Inspired by Good Ol’ Ben Franklin

*Glamorous shot of the back of my bathroom mirror*

Now, since summer is half-way to an end, I thought it was a good time to re-evaluate my summer goals and see how everything was coming along.

Goal 1: Learn how to play the guitar — uhh it’s coming

Goal 2: Become healthier — hmm, my sneakers are looking remarkably clean and what happened to that half of a batch of cookies? (I have no idea…)

Goal 3: Study the Bible, Catechism, and learn more about my faith — I’ve taking somewhat of a break from that…

Goal 4: Spend time with friends from back home and have a lot of fun! CHECK! ONE DOWN –WOOOOHOOOO!

Now, about the rest of those goals…Since I forgot about them for the past couple weeks, I have created a system to keep me on track. I will try and do those little things on the post-its each day for a week and when I can go for a whole week I will re-evaluate the goals and either keep them or create a new related goal for the following week. I was inspired by Benjamin Franklin who created a list of virtues to be completed each day and a very impressive list at that (check out this awesome blog-post for more information: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/02/24/lessons-in-manliness-benjamin-franklins-pursuit-of-the-virtuous-life/). Over time, he found that he could go for longer without marking on his daily calendar a failed attempt at practicing a virtue. Moral of the story: stay strong!

I also listed my goals under 3 headings — Body, Spirit, and Soul — because each I believe should be in harmony. The Body section is included because a healthy body helps you handle stress better and thus react well to others; also, these things will help me prepare for my half-marathon! The Spirit section is a little more loosely defined (by me) as related to fun hobbies, like learning how to play the guitar! The Soul section is reserved for those ways in which I want to grow in my faith.

This has been really helpful to me, because they are little things for each day and then I don’t get overwhelmed by trying too much at once (since it’s only 3 things!). Also, having it written down and posted right in my bathroom where I’m bound to see it every morning and night is a good reminder.

Best of luck with your summer goals! And thanks Ben for the helpful advice!

Yours truly,

GWA

Week 4 (Genesis 5-11) — Justice & Mercy…and swimming lessons

 

*Daisy as a puppy– isn’t she such a cute little fur ball! And with a pink nose–just like Rudolph*

Once upon a time, there was an adorable Australian shepherd puppy named Daisy and Daisy thought she’d like to learn how to swim. One blustery fall morning, her owner (yours truly) looked out the window and saw that Daisy was paddling for dear life in our pool. Even though she’d been yelled at countless times before not to go in the pool, Daisy jumped right in when we weren’t looking. My mom raced to the pool, saved Daisy, and quickly brought her inside to dry off. From that day forward, Daisy was carefully watched on her trips to the backyard and her relationship with us–and the pool–was forever changed.

Of course, things had to change — we couldn’t just forget that Daisy almost drowned herself out of sheer excitement to go swimming and that she didn’t always remember what we said. And yet, we didn’t bring her to the pound — also another given because we love Daisy (I mean how many times have I mentioned her in my blog posts). There was justice (things had to change according to what she did) and mercy (my mom saved her life and we love our dog).

Now this, at least in my mind, relates to Genesis chapters 5-11. In these chapters, we see that God treats Adam and Eve with exceptional mercy after they blatantly disobey Him. Even though (according to their original agreement) Adam and Eve will die from eating the fruit, He promises that they will have many descendants. And not only that, but that from now on there will be a great fight between the children of Adam and Eve and the serpent — a fight that as we will see, will continue. In other words, Adam and Eve will have to leave the garden and will no longer be immortal, but this is not the end of the story.

And wait–there’s more! This mercy continues with the story of Cain and Abel. Prior to the murder, God sees Cain’s envy and says:

“Sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.” Gen 4:7

God warns Cain and gives him the opportunity to change–just as He gives us all the opportunity  to control our demons. Even after Cain kills Abel, God puts a mark on Cain, as he begged, so that no one will kill him. Cain even goes on to marry and have children — now that is great mercy!

Then with the Noah story, we see that though God saw the evil in people, He did not destroy all of them, but saved Noah and his family. And from that moment onward, He establishes a covenant with His people and hangs up His bow — a sign of peace.

However, years later (once many people have again covered the Earth) it seems that the people in the Tower of Babel story don’t trust that God will keep this covenant and so they try to build a tower so great that God will have to come down and take notice (which He does.) The exact reasoning for building the tower is this:

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” Gen 11:4 

Whose going to scatter them? It could be they are referring to other people taking their land by force, but it seems to be as if they are saying, “let’s show God how powerful we are so that He won’t try that Great Flood business again and scatter us all over the *expletive* earth.” If you find yourself having a hard time with learning how to trust in and remain faithful to God, you’re not alone — it’s been an issue with humans since the beginning.

