That Bod

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Our bodies are always changing. Some prefer the rock hard body, others go for a more sculpted soft tone. Regardless of your style, a good body starts with your diet.

Our bodies are temples. Some people think I look the way I look because I am twenty-something. While my age may be an advantage, that doesn’t change the fact that I am very selective and careful with what I eat (vegetarian, gluten free). There are obese twenty year olds; people seem to forget that. People think age is magic. Health is not an accident.

As the holiday season approaches, let’s be extra careful about what is going into our bodies. Feeling good starts on the inside, and it shines out. Two words: lifestyle and discipline.

There can be health and beauty at every age and stage of life.

Here’s to never letting ourselves go! #cheers #whereisthenog?

Happy Week: November 8, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

A new week begins, again.The pharmacy looks like a Christmas wonderland. I was walking through Little Italy, and there are already ‘Merry Christmas’ light banners shimmering in the night above the streets. Still no sign of eggnog, anywhere. This is frustrating, but anyway…

This weekend was a good weekend. I saw old friends, reflected on new friendships, and I spent time studying my Bible and exploring God’s desires. It’s really something when you study what God wants for you. Our society is so messed up, and sometimes, we grow a bit jaded or cynical when we see the ‘realities’ that surround us.

But then, when we take a minute and see what we were created for, what God wants us to have, and what we could have if we walk in obedience to His word and trust in Him– then suddenly, what might have seemed undesirable or slightly ridiculous or unattainable turns desirable because we see it for what it should and could be.

I encourage you this week to look at God’s promises and God’s desires for you, whether it be career wise, in marriage, in personal growth– explore what God created you for. You may find yourself realizing that you really want to live your life in a way that honors God and brings you closer to that ideal.

John Wesley once said it is not possible for a man to be happy who is not also holy. Writer Gary Thomas expands on this saying, “Who can truly be ‘happy’ while filled with anger, rage and malice?”

It’s time to see how we can submit to God so He can help us walk in a more sanctified, holy, obedient way. It is then that we get closer to who God created us to be. It is then that we are closer to living out the joy we were created to enjoy.

Happy week!

“It was November – the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines.” L.M. Montgomery 

“In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.”

Cynthia Rylant, In November

“The deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”

Elisabeth Elliot

“Breathe through the fear, and walk through the fire.”

espereia 

“Love is patient, and that is the hardest part of love.”

T.B. LaBerge // Unwritten Letters to You

“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts” 

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneously.”

Sophia Bush

“You are the poem I never knew how to write and this life is the story I have always wanted to tell.” Tyler Knott Gregson

“Maybe, I have always carried you with me. Maybe, you are all the wild in me.” Tyler Knott Gregson

[Images from Tumblr]

Chasers of the Light

Poem from Chasers of the Light: poems from the typewriter series by Tyler Knott Gregson.

I count the syllables

of your laughter

and wait

for the line breaks

of your long deep breaths. 

I may be a writer

but you are a poem

and you spill out

like ink

onto the paper of our days.

[Image from Tumblr]

Reflections on Screwtape Letter #4

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Based on the masterpiece by C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, a parody on heaven, hell and the battle for each human soul.

It’s an interesting thought, the thought that “whatever [our] bodies do affects [our] souls.” The Screwtape Letters, page 16.

This particular letter focuses on prayer. Oftentimes, when we pray, we approach God in the weirdest way. We have a perception of who God is or what we want Him to be.

Sometimes, we box God in the same category as people who have hurt us or defrauded us. Or, we have the image of God that society feeds us. Sometimes, we formulate a God that is mighty convenient to us and the life we wish to entertain. Hilariously, God is God no matter what we make of Him. Our ideas don’t change the reality of who God is; His justice and holiness.

A lot would change if we actually took the time to know who God truly is. I think we’d trust Him more; we’d go to Him more; we’d humble ourselves before Him more.

“Once all of [our] thoughts and images [of God] have been flung aside or, if retained, retained with a full recognition of their merely subjective nature, and the man [we] trusts himself to the completely real, external, invisible Presence…never knowable by him as he is known by it– why, then it is that the incalculable may occur.” Id. at 19.

“The real nakedness of the soul in prayer,” that is when our prayers are answered in incredible ways; that is when we allow God to show us who He really is. It is then that we witness immeasurable power. It is then that we are transformed.

