In a Jane state of mind.
It’s that hope that blossoms. We aren’t always quite sure what to do with it.
Friday Glee: December 11, 2015
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I met a beautiful, elderly lady on the train today. Some dancers were performing to Justin Bieber’s song, “What do you mean?”
We exchanged smiles. She then took my face in her hands before getting off of the train, and she said to me, “Merry Christmas. Be good. And darling, don’t forget to dance.”
Reflections Before Bedtime #52
“Jesus is not in the business of giving up on us, he is more faithful than the morning. Hold on, for as surly as the warmth of the sunrise shall fall upon your face, so the love of God will pursue you till the end.”
T.B. LaBerge // Jesus Christ
Thank you God for your unfailing love.
What I find powerful is that we are called to replicate this kind of love. The infinite love. The love that withstands all. Love that doesn’t see the past or shallow details, but instead, a love that sees intrinsic value. Love that never fails.
Because that is the only kind of love that is real.
This Week’s Theme
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Life and its weird, stressful situations and out-of-control chaos can make you feel trapped.
When life makes you feel like you are trapped in a burning building, there is only one thing to do.
When the fire is too big for a fire extinguisher, you have to become fire and burn it down your way (in the best sense).
“You are now watching the throne; don’t let me get in my zone… I am definitely in my zone.” Kanye West
Slay. Own.
May the fire and passion in you light the way.
A New Type of Card
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Sometimes, I wish we had a card we could send to people that says, “Sorry about that. I was PMSing.”
#thestruggleisreal #letsbehonest
Reflections Before Bedtime #51
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Delilah just played “This Gift” by 98 Degrees. Nick Lachey greatness. I have realized that the more I live, the less I understand about how some things in life turn out.
[Speaking of understanding, does anyone understand this album cover?]
Some questions include:
Why does it sound like only older white people call in to Delilah (the radio show)? *random thought*
Why do some people develop food allergies and others don’t?
Why do I always end up at concerts and events with people thrice my age?
Why are there always random typos in these posts after my eyes glaze over from editing?
Why does rusty water come out of the shower in NYC? Is this some kind of cheap spray tan I am supposed to appreciate?
Why is there no recipe for the most important things in life, like love?
Why do we specialize in self-sabotage?
When will this Beach Boys Christmas song end?
Why did I love Notting Hill, the Julia Roberts film, as a child? Was this a sign of weirder things to come?
Why does that Seal song always get stuck in my head?
You get the idea…
It has been a time of much reflection. Some good friends of mine just got married; another good friend just had a baby; and a childhood friend has made me her maid of honor (and I am afraid Patrick Dempsey can’t rescue me from this one).
When you get older, you sit back and watch how so many things you imagined actually pan out in reality. I am telling you, I am so surprised. I feel like nothing has turned out as I thought or imagined. And yet, many things often end up being pretty fantastic despite being unpredictable.
I have been in a literature kind of mood. Summoning my Cambridge days.
“Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart?” Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
According to Girl Meets New Years, love and life require sense and sensibility. Tough balance.
Cory Matthews said, “We grow before we even know what growth means. We just know, ‘I see things differently now.’ And finally, we feel.”
Life. We are always growing. The best part is we can be different from who we were yesterday. We can be better.
By no means will we ever understand everything. Maybe it’s better that way.
Whatever the case, we must be wise while allowing ourselves to feel. Feeling–it’s what makes us human.
It’s all about sense and sensibility.
*Michael Bublé just came on the radio! (Dreamy face). I know he is singing about Jesus, but this man’s voice can melt a glacier. #globalwarmingisreal*
Little Reminders
Compiled by: Gabriela Yareliz
@Kushaalagband reminds us to celebrate our friends, partners in crime, beloved folk… She reminds us to be honest, and I couldn’t agree more.
Who makes you feel alive? Be honest with the people in your life. They are a gift.
Reflections Before Bedtime #50
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Sometimes, our thoughts get tangled like string, and the spool keeps running until it finds a wall that stops it. What if it finds a staircase that allows it to completely unravel?
Sometimes, our hearts swell. And we aren’t sure if it got bruised or if it fell. Or perhaps, it simply can’t contain all that is within. Or maybe, it heard your voice, and it decided to grow wings.
We are always digging and discovering. Sometimes, we find that what we thought was real is fake, and what we thought was passing is here to stay.
Maybe, every passing day is a hammer hitting on a nail that can now withstand the weight of a thousand pictures, worth a million of these words. A million.
#Mood
“I overheard the man whisper,
‘I am a lover not a fighter,’
I thought,
I am in fact both.
For is it love at all
if it’s not worth fighting for?”
Tyler Knott Gregson
#Mood
[Images from Tumblr]
Monday Inspiration: December 7, 2015
“Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new.” Ursula K. LeGuin
By: Gabriela Yareliz
As the true and old Kanye West fan that I am, I will start out by saying that our 2020 presidential hopeful and wife Kim K. West welcomed their baby boy into the world! A mini Kanye has arrived. I heard Mariah Carey had her favorite hits (sung by her) playing when she went into labor. I wonder if Kim did something similar…(cue ‘Bound 2’ to play in background).
Anyway, in other news, it’s Monday. We come again to a beginning.
I was listening to something on the radio, and the person was talking about how clarity can be overrated. We are often seeking clarity, when maybe God and life don’t want to give us clarity. It’s about trust. The man then read from Psalm 62: (starting at verse 5)
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” (Ending at verse 8).
I want the key words for me this week to be: “Trust in Him at all times; pour out your heart before Him.”
Life is messy and complex. It’s not all clear, that is for sure. Still, God calls us to recognize His love for us, and He asks us to trust Him because He loved us first. We go through phases, ups, downs, sadness, joy, love, heartbreak, apparent certainty, uncertainty… Let’s let God have it. Let us say as King David once wrote in Psalm 63:8, “My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”
That’s all we can do. Jeremiah 29: 13 promises, “You will seek Me (God) and find Me, when you seek Me with all of your heart.”
Experience has taught me that when we seek God with all of our heart, maybe not everything will be in order. Maybe some things will be shattered, and all we can do is come to God with all of the pieces. The point is to come with all that you are, and rest in Him. I hope that this week you make that extra effort to find Him.
This week, let’s celebrate life. Let’s look at all of our blessings. Let’s love with everything that we are; let’s live, holding nothing back. Let’s be all present. Open. Strong. Hopeful.
Never forget, as Christine Caine likes to say, “God starts at the impossible.”
Be inspired.
XOXO.
GY
“We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. The cross was the proof of His love- that He gave that Son, that he let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.”
Elisabeth Elliot
“be softer with you.
you are a breathing thing.
a memory to someone.
a home to a life.”
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”
Steve Maraboli
“Of course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is)… Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.”
C. S. Lewis
“And then, one day, it was you.”
T.B. LaBerge // Unwritten Letters to You
[Images from Tumblr]
Friday Glee: December 4, 2015
[Image from @ariadneartiles]
GABRIELA YARELIZ 