Again and again and again, God shows his mercy and justice. Why?! Because if you’re not a little frustrated with people already and asking this question, I’d encourage you to really think about this story and reflect on its truthfulness. Do you ever fail to be grateful for what you have? Meet Adam and Eve. Do you ever feel envy, even when you know you shouldn’t? Meet Cain. Do you ever feel like you have to prove yourself to others — another way of saying, that you can’t trust God and the way that He created you? Meet the architects of the Tower of Babel. How similar these stories are to our everyday lives…

…and how amazing it really is that God hasn’t destroyed all of humanity — so amazing that there are only three possible solutions to this mystery of human existence as portrayed in the Old Testament — 1) These stories are untruthful and completely ridiculous so let’s just abandon trying to make any sense of God’s relationship with people (…and yet, they are such an accurate portrayal of human existence), or 2) God is psychotic and just wants to torture humans (…and yet, why put in all the effort time after time to save, help, and care for humans), or 3) God loves us, as crazy and imperfect as we all are and that there is truth to these stories.

Whether we relate more to Adam and Eve, Cain, or the Babel-ites (??), God will treat us with justice and the mercy of a second-chance to redeem ourselves with His help–after all the majority of the problem lies in thinking that we can do it (insert whatever it might be) on our own.

Yours truly,

GWA

*In case you were wondering why this is week 4, I think it’s best to do this section after reading the Catechism post for Week 3 that I’ll put up tomorrow, but I wanted to do this one first. I’m keeping you in my prayers (and please keep me in yours!)

My BFE’s (best friends for eternity)–the Saints

“Faith is a personal act — the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 166 “We Believe”

Faith is hard. I mean consider the stories of the saints — many of them had incredibly painful deaths, suffered great emotional and physical hardships, and had moments in their lives of doubt, uncertainty, or feelings of isolation from God. One of my favorite saints (my confirmation saint in fact — whoop-whoop!) is St. Teresa of Avila who not only faced opposition from people in the towns in which she and her sisters lived, but also from some in the Catholic Church. Her mother died when she was young, she suffered bouts of ill health, and had to deal with plenty of bullies. And yet (!) she believed, and we remember her life and pray for her intercession (for those of you uncertain of what that means–basically a saint is praying for you) because we believe that she is in heaven now, chilling with God.

Now, the reason I bring this up is this week I was reminded of my humanity in a variety of different ways. I had mornings when I was incredibly tired, I had moments at work when I was completely tongue-tied (and my job requires a lot of public speaking), I was impatient and grouchy, and the list goes on and on. We all have those lists — all our imperfections and our weaknesses (the things you don’t exactly post on facebook). But that is the great thing about faith — we are not alone in dealing with our humanity! First of all we have God, second of all we have saints praying for us in heaven, and third of all we are surrounded by saints here and now because we are all called to be saints — as unlikely as that may seem when you are impatient, difficult, and selfish (aka Monday Morning Syndrome).

Being a saint is not about being perfect — it’s about recognizing we aren’t perfect, asking for forgiveness, and moving forward (for inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_eKV3SzwE from Meet the Robinsons, a recent Disney classic).

So keep on moving forward and remember that you have a whole bunch of people praying for you right now! I’ll keep you in my prayers as I hope you’ll keep me in yours!

Yours truly,

GWA

As an addition, here are some of my favorite blogs! Your community of BFE’s just got a little bit bigger.

http://youngandcatholic.net/

http://frontporchrepublic.com

http://lifeteen.com

http://www.abbyjohnson.org/pregnant/ (I purposefully picked this page, because it was so beautifully written!)

http://edmundmitchell.com/2012/06/18/all-hipsters-eventually-become-catholic/ (hilarious and thoughtful post — makes me want to add “Gregorian chant” to pandora)

Week 2 (Genesis 1-3) — Trust

“marathons are all about overcoming obstacles and doing something heroic, and I believe all of our finishers felt an even greater sense of accomplishment than they would have in less trying conditions”

— Peter Abraham, http://www.runblogrun.com/2011/03/2011-honda-la-marathon-redux-interview-with-peter-abraham-by-larry-eder.html

Holy crap. That was my first thought when I google imaged “running a marathon” and google suggested “…in the rain.” As if running a marathon wasn’t daunting enough–as if running a mile wasn’t daunting enough–let alone in the rain!

