Crystal Steckel
Welcome!
BIO
AGE: 26
EDUCATION: BS in Biology, Spring Arbor University
HOMETOWN: Corpus Christi, TX…Currently living in Southern Cali
ENJOYS: Surfing, SCUBA diving and snorkeling, hiking, sports, sushi, good conversation, reading….and pretty much anything that mandates being out of doors….
THINGS I’VE TRIED, ENJOYED AND WOULD LIKE TO BE BETTER AT: Speaking Spanish, Climbing, Relationships, Snowboarding, Photography, Creativity
CURRENTLY READING: If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?, Acts, Black Like Me, and Sand County Almanac. I just finished Serve God, Save the Planet…I highly recommend it!
CURRENTLY IN CD PLAYER: I’m actually listening to www.pandora.com on my computer
CURRENTLY CHEERING FOR: The Astros, of course, who else?
CURRENT FAVORITE QUOTES:
“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“I hope they never find out that lightning has a lot of vitamins in it, because do you hide from it or not?” ~Deep Thought by Jack Handey
Crystal Steckel's Blog
Enemies? / Mar 13, 05:03 PM
Lately I’ve had a song stuck in my head. Here are the lyrics to that song. If you read no other part of this blog, read the last two stanzas at least.
My Enemies Are Men Like Me
By Derek Webb
I have come to give you life
and show you how to live it
I have come to make things right
to heal their ears and show you how to forgive them
Because I would rather die
I would rather die
I would rather die
than to take your life
how can I kill the ones I supposed to love?
my enemies are men like me
I will protest the sword if it’s not wielded well
my enemies are men like me
PEACE BY WAY OF WAR IS LIKE PURITY BY WAY OF FORNICATION
IT’S LIKE TELLING SOMEONE MURDER IS WRONG
AND THEN SHOWING THEM BY WAY OF EXECUTION
WHEN JUSTICE IS BOUGHT AND SOLD JUST LIKE WEAPONS OF WAR
THE ONES WHO ALWAYS PAY ARE THE POOREST OF POOR
To Be or Not To Be....Vegetarian that is.... / Feb 22, 04:24 PM
If I were to tell everyone that I was considering being vegatarian, I think many of you would be shocked. As most of you know, I love me some food….especially a nice, fat, juicy and delicious steak…mmmmm…my mouth is watering just thinking about it! So why on earth would I even allow the thought of herbivory(is that even a word?) to cross my mind???
Well, many of you also know that I’m pretty passionate about social and environmental justice as well, and I think my love for people and nature out weighs the love I have for food. Don’t understand? Please, let me explain. Currently about 2 billion people on earth live on a meat-based diet, which means about 4 billion people are living on a plant based diet, and of those 4 billion about 3 billion are malnourished. Do you think it’s the choice of all 4 billion of those people to be vegetarian (and those 3 billion to be malnourished)? I think not. According to research done, it is required for that number of people to be vegetarian in order for the rest of us to be meat eaters. To me, that just doesn’t seem fair. It’s kind of like sitting in a restaurant and walking over to someone else’s table and stealing the meat off their plate. Not very nice now is it?
There’s also the issue of environmental sustainability and the fact that if we continue to consume the amount of meat that currently consume, the earth would be pretty destitute in a couple of decades or so. Just a quick statistic…about 50% of all American land is used for food production (not to mention all the land we use in other countries, just to feed ourselves). Unfortunately this land can’t continue to produce the way it’s been forced to. Land can be overused and driven to the point or non use. There’s already several cases of this in the US alone. Not to mention animal cruelty issues…..two more subjects I could write a whole other blogs about as well….
My roommate, Gaby and I have kind of had ongoing discussion about this issue. What are some ways that we can help? Well, if most Americans (and other people in highly developed nations) were to cut a couple or three pieces of meat out of their diet every week, there would be a little more to go around, and probably a few less malnourished people. Besides, at least in my case, I could use a few extra servings of fruits and veggies in my diet. Gaby is much braver than I. She has already made the leap into herbivory. Kudos to her! :) So, what’s holding me back you ask? Mostly selfishness….and my love for food…. :( I also am trying to do some research about ways of replacing the protein I’m not consuming in meat in my diet. I’m still training for half marathons and other races and don’t want to do anything that might cause harm to the bod, ya know? So, if any of you have any ideas, thoughts, research or info you’d like to share regarding that, protein from non meat sources please, do share…..
