … We were excelling at making a living but too often failing at making a life. We celebrated our prosperity but yearned for purpose.”

To be continued…

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates

The Challenge (P90X)

simplyintentional

lightbulb idea For many of you who know me, you know that I am an idea guy. While some of my ideas are pretty creative (at least I think they are) and some might be considered good or even great, I do have a pretty good streak of idiotic or crazy ideas. This “Challenge” is probably one of them.

What is the “Challenge”?: Starting Monday, November 9th 2009 to Monday, February 7th, 2010 I will be doing the lean version of the P90X workout plan. Essentially, everyday, I am committing to workout for about an hour a day. Many of you might be thinking, “Meh, what’s so hard about that?” For you, maybe not so hard, for me, definitely a challenge:

1. Time: Many people don’t work out, simply because of time…an hour a day (at least) is a pretty big commitment. With commuting each morning, work, and then weekends usually busy, just finding some down time is a struggle already. Finding the time to work out, to add another hour of committed time is going to be difficult. Right now, it’s looking like early morning workouts or right after dinner….

2. Motivation: I wish I could just say that I would like to be healthy. Sadly, that’s not good enough motivation for me. It should be. It isn’t. For this challenge, Michelle and I have put into place personal incentive to motivate me. Of course, proving to myself that this is something I can accomplish is huge (remember, I couldn’t even do my pushups and situps challenge everyday for a month). Finally, the health and looks benefit is icing on the cake (I’m hoping after this I’ll feel and look better) :).

3. Finally, the “Challenge” is a test of discipline, which most of you know is something that I lack. As an idea person, when one idea fails, you just think of something else to replace it. I never really thought that I had a problem, but after meeting, falling in love, and marrying an amazing woman who thrives on discipline, it dawned on me (another idea/thought) that maybe there was a lot to life that I was missing out on simply because I never followed through, I didn’t take the right approach, or simply, I just gave up. As a team we were able to finish two half-marathons in the last two years, feats that I never thought, ever, that I could accomplish or do (in the years prior, the longest run I did was a mile and a half in high school).

So, I could really use your support during these next couple of months. Hold me accountable, ask me how I am doing. I promise you, we will post results. Heck, if you have P90x and want to do the program with me, here is what the first three weeks look like:

Monday: Core

Tuesday: Cardio

Wednesday: Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper

Thursday: Yoga X

Friday: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper

Saturday: Kenpo

Sunday: Stretch

For those of you who don’t have it, you can search for it on You Tube, get a copy, or even just commit to working out each day for 90 days. Either way, the “Challenge” (really not as dramatic as I am making it) has begun….

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates

Lost, Glee, and P90X: a life update

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NXi5Bg

gleep90x_3

So I’m on the road for work and Michelle has reminded me that it’s been awhile since i’ve last posted. Since i’ve already caught up with all the LOST episodes in the last two months,  can’t watch GLEE anymore because it reminds me too much of my high school experience (see the video post that Nick posted on my FB profile), and I’m gearing up for my P90X challenge (which means i’m enjoying being lazy this week), I’ve decided to use the TV episode theme to catch you up on what has been going on with us.

It’s been a crazy last couple of months in the Chang household. Let’s recap this last season (pun intended) shall we?:

Episode 1 – Co-Housing with the Kerr’s and the Le’s:   As Michelle and I transitioned from on-campus living to “what the heck should we do, real world living” we were fortunate to be taken in by amazing friends and we found how amazing living with others truly is.* Fore shadow alert

Episode 2 – Jedd gets two new jobs?: After leaving employment at a small private university in Portland, I was fortunate to be taken under the wing by branding manager guru Andy ofRelevant Studios and was able to do some creative marketing. I loved it, but sadly needed to find something full time and was blessed to be hired at a large public university in Portland. Needless to say, work has been great  (both the people I work with and what I do) but my only complaint is still the 8-5pm schedule. I have a new goal in life to find away that everyone can be on flexible work schedules….

Episode 3 – To buy or not to buy a house:  To learn more about this episode, check Michelle’s post here. Long story short, no house, better understanding of who we are and what we want.