See the thing is, running a marathon is heroic–it takes real strength to dedicate yourself for months (perhaps a year even) to train for a marathon, let alone run it. It requires you to trust that your sacrifice now will benefit you later, which is very difficult to do in the moment, especially when later is months away. Remaining constant to a task is exactly my weak point — which is why I’m training for a half-marathon next February. And it has not been easy — and I have fallen (metaphorically and literally) many a time and had to start my training regime again…and again…and again.

So as I was about to go to bed, I realized that this is EXACTLY related to Genesis 1-3. The basic issue with Adam and Eve is that they don’t trust in God. And trust is directly related to constancy.

At this point you might be saying to yourself, what in the world is she talking about. Well, in a nutshell, in the Bible there are two Creation accounts–in the first, God created the Earth and everything in it and saw that all of it was GOOD. This is key because for me, there are plenty of times in the day when all I notice are my flaws and am not grateful enough for all that I am (which is created in the image and likeness of God, like all of you lovely readers). In the next story, God has a much more personal relationship with people and we see Adam and Eve talking and walking with God. There is complete trust and openness between them, until the serpent comes in and convinces Eve that God is holding out on her. In an instant, she loses trust in God (and let’s not forget how easily Adam was convinced as well). Instead of remaining constant, it is as if they both give up on the marathon when they are so close to the end, when they’ve already made it so far, because why put in the effort when there is this easy way out…and when it’s started raining…and everyone has been saying all along “Are you crazy?! Why are you running a MARATHON?!?” (I ask myself this every day)

See the thing is, unlike the animals that God created, God explicitly created Adam and Eve in His image, therefore they have free will, which means they will always have to be choosing between the easy and the hard road. Life is not easy and there are plenty of times when it seems easier in the moment to do something that goes against what you believe. For a quick example, look at the success rates of people’s New Years Resolution lists. Or talk to any college student facing the multitude of pressures of school-work, the cost of college, the decisions he or she must make for determining a major and career (which hopefully pays well and is enjoyable), and balancing all of that with our basic human need to be in relationship with others (after all, it was not good for Adam to be alone). As a college student and just as a person, you have to make a million decisions all the time which either build up or tear down your character. Do you give the cashier the correct amount of money when he forgot to charge you for something you bought or do you pretend you didn’t notice? Do you write that last-minute paper in an academically honest way or do you cut corners? Do you act differently to impress a hot guy or stay true to what you believe in, even if that means he won’t like you? Do you keep to your half-marathon training regime or watch hours of Parks and Recreation and eat cookies (although, I think there is some middle ground here–perhaps one could train while watching Parks and Recreation and then eat a healthy cookie afterwards).

The point being, we all have the same types of choices to make as Adam and Eve did. Will we trust that our hard work of remaining true to our character (respecting the dignity God gave us) will ultimately pay off or will we chip away at our character. I mean how familiar does Adam and Eve’s response sound when they’re found out: “the snake told me to do it…/Eve told me to do it…” There is always some “good enough” reason to chip away at our character because we so easily lose trust in God and in the value of remaining constant.

All of this is coming from someone who has become inconstant many a time and I’m not here to say that it’s going to be easy or that you will immediately get your recompense for remaining true to your character. But I will say this — others notice and will remember how you acted. Let alone, you will remember and it’s better to be able to look yourself in the eye and honestly say you remained true.

You ran a marathon in the rain like a bad-ass. Take that serpent.

Yours truly,

GWA

Musings on Chocolate

“Or more accurately, I saw the common things drawn into the bright shadow.”

C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Now based on my title, you’re probably thinking I’m referring to chocolate’s role in every food product, because let’s be honest, chocolate makes everything taste better (salt and butter also play an important role here). However, a good baker knows that every ingredient counts and that even something simple and ordinary like oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter, and cinnamon should not be over-looked.

After all, most often in life, it’s the ordinary things that take up most of our time — washing our clothes, doing the dishes, scheduling doctors appointments…Especially in college, it can be easy to get in a trap of a tightly scheduled day, in which free time for thought is devoted to figuring out our next activity just so that we can keep up with the work-load. As a result, it can be really easy to over-look this ordinary time and push happiness, God, and thoughts about a greater meaning to our lives to another day–an ideal day when we have the free time or are confronted with the extraordinary. To keep the metaphor going, we can look forward to adding the chocolate to the cookies and overlook the ordinary oatmeal/peanut butter glue that holds them together (I know, I know–I’ll provide the recipe below).

