Friday, April 29, 2011

Laughter is the BEST Medicine

Voila to Year 2.
I hope I did p-w-n you!

It's so nice being having a little over a week to not have to think deadlines, cram theories, or be captured by stress! Woot!

Life right now is smiles and joy. Last night I had the priviledge to finally hangout with a bunch of friends over a potluck and not-so-light conversation. It was a good time and lots and lots of smiles that burst! Funny conversations, weird talks, going off topic, changing topics, laughing to the verge of tears... well just me haha.

At work today I was very bored, forgot how slow a weekday can be compared to my usual shifts on a Saturday. But, thinking back to the chit chat last night kept me chuckling to myself (silently, I think). I hope to have more of these pleasant times.

Though I will have a nice break, I want to be productive this coming week. Perhaps I can work on my resume and figure out some potential employment opportunities. Since I'm taking two spring courses, it'll be hard to fit in a job due to my lack of availabilty, but hopefully something works out sooner or later, God willing. I also need to catch up on my friendships. Enough deprivation, its time to invest in significant chum bonding. As well, perhaps a little ambitious, but I really want to go somewhere at least out of the province this spring/summer, so I will have to wait and see what arises and research of course.

Well, most of all, I need consistent quite time with God. Sometimes I don't even give a few minutes to fully concentrate and be in his presence. I want to hear his voice and know what he wants for me. Now that I'm not sick or stress no more, I figure I'm taking matters into my own hands a lot and not listening to what his plans may be. So its time to dig deep and be silent.

Anyhow, I'm an odd girl, I'm still smiling to myself. L-O-L

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Seeking a Challenge

More than often, I like things to be easy. Usually situations I have been in before or something I know I am capable of doing. The reason being? I guess it just makes life more simplify and lighter to handle. Everytime I am given an assignment in class, and upon skimming it,I feel the pressure is on; time is ticking. I tend to doubt my abilities and and I don't know if I am able to accomplish what is planned out for me to do. I wonder if profs ever question that for their students or ponder on the stress we have on top of what they are asking of us.

I guess I can say the same for most people. Who doesn't like things to be easy to do, easy to find, easy to ace? But life doesn't work this way, and ironically I am glad that life can be a pain or the mere fact that earning somthing is more of a challenge than the reverse. Despite the comfort and ease of having things come easy, having an simple path laid out for you will just maintain the status quo. Hardly anything ever disrupts your journey or detours you from reaching your destination. Status quo is nice, but I've come to realize that you really that you don't get anywhere. You don't grow or struggle and so you are the same person as you were before you started that straight forwardness. What's the point then, right?

Recently, I feel a yearning to want to be challenge. As the term is near its end, its really pleasurable to know that there are no more assignments left for me to work on. At the same time, after studying for my last two finals, there isn't much for me to do or learn from. School has always kept me busy and though it doesn't really help me to grow spiritually or socially as a person, it does impact those areas. When I'm having break downs over an assignment or needing to replenish I am drawn to find God or pray hard for the tough times to be over. Not to my surprise, the cycle will start over again sooner or later. "You live, You learn"

As the beautiful weather is here to stay and summer is on its way, I really want to challenge myself and do something meaningful. I don't have any major plans as of yet, but perhaps I can come up with a path that will trip me, make me fall, get up on my feet, and keep going. First step: get off my butt. These past few months has consisted of long hours of sitting and staring at a screen. Its time to freshen up and do the impossible with my possible God.

Challenge Accepted

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Eat Pray Love

On Friday, I got to do something different, something pleasurable and out of the ordinary. I had planned a while back to have some friends over and just have a get together having not done so in a long time, as well, Friday was my fourth baptism anniversary. Well, having some friends over didn't quite work out, but I did get the chance to spend time with one friend in particular. We had a great night of conversation, preparing food, and watching Eat Pray Love.

Yes, this movie could be stereotyped as one of those motivation filled and inspirational movies, but something really stood out for me. So the plot is something like this, a lady (Liz) in her midlife divorces and her life just seems to be spiraling in a bad direction so due to concidental or not happenings in her life, she decides to travel for a year to Italy, India, and Bali. Hence, she finds food, faith, and love in that order. When Liz is in Italy, she really enjoys herself, she eats when she feels like it not caring if she gained weight or not, not caring what others thought of her, not caring if she needed to fit in a bigger size, she was happy and that was what matter(though the actress never looks "bigger" throughout the film-acting eh?). Anyways, in one scene she was about to get her hair done and she was talking to an acquaintance about how pleasurable her life was at the moment, how worry free and enjoyable it seemed to be. One client in the store over hears this and tells her in a strong Italian accent, its because your American. You Americans always feel like you have to earn pleasure, earn time off, earn this, earn that, you have to set aside time to do something you like, but we Italians do it whenever we feel like it-with no strings attached (something along the lines of this)

Having this Italian man say this just made me think about how true his words are. Sometimes we don't think we deserve a break or that we should be working instead of playing. Yet, when we do have a break, it never seems to last long enough. Perhaps everyday should have an inclusion of something worthy of our time, something pleasurable that we don't schedule ahead of time, but do it when the thought arises. Maybe that will make each day more worthy, more fabulous.

Now that school is near its end, I find myself treating myself more-in a good way. Though I've been sick (almost done, thanks for the prayers) predominately last weekend, I worked for a few hours despite calling in sick,got off early and did some shopping, sponatenously walked into a salon for a haircut, went to lazer tag for HS fellowship (thinking I wouldn't play, but ended up playing one round)and had a delicious meal with two friends afterward. It felt really good. On the outside my throat was clogged, my nose was stuffed, my head was a little drowzy, I kept getting cough attacks, but on the inside, it just felt so nice not being held back by time, not being rushed, not having to think even.

I guess what I want to say is that we don't need to think we deserve something in order to experience it, though there are exceptions. Of course, don't go out and buy yourself a new car when you can't even afford tuition. However, sometimes a nice treat doesn't have to be hold off. It can be now.


Perhaps we all need to be a little more Italian.