Episode 4 – Where do we live now and in the future: So two big things here that are very different and very relevant (no pun intended this time). Channeling my wife’s direct and concise communication style, we have decided to look into possibilities of serving and living abroad (out of country) for awhile(meaning at least a couple of months, preferably, a couple of years). This has affected the second thing, looking for a flexible housing situation. We have moved back to the Kerr’s (I told you from the co-housing fore shadow) but are still looking for a future home. More importantly, we are focused (at least trying) and being intentional about looking at future possibilities (if you know of any, please let us know). If you could please keep this in your thoughts and prayers we would greatly appreciate it.

Episode 5 – The holiday challenge: About three years ago, I made a deal/bet to do push-ups and sit-ups everyday with my friend Cory for the month (which was dumb because he thrives on disciplined challenges, while I, have no discipline). He won in convincing fashion. Needless to say, Michelle has slowly taught me to believe that I can be more disciplined, so….I’m doing a 90 day, P90X challenge. I’ll give you more details in the next couple of days. I will need your support….

Future Episodes: Who knows….I recently told people that life seems to change so fast year to year. Than I’ve realized life changes fast month to month. Now it just seems daily that big things, life is constantly changing. Keep tuned in for more updates!

* Life Updates, * Michelle Thoughts

Values: Choosing Freedom

mcmeeshi

I read a quote once that went something like: “it’s not hard to make a decision when you know what your values are.”  It is not enough to say that you value something.  The true test of what you value is in how you spend your time, your money, and your energy.  When faced with a difficult choice, we have to weigh what is truly important to us.  Sometimes when we haven’t stopped to think about what really matters, to think through our values intentionally, we make choices based on whatever strikes our fancy at the time.  While this may not be such a horrible thing every once in a while, we do have to consider that the path we take in life is made up of choices.  Sometimes a single choice can drastically alter the course of our lives, for the better or for the worse.  Other times, it’s the small, seemingly meaningless choices that add up over time, quietly forming habits that shape our future.  Either way, in knowing our values and holding fast to them, we can be intentional about our choices, and in fact, the whole course of our lives.

Jedd and I recently had a head-on confrontation with our values.  columbiaThe choice in front of us was that of buying a house.  At first, the values that came into play were not only financial (how much of our income and savings we were willing to sacrifice to own a property) but also what kind of environment we’d like to live in.  As we often tend to do, we seemed to have opposite views on these subjects only to find out later that deep down, we both wanted the same thing.

We determined that we value being able to host friends, to use our car as little as possible in getting to work, and things like that.  We looked at some condos because the more space we have, the more stuff we’ll “need” to fill it.    Having more stuff is one of the biggest pressures in our culture that is the hardest to fight, but one of our goals is that we’ll only buy things that we use on a regular basis.  Also, Jedd is helping me see that it is often more important to buy quality, durable items than whatever is cheapest in order to save money in the long run and to reduce the amount of needless waste.

Other values of ours that came into the house search were those of community and making a positive impact.  We found a great little house in a very unique community, a neighborhood that was once referred to as a “ghetto” and was intentionally restored.  The neighborhood includes privately-owned homes as well as rental units to allow for people of different income levels.  Various social service agencies, a Boys and Girls Club, and the Home Owner’s Association are present to offer community-building and support to people of diverse backgrounds.  The streets are active with children of all ethnicities- many of whom are from refugee families, single-parent households, etc.  While there are many difficult things about the neighborhood (mainly noise and safety), it’s a place we were very drawn to.  We felt we could be of use in this community, at the least as positive role models.  We considered buying the house as an investment in the community itself, more than in the property.  Sure, we could find somewhere safer, more private, more elegant, easier to live in- but we realized that’s not really what our values are about.

So you may be wondering why we haven’t bought this house.  The conditions were ripe- the economy was in our Jeddfavor.  Well, we came very close.  But it turned out that there was a complication in the closing process that caused us to step back and re-evaluate if we valued the house enough to hang in there.  It was another intense moment in our relationship where I was very unsettled and thought Jedd was on a completely different page about the situation.  But it wasn’t so.  We looked at our values.  Yes, we value investing in a community and being somewhere that challenges us to reach out.  Yes, we are committed to Portland long-term.  Yes, we would prefer for our monthly home payment to be invested into our own house rather than go into a landlord’s pocket.  But we’re two young, entrepreneurial people in the midst of life transitions.  Who knows what we will be doing in two years?  And we still have a lot of traveling and adventuring we want to do.  We concluded that although we’d love to be in that house some day, right now we value the “freedom to chmichelleange” even more.  Freedom to pick up and volunteer abroad, freedom to spend a short chapter of our lives doing something else, freedom to take an opportunity when it comes at us and not have to worry about being committed to a certain place or a mortgage payment.  We’ll sacrifice some rent payments to have those freedoms until we know we’re ready to really dig deep into a neighborhood and not be so mobile.

