La Bella Vita

As a Lutheran living in a Seventh-Day Adventist world, I learn something new about this 'culture' everyday. I was blessed to meet two new people from Loma Linda this weekend. One of them immediately stood out to me due to her nose ring and earrings. My initial reaction was 'I wonder if she's my type?' I don't want to point fingers and say that one belief is better than the other. Never do I mean to intend that in any form in this blog. But I do want to address the concept of reality. Before becoming more serious about my faith and actually exploring Seventh-Day Adventism as an option, I never would have picked out the girl with the earrings and asked her if she was like me. In fact, in most cases (and this still remains), I am the girl with the 5 piercings and bracelets that could almost serve as a sleeve on a cold day. But when did this happen? When did I start to judge people based on their appearance? This is reality. I've started putting people in catego...

I'm reading a new book. Actually I'm reading several new books. But the one I am going to reflect on now is not only insightful, it's thought provoking, penetrating. I set it down every few moments and just pause. I pause to reflect. The author of the book has everything he's ever wanted. The perfect wife, the perfect job, the perfect house, etc. On a day just like any other, he receives news that his wife is suffering from renal failure. In two years, she will have to receive regular dialysis treatments. In a few more years, her kidney will need a replacement. Six weeks after the diagnosis, his wife learns that the prognosis originally stated was incorrect. Her dialysis would start that day. Her life was going to change. The author describes himself as a fighter. He tells of the endless hours of research he devoted himself too. His efforts to find any way he could to guarantee her quality of life were boundless. He did everything he could. It still wasn't enough. Y...

Lately I've been doing a lot of learning. Some people find learning hard while others embrace it with ease. I find myself somewhere in the middle, but ultimately enjoying it. Until recently, I hadn't realized that my education is expanding in ways I had never imagined. This is regardless of the fact that I am not currently enrolled in University. Did I really think that my lack of presence in a lecture hall at 8:00 am or my absence from a science lab at 11:30pm was going to somehow make me "stupider?" Is that even a word? The answer is yes (to the first one). I felt that my time away from a structured college atmosphere was going to set me back, but I know now that I am wrong. It seems as if I am learning almost more outside of the classroom setting. Why then do we pay so much for a textbook, accompanied by a professional teacher who can only serve us from the hours of 8am-5pm (logistically speaking). I am finding that everyday I spend interacting with new people, new...

I ran hard, harder than I've ran in a long time. I threw out the rule book. I didn't watch the clock. I sprinted up each hill, and jogged down them. I ran the first mile as if it were my last, and the last as if it were the last time I had to run in my life. I looked up at the deep blue sky and breathed in the smell of summer. I ran harder when my knees ached. I pushed harder when my breath ran out. I pushed to exceed a limit that I still haven't found. I let go of the rules, the stipulations to proper running. I haven't run like this in months. It felt good, strong, solid. I've missed using running as my outlet. Today, I listened to my heart again. I pushed beyond the sweat, the pain, the distance growing under my feet. My thoughts went free, my heart released itself from what felt like a cage. My lungs filled with fresh air that cleared my head, my mind, my soul.

Do you ever catch yourself waiting for the silence to break, for the bell to ring, for the sounds of the ticking to subside? Then suddenly the bell rings, the silence is filled with noise, the ticking looses its steady beat and finds itself making melodies that not even the deaf would enjoy. You realize then that the waiting wasn't so bad after all. The silence was a gift and the ticking was just the beat of your heart only promoting your mind to be steady and collected. It's interesting how we as humans are continuously wanting something more. Some strive for technological materials, others financial stability, others a new adventure to an exotic place in the world yet left undiscovered. I find myself in the latter of the groups. Amongst the noise or the silence, this passion for something in the future rarely ceases. However, when the day comes that you realize you're content with the way things are at the exact moment in this exact instant, the wants that we previously l...