But if we do that, we miss out on a lot of hidden beautiful moments. For example, we tune out the world while on the subway, instead of seeing the love an elderly couple sitting nearby has for each other; we choose to go to bed and catch up on much needed sleep, instead of comforting a friend in need; or we go through our mental lists of what we need to do to “improve ourselves” instead of realizing how much we have to be grateful for at this moment.

I love how in this quote, C.S. Lewis said that he found God (even before he realized that he had found God) when he had the transformative experience of being able to see the ordinary world around him as incredibly beautiful and full of miraculous occurrences.  I dare you to appreciate the oatmeal in your cookie of life (I’m laughing at myself for this metaphor) in addition to the chocolate.

Yours truly,

GWA

And now the recipe! Note that these cookies have already been devoured by my family members (and myself) and are SOOOOOO good (and healthy!)

http://www.theskinnyfork.com/blog/2013/3/18/healthy-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies

Bible Study — Week 1

So I’ve gotten a little behind in my Bible-Catechism study — I do apologize — but here is the first installment from Week 1 — Read the first two chapters of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Now, I had never read the Catechism before, just bits and pieces, but so far all is going well! I’ve found that it’s answering questions I had at various points in my life, but never put in the energy to ask–which is pretty cool!

I just thought I’d pick out a thought I had on one of my favorite parts (and progress with the Bible study as such). Now, of course I found it hard to just pick one quote, so I picked my top 3.

Week 1 — Prologue & The Profession of Faith

1) Prologue, I: “The Life of Man — To Know and Love God: God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.” [1] — Wow, that just summed up 2,000 years of Christianity (not to mention Jewish tradition) real fast — and beautifully! But not only that, I really love this quote because it helps me to stay focused on a greater meaning to life than finding a well-paying job, gaining prestige and acclaim, or becoming a “perfect” person (as if such a thing even exists).

2) Part 1, Section 1: “Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life.” [26] — Faith is about searching for ultimate meaning in one’s life and finding not just any meaning — any light — but a superabundant light 

3) Part 1, Article 3, II: “Still the Christian faith is not a religion of the book. Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living.” If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the Living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures” [108] — (Quotes: first–St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4, 11: PL 183, 86; second–Lk 24:45) — A living Word to be realized at every time and in every place — this is why we have the Bible and Tradition

*Note: the emphasized parts of the quotes are mine*

So these are just little snippets of the first 40 some pages of the Catechism–enjoy reading!

Yours truly,

GWA

Oh It’s Just Music

Or is it?? I find myself saying that — oh I like the beat of the song, but the words are pretty crappy, or I don’t really listen to the lyrics, it’s just so catchy! Now, not to get you wrong, a song should have a good beat and be catchy, but words are really powerful and I’ve found that some music, without me even realizing it, can really change my mood — make me more aggressive when driving, sorta tense/frustrated feeling after I finish the song, or just left feeling empty. That’s not good music, and I am done subscribing to sub-par “catchy”-“good-beat” music.

Now I think one of the great joys of life is driving with the windows down and singing at the top of your lungs to your favorite song (note–this is usually accompanied by incredibly embarrassing dancing, but since I’ve gone to college, I could care less whose watching me) Seriously, I think if you’re not dancing to the music you are listening to, something is not right.

So, I’ve become pickier with the music I listen to — I only want music with lyrics that will inspire me, bring me peace, and make me want to dance. These songs have been tested by myself to do all of the above — and since every person is a little different, some might not be your favorite, but I hope this gets you thinking about what you listen to. I think good music should make you feel just plain ol’ happier after you listen to it and these songs below have gotten me through rough times and given me hope.

1) Timshel — Mumford & Sons

2) Holding On and Letting Go — Ross Copper

3) Dare You to Move — Switchfoot

4) I Will Wait — Mumford & Sons

5) Home — Philip Phillips

6) Twenty-Four — Switchfoot

7) Lose My Soul — Tobymac Feat. Kirk Franklin and Mandisa

8) Carry Me — Audry Assad

9) Learning to Breathe — Switchfoot

10) Keep Your Eyes Open — NEEDTOBREATHE

…and more to come later! Look out for recommendations that I gathered from friends as well as excellent car-dancing music suggestions

*I tried to get a picture of my dog Daisy wearing headphones, but to no avail. She is so shy around the camera! I guess she just gets tired of all of the paparazzi–it’s hard being adorable*

Yours truly,

GWA

What AREEE this?? Gluten-Free Eating Adventures

I pride myself on my flexibility with eating. As Jenna Marbles says — you should come up with a list of things that you’re awesome at (http://jennamarblesblog.com/videos/things-im-awesome-at/) and this is certainly one of them.