We will  be moving into a rental by the start of November that allows us both to commute without needing to drive.  If you’re in the area, we’ll likely have an “apartment warming” soon.  A big, heartfelt thanks to the Le’s who have graciously hosted us in their home for several months now!  We are blessed by their invaluable generosity and patience during this seemingly endless transition period.

* Michelle Thoughts

Comfortable

mcmeeshi

An excerpt from Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

“What are you doing right now that requires faith?”  That question affected me deeply because at the time I could think of nothing in my life that required faith.  I probably wouldn’t be living very differently if I didn’t believe in God; my life was neither ordered nor affected by my faith like I had assumed it was.  Furthermore, when I looked around, I realized I was surrounded by people who lived the same way I did.

Life is comfortable when you separate yourself from people who are different from you.  That epitomizes what my life was like: characterized by comfort.

But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable.  He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.

(See Isaiah 58:2-14)

This excerpt really hit home for me.  The people I’ve met in the Dominican Republic and Haiti showed me what it means to truly live with faith and trust in God every day.  It’s a challenge to live with that kind of trust when we have the means to “take care of ourselves” along with the temptation to keep ourselves safe above all else.  But is life supposed to be about being safe?  Do we really have the power to keep ourselves safe anyway?  What is “faith” if we never have to rely on God?

* Jedd Thoughts

Case of the Mondays(or Tuesdays): Reflections on Work

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Dream Job Its been awhile. Sorry. We really have meant to be better about posting (thanks for asking and checking) about what is going on, especially for those of you following. As the title indicates, two major things have happened recently for us. First, summer is officially over for us. Boo. Second, I (Jedd) have started a new job. 🙂 Commuting and working has given me some new thoughts that I wish to share but hope you share your thoughts too…

Jedd’s Reflections on Working:

1. It seems strange to me that many people’s dream job (including myself) is not to work. Let me re-phrase that. What I mean is that many of us (again, not everyone) works 40hrs (sometimes more) just so that one day, we don’t have to work. We work so we don’t have to work. I say cut out the middle man (if possible).

2. Time is money. Supposedly, the more time you spend working, the more money you make. However, I’ve come to value and love summers and free time so much that time seems to be more valuable than money for me. I’m trying to find that right balance where I’m getting paid a fair wage for the time I spend working but not work so much, not matter what the wage that I don’t get to enjoy life.

3. What is our purpose for working? I really had to think about this one. What is your purpose for working? Is it to make money, to afford a life style, to make a difference in the world, to do something with your time, etc…??? Purpose will usually dictate how we feel about our jobs. Without meaningful purpose, work can be, well…..work (reference Office Space for more examples of this).

4. We should as a country do one or all of the following things: invest in an hour each day for a siesta time, shorten the work week to Tuesdays-Fridays (everyone already hates Mondays so that will make people happy), or shorten the work day from 9am-4pm(with half-an-hour lunch).

5. The best type of work is engaging and refreshing. What I mean by this is that repetition in work may seem comfortable but always learning, always discovering is the best way to appreciate what one does versus dreading it.

* Michelle Thoughts

Low Car Diet #4

mcmeeshi

Photo 158I can’t believe I’m in the last week of the Zipcar challenge already!  Looking back, I see several contributing factors to my ability to go car-free.  One: location, location, location!  Living just 1.3 miles from work with no hills in the way makes it easy to bike or walk.  Two: summer season!  Doing this in the summer helps because the weather is not an obstacle and I’m not quite as busy, so I can take my time getting from one place to another.  Three: incentives!   Having something to work toward and the extra benefits that Zipcar has provided makes the challenge worthwhile.  In summation, as with many challenges in life, the way to set yourself up for success is to: remove obstacles and add benefits.