Posted under: Life

Yes, I know, I’ve been completely lagging on updating, but one day, I will try to revamp, update more often, etc. I’m still deciding on the direction I want this blog to head, so bear with me. Thanks for reading!

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I think it’s going to be a recurring theme for me: going to church pissed off at my mother, only to be soothed by the word of God and the sounds of His love.

Today’s mass was beautiful. It was the mass for the confirmation as well as the Feast of the Trinity. It was surprisingly crowded today, much more than usual. The choir was much bigger and this time, included a cello (I think? I couldn’t see because I was in the back), a violin, and a flute. The selected music pieces were definitely good choices and the violin beautifully added to that.

Going to the mass today, I took away a few things. First, I’ve discovered that when I sing or am surrounded by good music and words, I feel enlightened, if not, definitely happier. I feel a closer connection to God and I remember all the good He’s done for me, for my family, for my friends. Singing the songs reminds me of how much I have, how blessed I am to be alive, to be loved, and to have the ability to love.

Second, as the Bishop was talking, he said that if the confirmee’s were to forget their confirmation teachings, he would hope that they, as well as the rest of us, would remember one thing: God loves us. We are loved by God. Our religion is highly based on love… love for God, love for yourself, love for your neighbor as if they were yourself.

People wonder sometimes why or how it is I can choose to follow this religion despite all of the different vices I do outside of the church. For me, I follow this because the main message of love is a message I believe in. All the little rules and taboo are things I choose not to concern myself with because to me, they’re not as important as the main rules of love. Even when I’m stumbling back into my apartment, completely inebriated, I know that I truly am blessed and have so much to be thankful for. The chances I’ve been given, the opportunities, the experiences, all of those things happened so I could learn and more importantly, so I could learn to love.

Tags: church, God, love, mass, music

Posted under: Life

Thankfully, I’m in one of those good moods, the ones where I feel confident about myself and about my abilities.

As I mentioned last time, I felt quite inadequate. After posting this on Facebook and other networks, the feedback I got from my friends helped me a lot to understand that I shouldn’t feel so bad because people flourish in different ways. If anything, reading that personal statement helped me create a goal of getting out more and helping more people.

About a week later, I realized that although he and I looked a lot different on paper, we each had our own strengths. I realized that mine was being able and wanting to help people. I had realized this when I ended up helping him get home after having drunk a little too much. Despite my own inebriation, I was more focused on trying to get him to a safe place than taking care of myself (though I knew I wasn’t drunk enough to need care).

Anyway, that incident and a few more throughout the week really helped me understand how large of a heart I have. Sure, that means somewhere down the line, someone’s going to take advantage of me, but I can only hope that I won’t be naive enough to let that continue.

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend and she told me that I have a fire. Although I’m nice, I have this fire, this edge. For a while now, I had been thinking of going for the Internal VP position in VSA in hopes of installing some new change. After talking to her, I feel more confident in my decision and more confident in my abilities to step up and take charge. Who knows? I might end up taking presidency during my last semester of school.

Nothing particularly insightful or eye-opening here, but thought I’d share this with you and I hope that some of you will take the time to do some introspection and realize that perhaps you do have some strengths of your own.

Tags: caring, confidence, helping, strengths