On the down side–I eat anything in front of me, which is not always the healthiest option. At my school’s dining hall, rather than look around and see what is most appetizing (let alone healthy), I find myself reaching for the pre-made sandwich in front. But I am determined to break myself of this bad habit and eat more conscientiously!

Now, I should begin this with saying I am not a hard-core gluten-free person, nor do I have celiacs disease, so I have some flexibility in my diet. However, I like the idea of being gluten-free — of eating more than just whole wheat bread and pasta for grains, of eating more fruits instead of cake/brownies/pies, and of being more creative in meal-planning (spending more time cooking rather than waiting in line for someone to make me food, for example). So for the past couple of weeks, I’ve limited myself to having one gluten-full meal a day and I must say I’m feeling pretty good! Perhaps it is the placebo effect, but I could care less because I have more energy and am not just stuffing what is right in front of me in my mouth.

Now, eating gluten-free does require some meal-planning gymnastics and my sister and her boyfriend found this delicious recipe for those of us with a sweet tooth who want to eat healthier (they are also gluten-free!) They’re called Date-Cashew bars and can be found here: http://www.lululemon.com/community/blog/seawheeze-sea-salt-caramel-bars-yum/

My friend was nice enough to poise for an anonymous picture with one of the sticky bars– she also has great nails!

On that note, I send you off to eat more conscientiously — and perhaps come up with a list of things you are awesome at.

Yours truly,

GWA

*In case you didn’t get the reference, the title was inspired by this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4sXjJJjcWQ&noredirect=1 Recently, any time I’ve seen something new and intriguing I ask myself–what are this???

My Daisy Workout

Sometimes you just need a break from a schedule, so instead of Couch to 5k, I worked-out with couch to throwing-the-ball to Daisy, my adorable-crazy Australian shepherd (I attached a picture of “The Cuteness” below). Daisy continues to amaze me by her disposition–her ability to sleep any time and anywhere, her openness to playing at any time (even mid-nap), and her constant need for food (she always seems to appear right when I’m cooking with those big brown eyes, as if she hadn’t eaten in ages, when in reality she finished her dinner a minute ago). But here are the top 2 things I’ve learned from Daisy:

1) Sometimes it’s a really good thing to just relax–take a nap, play fetch with your dog, and  sit outside without any real agenda. Way too often, I get caught up on to-do lists and goals for the day (did someone say, type A personality?) I was tempted to even include in this post a workout with your dog–something cheesy like run around with your dog for 30 minutes instead of going jogging, when I realized how crazy that was. Instead of viewing quality time with your dog as an alternative to a workout, just enjoy yourself without a time limit and certainly without a goal in mind. It’s really important for those type-A’s among us not to have goals all the time.

2) That I am not my dog. While I do need that time to relax and just be, I can’t relax and do nothing all day. For the first couple days of summer, I thought that that would be great–I could just establish a list of goals to accomplish (of course the list of goals comes back). What I didn’t take into consideration was that all of those goals were goals for being at home by myself, which is not my personality at all. I need to be doing something, I need to feel like my day was spent making a difference in the world, I need to feel like I was challenged to go outside of my comfort zone.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been wondering why I’ve felt so out of it, when it just hit me. I was trying to make myself into something I’m not and that frankly I don’t want to be. Even though I think it’s important for me to have the time to relax, I also like that I want to spend my time wisely. I wasn’t creating a proper balance in my life and completely ignoring the way that God made me.

So, how to proceed, now that is the real question, but I hope this helps you, reader, who perhaps is also wondering how to spend these next couple months off and who felt like you were in a funk. Because I don’t want to view them as months “off”, I want to view this as a time to better myself.

The Cuteness–up close and personal

Why All Natural Beauty?

As women, I believe we are called to reflect God’s beauty into the world. Beauty can be hard to find because for many people a quest for beauty is synonymous with a quest for becoming sexy, skinny, or changing yourself. However, we are created in God’s image and likeness, which is a pretty big deal and means our bodies are perfect just the way they are!

Now, in order for us to be our best selves we need to be healthy. When I consider my actions, the times when I’m most snarky, mean, and selfish are when I’m tired, hungry, or feeling sick. These things go away when we start eating healthier, staying active, and treating our bodies with the respect that they deserve. So here begins my quest for all natural authentically-me beauty!

Yours truly,

GWA