Lent

The season of Lent is upon us once again, and it is that time of year where we put away foolish things and strive to become closer to Jesus.

All my life I've tried to do something drastic and very difficult for lent, from giving up meat (the one food group I actually like), to giving up television (which is ALWAYS on in the background, to the hardest one last year, I gave up Facebook. I realized the amount of time I wasted on Facebook just took away from my productivity, and made me generally miserable. It was an addiction that I needed to break.

While most years I try to do something different, I really think that leaving Facebook for 40 days is the most challenging thing I've ever done for lent, and I've decided that I'm going to take another running stab at it.

After Easter of last year, it was amazing how free I felt from my addiction to browsing on Facebook. I've come to the realization that it is just as bad now as it was this time last year, and that somehow I had become dependent on it once again.

It was a real learning experience for me and so I believe that it is time for me to do this challenge for a second year in a row.

As well, I want to make a promise myself to use my free time to try and at least twice a week, spend some time in discernment of what God has planned for my life. Perhaps spend more time in Adoration.

This is an opportunity to get closer to God and to take a step away from all the things I've been wasting my time with.

This should be a fun journey.

-Tay

Gentlemen - Chivalry Is Not Dead

Have you ever noticed that once you really like someone, it's like every other guy out there is suddenly interested in you. It's the same for guys, that once they start liking someone, suddenly they find out all these girls like them.

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes. Suddenly all these guys in my university program have begun to act like complete gentlemen to me and it's adorable. I think it's very sweet. It's just so funny that it comes out at a time where you're emotionally attached to someone else and their attempts seem futile.

There's this one guy in my program who was an absolute gentleman today and to look at him, you would never expect it. This guy is a heavy metal guitarist, long hair, leather jacket, pretty bad ass looking. If I didn't know he was such a sweetie, I'd hate to meet him in a dark alley.

We were heading to grab dinner at the campus bar and I thought we were taking the long way around (where we didn't have to step outside) and everyone else decided going outside was a short cut. I was just going to meet them all there, but before I had a chance to say it, this young gentleman had already taken off his leather jacket and put it around my shoulders. How very sweet.

We all proceeded to have a lovely time at the bar, as people usually do, and when it came time to leave he handed me his jacket again for me to wear.

He's not my type of guy, but it just goes to show that chivalry is not dead, and sometimes you can find it in some of the most unexpected people.

We Owned The Night

"Tell me have you ever wanted someone so much it hurts. Yeah your lips keep trying to speak but you just can't find the words. I had this dream once, I held it in my arms." - Lady Antebellum, We Owned The Night.

When I first heard this song I thought it was cute, just like every Lady Antebellum song I've ever heard before. I always thought they were cute lyrics that would attract listeners to their abstract ideologies of love.

Now I realize just how true those lyrics really are.

It took me a little longer than as per usual for me to open up to my mom about the way I felt this time around because honestly I felt like an idiot! Wanting someone so much that it hurt. That just seems silly, doesn't it. I had never felt that way about anyone and so when it started happening to me, I was scared to admit it because I thought my friends would laugh.

Well my friends did laugh, but no one in my family did. It seems like every single adult that I've spoken to has been through that in their life. So guess what young people, you laugh now, but it's coming for you!

My family keeps telling me that I've finally found love, which is crazy because I barely know the guy. However it is true that I've never felt this way before. Plus, I hurt. I really, truly, physically hurt because I care about him so much.

I'm not calling it love, because honestly how can you love a person you've just met. That's like believing in love at first sight and that seems silly to me. But I have noticed that there is something remarkably different in the way that I feel for this man.

Needless to say, song lyrics are starting to stand out to me a little more these days.

Who knows what God has in store for me in the future in this. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Thanks Giving & Celebration

Exactly one year ago today I got into a car accident. I tried to avoid hitting a car that cut me off and therefore put my car into a 12 foot ditch only meters away from a river bank, missing trees by only a cars length, and doing all this while not having airbags in my car. I would wake up the next morning barely able to get out of bed and using every ounce of strength that I had to crawl up the stairs out of the basement at my friends house that I stayed at overnight and unable to move or breathe properly. I was diagnosed with sever whiplash in my neck and back.

I spent the next 4 months in both physiotherapy and massage therapy while also cutting back to the bare minimum of courses I could take which also included not playing my instrument because I didn't have the strength to hold 5 lbs of pressure on one hand.

I was told I wasn't allowed to run, or workout anymore, I had to quit my boot camp class at the gym and I was told to take it easy, not an easy task for me at the time. As the months went on I was finally aloud to stretch and do certain yoga positions to start getting mobility back in my upper body. I remember how excited I was as I was slowly allowed to add different exercises back into my daily routine.

I've taken it easy all year and I've been careful and attentive to every small pain my body has given to me and not pushed myself too hard ever since out of fear of aggravating the injury.

Today, on the anniversary of my accident I celebrated. I worked out harder than I've ever worked out. I gave all that I had, it hurt to breath, I was dripping with sweat, and I was loving every second of it. It sounds stupid but I felt like crying, I was so happy that I could be doing that again!

I might rest a day or two in between for a while but I'm seeing some intense training days in my future. I'm not likely to do them multiple days in a row for a while, just to make sure I don't get injured again so soon, but it's time to start doing what I love again!

Not a day has gone by so far in 2013 that made me disappointed! Everyday has felt amazing and it's continuing to feel like a fantastic year!

-Tay

The Military Wife

I came across this photo today on Facebook. With so many of my friends being in the army, I realize how important and strong an army wife needs to be.

I thought it was very sweet and adorable and I just wanted to share it.

-Tay

My Resolution

Since we are now 10 days into 2013, I think it's time that I push through to my resolution for the New Year.

My resolution isn't to eat healthier, to go to the gym more often, to go do something, say something, or be a person that I don't actually want to be.

My true resolution is to find happiness. Not fake happiness, or temporary gratification but true happiness. This can only come from doing what needs to be done, growing as a person, and putting my trust in God. No one can give me the happiness I want but they are welcome to be a part of my daily laughter.

Even when you're sad, or depressed, or hurt, you can still be happy as a whole. I'm not saying that my whole year will be perfect, because I know that it won't be. There is going to be times that I will want to kick and scream because of how wrong things are going. But I can always trust that everything will turn out alright in the end.

Overall this will be my best year yet, no more relying on others opinions of me to dictate what I think of myself, no more waiting on my friends to join me on activities that I want to do. It's time to grab life by the horns and just live my life.

I hope you guys find happiness in the upcoming year!

God Bless

- Tay

Bible Reflection - Mark 2:1-12

So today's daily reading was about the story of the paralytic man. There was no room in the house to get close enough to Jesus, so they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down.

Jesus then said "My son, your sins are forgiven."

It was then that he felt the doubt of some of the scribes that what he had done was blasphemy.

It was because of this doubt that he said, "which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say 'Rise, take up your pallet and walk?'"

He then proceeds to tell the man to get up an walk.

So here's what gets me.

Jesus never healed the man right away, he could have told him to walk from the very beginning but he only did it to clear all doubt in the scribes hearts.

What would have happened if the scribes had never doubted? Would the paralyzed man have remained that way?

I know the greater miracle here was that Jesus or gave the mans sins, healed his soul first and then the human body.

I just find it curious to think what would have happened had no one in that room doubted. Would anything have actually happened there on that day?

- Tay