Reflections Before Bedtime #46

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Mark 4:35-41English Standard Version (ESV) 

Jesus Calms a Storm

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him [Jesus] with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

I read this passage this morning. It was a typical day in the Hebrew mens’ lives. Walking with Jesus, getting the boat, and then, out of what seems like nowhere, a bizarre storm. I love that word, bizarre. It’s as odd as its definition.

A storm. A wild storm. A storm that threatened all they knew; including their very livelihood. They thought, this is it. It wasn’t it. 

You see, Jesus was in the boat with them. That didn’t mean the storm wasn’t raging, but it meant just that. They had Jesus with them. They had the One who made the stars and could make peace with a spoken word or silence, if He so desired.

Later today, I was reading the first chapters of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and there was an intense reminder of how we often make up scenarios and hypotheticals, and how we allow very real anxiety to blind us. We start looking at what we fear or what we fear will happen, and we forget to look at Jesus. We forget that the point is not the storm or the rocking boat. The focal point should be the fact that the Master is in our boat.

Think about whatever you have been stressing about or something that is blinding you and keeping you from focusing on God, the One who can overcome our fears, worry and pain.

Are you thinking about it? Great. Now, God is telling you to put that aside. He says, “Why are you still so afraid? Have you no faith?” (Mark 4:40).

It’s in these moments that we need to know where to look. Look at Him, and never look away. He loves you, and He will take care of you. 

Peace. Be still.

Monday Inspiration: November 2, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

On Sunday, the NYC Marathon sliced my neighborhood in half. I kept wondering how I would make it to the other side. Then, when I needed to cross, the runners were gone and so were the barricades. Isn’t that how we spend most of our time? Worrying about things that will run their course and resolve themselves even before we need to deal with them?

November. Guys, I hope you have your beards and mustaches ready. The month famous for (men’s) lack of shaving is officially here.

It’s a new week. New hopes. Eyes filled with glitter, pure glitter.

October is now octover. It’s gone. What a month. November is a new month filled with promise; thirty days of promise, to be exact.

This month will bring something different to all of us; new beginnings, difficult decisions, endings, continuations, inspiration, more work, rest, love, heartbreak, cold weather and scarves. Lots of scarves. And eggnog. Where the heck are they stashing the eggnog in this city?!

There will be tear-filled eyes, hope-filled eyes, surprised eyes (with arched eyebrows, of course), secretive eyes, humble eyes, grateful eyes, bored eyes– stolen glances. The whole package. Because that is life, right?

No matter what happens or where you go, the key ingredient is determination. Never forget God is in control. He sits on His throne.

November is diabetes awareness month. It’s a chronic illness that affects a disproportionate amount of Hispanics, and I think every time November rolls around, I mention it. So there you have it. It’s important we take care of ourselves.

As usual, here is your Buzzfeed-esque, curated inspiration board of the week. I hope that this week you find something that makes you smile, or something that expands your perspective, or something that triggers a good memory. Or maybe, something that inspires you to future action.

Life, it’s short, so make sure you are living it.

Happy Monday!

xoxo.

“She did not want to move, or to speak. She wanted to rest, to lean, to dream. She felt very tired.” Virginia Woolf, The Years

“Everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.”

Bittersweet, Shauna Niequist

“Hold on, dear heart, hold on for the one who will see you, and know you. Who will love you with a love that is familiar; because our hearts have known too many strangers who have tried to call our hearts a pitstop, when it is a home, waiting for someone to find their way to a place that is safe.”

T.B. LaBerge // Things I’m still learning at 25 

“Thankfully, it is God’s grip on me- not my feeble grip on Him- that keeps me safe in the fold of His love.”

Diana Stone, She Reads Truth

“Dear, I realize you’re upset because it seems everything is ending, but when will you realize there will be a beautiful new beginning?”

‘advice given to me by my grandma’ by: (mauulibu)

“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

 C.S. Lewis  

“Find my hand in the darkness and if we cannot find the light, we will make our own.” Tyler Knott Gregson

[Images from Tumblr]

You

By: Gabriela Yareliz

You are a warm southern night, a barefoot stroll under strong magnolias.

You are a strange rain that takes me by surprise.

You are a soft palm branch rustle, coaxing me to unwind.

You are a moon full of light; you reveal a path unknown and act as guide.

You are a sparkling orange river that waltzes with the sleepy sun.

You are a kaleidoscope of raindrops, where I see myself in each one.

You are the heart I drew on my mirror, while painting with fingerprint and steam.

You are the purple ribbon of tea that colors my blood with dreams.

You are a warm southern night, a barefoot stroll under strong magnolias.