Just like old times...

Today I had the privilege to reunite with some of my co-workers from my previous job who have become true friends in my life. I've been so caught up in my graduate studies and just balancing everything else in my life that I hadn't taken the time to reunite with them just like old times. Honestly, my friend Christine reached out to me and reminded me of how important our lunch dates were and how important they continue to be. We have had some of the most deepest inspirational conversations with each other in just that short break we would take at work. I honestly feel that some of those conversations empowered me to follow my dream of continuing my education. So here we sat once again, coming together to share a delightful meal and some deep conversation about where we are in our lives and where we are going. I am truly grateful that we were able to come together at such short notice for some much needed fellowship.

I can't express how important friendship has been in my life. During good times and bad, it is my friends who have given me the strength and courage to take leaps of faith and when it felt like I had lost my way it is they who have reminded me of who I am and what is important to me.

Some quotes on friendship dear to my heart:

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

John 15:13

"A friend is a gift you give yourself."

Robert Louis Stevenson

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words"

author unknown

"The road to a friend's house is never long."

Danish Proverb

"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."

Albert Camus

The Value of Human Life

I've been contemplating how much we value human life in this generation. The other day in my Human Behavior class, our professor brought up a book she is currently reading that documents the history of violence. She mentioned reading that we are currently living in the least violent society ever in history. It was kind of hard to believe when you think of the daily violence that takes place in the world. Then again when you really look back deep into history, there was a time when taking a human life meant nothing.

Today during my Christology course we watched a short film about the times of Jesus. One of the things they addressed was how human life was depicted during that time. One line that resonated with me in film was how "human life was cheap in the Roman Empire." The film focused on the things that Jesus did during his ministry on Earth. It talked about how he sat to eat with sinners and how he healed the sick. I just kept thinking about how Jesus came to teach us the value of human life. He did so in a way that did not go against Jewish law but simply challenged it so that the priority of the religion wouldn't be to honor a ritual but to honor God and one another above all.

This is something that I will continue to contemplate on during my spiritual journey...

When the authorities asked Jesus why He was doing what is "unlawful on the sabbath", Jesus responded:

"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

(Mark 2:27-28)

Our Desires of the heart

As Boys II Men's "On Bended Knee" just came on it truly took me back to when I was a young girl and I used to listen to these songs and fantasize about a boy singing these songs to me. It was always such a beautiful and romantic fantasy for me that I desired would someday come true. With this particular song I remember I used to have a crush on this boy my brother was friends with. I remember I had a banana seat strawberry shortcake bike and even though I was sometimes feeling weird about riding it, it was the only way I got to ride around his block to see if he was around. I remember he would ask me to let him use the banana bike and I thought it was so so funny that he didn’t care if anyone saw him on that strawberry shortcake banana seat bike. Sometimes I wish I can have those beautiful fantasies in my mind again because they seem almost sweeter and healthier than real life. Right now I am going to hold on to this beautiful memory.

Yesterday I had a truly refreshing and uplifting dinner and conversation with a group of spiritual women. There were so many awesome messages we all shared with each other. I remember one of the women shared some inspiration that she read somewhere about how we should always allow ourselves to desire things. Even if they may not always be the best thing for us, we should allow ourselves to desire things because usually what we desire says a lot about who we truly are in the pure sense of the word without outside influences or other people’s perspectives. Most of the desires of our hearts don’t actually come to life, so even those naughty desires won’t necessarily come to pass but the desire of it may just allow us to get it out of our system.

With the passing of Whitney Houston and listening to all her songs...it has really taken me back to many beautiful memories of growing up listening to her music, and other artists like Monica, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Aaliyah, and having such desires in my heart of being a famous singer like them or even just being in that state of love they all sang about. The idea that my perception of life was so pure and brand new then and not tainted by the scars of life, says a lot about the desires I had in my heart. I desired things I had never experienced, and to me that is pretty intriguing. Its like our hearts are made to desire things we don’t even know anything about, there something so pure and deep about that.

Music has a way of taking us back. I thank Whitney Houston for bringing us the music we loved so much and sharing her beautiful gift with us even if it came at such a heavy cost. I am grateful for her sacrifice. Even listening to some of her early songs, it is evident what some of Whitney's desires of the heart were..so pure and true.

Spiritual Sunday

This weekend was quite eventful for me. I am grateful for the strength that God has given me to make certain tough decisions in my life. It has truly helped to ponder on love and just be still and listen to that voice of direction inside.

Today was full of divine inspiration. I am grateful to God for the gifts of spiritual healing that are taking place in my life. I am grateful for our new priest who truly takes the time to share with us meaningful homilies that we can relate to. I am grateful for the deep interfaith talk with my darling friend Hilda. I am grateful to my friend Angelica for inviting me to fellowship, though she may not have known it, it was just what I needed.

Here are some photos from my spiritual sunday. It was truly a day full of divine providence for me:

Praying and Pondering on Love..

If I speak in human and angelic tongues

but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;

If I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated

it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;

if tongues, they will cease;

if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

For we know partially and we prophecy partially,

but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away.

When I was a child I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child;

When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.

At present I know partially, then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13