La Bella Vita

Who is this person? Who is this character that thinks they can inhabit my body when I'm not paying attention? When did this lack of control become okay? God is tricky. Just when you think you have a grip on exactly who he is, he reminds you that he is more vast than anything you can ever imagine. He is sure to reiterate the fact that his works go far beyond the realms of the cranial cavity we were given. Sometimes it almost feels as if I'm back on track with him again, and then out of nowhere I fall short again. Maybe he's reminding me that I need to keep striving, never settling on what's comfortable. I've lost myself recently. I'm not sure if blogging about it is in my best interest, but at this point it seems to provide a pivot, a pivot for change. There comes a time in life when everything grows dull, it becomes gray. The colors lose their accent and the sharpness behind every image simply becomes a blur. I don't have all the solutions. At this point, I ...

I read an article in a magazine recently that made me question my own ideas on the topic. I suppose this is what writer’s try to do. They want to make the reader think beyond the typical realm of thought. They want to push them to a new place. I fell for it. Here I am, expressing my thoughts once again in the form of inked words on paper. I’m a sucker for analyzing the diagnostic aspects of life. Why I run… I’m not sure why I hadn’t processed these thoughts before. It seems as if when an individual I meet asks me the question in an almost painful tone, (“why do you run?”) my response is almost mechanical. To save the time and possibly sanity of the listening source, I usually respond with something along the lines of “I want to stay fit, it feels good, I love it.” But in my recent runs, I have really put a lot of thought into why I do this activity everyday. Why do I use this form of physical motion to keep my body in its proper gear? Once the list began to formulate in my h...

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...