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A New Approach to Homelessness? / Feb 19, 12:56 AM
L.A. County and many of the surrounding counties here in southern California have some of the highest homeless populations in the country. LA county, alone, has more homeless than the cities of Chicago, Philadelphia and New York combined! That statistic doesn’t even take in to account the surrounding areas. I’m not really sure what that’s attributed to, the warm weather year round, the high cost of living out here…I’m sure there’s any number of theories on why. Needless to say when I first moved out here I was incredibly overwhelmed by the homelessness seen everywhere (cities, suburbs even the rural areas). It all seemed very hopeless….
Recently, however, I heard of a city (actually a suburb of LA) that is taking action. Trying something that has rarely, if ever, been tried. The city of Ontario has set aside a portion of land for homeless people to take residence on! The city itself is calling this area a “rest area” for people, and have collected donated tents to set up for people to live in. They’ve also provided running water and toilet facilities, and since many homeless people tend to suffer from some sort of mental illness, the city is sending counselors/therapists to meet with people all throughout the week!
As far as food goes, churches and other local organizations come in throughout the week as well to provide meals. There is also one church who has been bringing in portable shower facilities a couple times a week. What a beautiful example of a community pulling together to provide for other’s who are in need! There has been little resistance within the community to this idea, and many are trying to come up with even better ways to help out this rapidly growing “Tent City” community.
I can’t say for sure that this is the best way to handle homelessness. I don’t think anyone can say “yea” or “nay” about that for sure, but, I do know that it’s exciting to see a community making effort, and trying new ways to combat homelessness. It gives me hope!
Here’s a link to an article about “Tent City”:
http://www.hoanewsnetwork.com/media/news/tent-city-in-ontario-offers-shelter-services.php
There’s also a couple of videos produced by some of the organizations that are working on site with people. If you go to You Tube and type in “tent city-ontario” you should run across some of them.
Thanks for taking the time to read some of my ramblings!
It is finished..... / Jan 7, 01:59 PM
....the half marathon, that is. Yesterday was the big day! And despite the slighty cold and rainy weather it went really well! I was having doubts before the race began that I’d be able to make it to the end, but during the race never felt better. I even beat my personal goal of 10 minute miles, and ended up with a pace of about 9:15 minute miles, making my final race time 2hrs. 1min. and 20 sec. I think the energy of people and fans helped keep me going to the end. Here is a pic of me after the race with a couple of my good friends, Gaby and Gabe, who woke up SUPER early to stand in the cold and drizzle to come cheer me on!
Thanks to all of you as well for following me through these 12 weeks of training and for your prayer and financial support! Even though the race is over, I’ll continue blogging about life in general. I invite you all to continue to read! Feel free to donate to Mission Year at any time as well. :)
Looking forward to a great '08! / Jan 3, 02:33 PM
Happy New Year to all! I trust everyone is hopeful at the onset of this new year. :) I know that I have a sense of excitement as this new year begins. There are a lot of aspects of my life that I feel are up in the air when I look ahead in the year, which make me feel a bit nervous, but more excited to see how it will all unfold.
The first big adventure I have coming up is my half marathon! I can’t believe it’s already that time…only 3 short days away…and I have to be honest, I’m quite nervous. I’ve been training, but it’s proven to be incredibly challenging through the craziness of traveling and the holidays and what not. The training program I was following only took me up to ten miles. They say that if you can run ten during training, you can run 13.1 on race day. I’ve completed ten on a couple of different occasions, so hopefully what they say is true! If you think about it, shoot a prayer up for me. The race is on Sun. morning at 7 am, and it looks like it might be a rainy day, so pray that there won’t be any severe injuries or sicknesses as a result!
Thanks for following me through this training process and for your prayer and financial support! I’ll let you all know how the actual race goes…..
