Mature

I have memories of getting good grades and getting the Metamorphosis CD. I loved flipping through the booklet. It also came with a special DVD that had three music videos on it. There it was, spinning in my purple boombox while I would get ready for the school Christmas show. Curling iron on; glitter on the cheeks. What a time! I can still probably sing every lyric on this CD.

Hilary Duff is back, and she is saying the quiet part out loud in Mature. Her new album (and first in a decade) Luck… or Something is coming soon. First, Jessica Simpson, and now, Hilary Duff. Lindsay Lohan is on Verizon commercials. Is nature healing?

A Boat Appeared

From Pinterest

“There’s something very deep here. How do we endure pain? How do we transcend it?

We turn it into art.”

Steven Pressfield, Govt Cheese

By: Gabriela Yareliz

There is a book I have been thinking about since February 2023. I bought it, and it is filled with short standalone chapters that sort of build on each other but also not. I read it slowly and chewed on it. It stayed with me like the scent of a Charleston marsh.

I was cautious in my reading, trying to not miss a thing. Finally, today, I decided I needed to finish this book. I couldn’t carry it with me into another year. Deep inside, I knew the time had come. It was time to devour the remains. And I feasted.

Reading the last 60% of it felt different. It was almost as if I was finally ready for the rest of it. I felt I processed it differently. It rattled and inspired me.

It’s funny how things arrive to us when we are ready. I feel the same when I read a passage of scripture that cuts through me differently.

I feel like the book sat with me in so many seasons. Seasons where I felt the warmth of the sun on my face, where I felt the cold and quiet envelope me, where I waded through the bog of life and my own thoughts. Seeing the world as if I lost my glasses. And today, it was like in the middle of the swamp, a boat appeared. I came home, still gripping the soaked torn pages in my hand. I could see. Everything was clear.

This Week’s Update

By: Gabriela Yareliz

There we were, J and me, memorizing Super Bass by Nicki Minaj for our law school clinic’s talent show/ karaoke night in this tiny basement establishment in Greenwich Village. I can still rap parts of it.

This week, I was heartened to see the greatest female rapper of our time address the international community on the targeting and murdering of Christians in Nigeria and the world at large.

Image via AP

So, Nicki was speaking truth to power, and Rep. Thomas Massie was keeping it #sassywithMassie in D.C. (iykyk) Massie is a figure I admire along with Rand Paul. Men who piss off both parties. That’s what makes them iconic. Bless these independent figures with a passion for truth.

Image by Denise Bovee

I was also happy to see Emilie Hagen and Denise Bovee in D.C. being #sassywithMassie.

Via @emilieknowseverything

I finished Margaret Atwood‘s fab course on writing. I am almost done with Aaron Sorkin’s. The wheels in my brain have been churning for days, at faster speeds. Don’t you just love the feeling of learning?

Thank God the nightmares have stopped. (Been laying off the melatonin).

As I write, I score a seat on the train, barreling toward Times Square, but before I got a seat, a little Asian girl was hugging the pole I was trying to grip. Aside from all of us being annoyed because anytime we grabbed the pole, we also inevitably grabbed a good handful of her staticky hair, her weird pole hug made me think.

As she hugged the cold metal rod, resting her face on it, I couldn’t help but wonder about how differently this girl sees this metal rod. The rest of us barely want to touch it and only grab onto it to avoid injury, meanwhile, she is resting her entire face on it. Kids believe anything. They disregard certain things that make us more apprehensive as adults. Now, I am not saying rub your face on every metal pole that at one point was enveloped by people’s nastiest parts on a NYC subway, but I am asking, what adult stiffness can we let go of and how can we adopt a more childlike carefree spirit where appropriate?

In my headphones, Candace Owens is reading off license plates and speaking like a car rental catalog (we are truly gripped— her latest phase of investigation is giving us life). And November feels like it’s officially winter. It has been a bucket hat week for me.

Ok, last thing… our Seven Days of Gratitude start tomorrow on Modern Witnesses. I love taking a pause to embrace gratitude. It’s a part of my daily routine, but to reflect on the entire last year is always special. What a year it has been. Crazily, it’s almost over.

The common theme in everything I see and listen to is— what are you doing that is life-giving? The world needs more people who are truly alive.

Walk

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” Søren Kierkegaard

Winds Unleashed

Image from Pinterest

By: Gabriela Yareliz

The wind has been jogging my memory, lately.

Have you ever been on a walk and been pushed by the wind? I guess what is worse is when you end up walking against a gust that makes you levitate.

Everyone who has been in NYC knows these streets turn into wind tunnels. Poor design. I read somewhere that somewhere in Europe someone designed a city based on geometric perfection and harmony. (This affected the architecture and placement of buildings). If that is true, it’s equally true that whoever designed NYC did it to induce panic and mayhem. A big Gotham fan, I am sure.

Even despite the fact that we live in a wind tunnel that blasts us without hesitation, the wind has been even stranger and stronger lately.

I thought it was just here— but a woman I follow in Montana said the other day that she was surprised there was no snow yet— but what they have had are hurricane force winds.

This adds up, I thought to myself. Must be some massive weather phenomenon.

Now, what I will say below is not said for biblical interpretation, but I am simply sharing some thoughts that crossed my mind. I was sitting in the car feeling the wind push the car into a slight swerve, seeing the yellow leaves get blown off of the trees and swept in rolling waves down the highway ramp, when my thoughts turned to Revelation 7.

Revelation 7 paints us a picture of the end of time, where God’s angels “hold back” the “four winds of the earth” while standing on the “four corners of the earth” in a time of grace, while God’s people are sealed.

The holding back of wind is a symbol of grace and divine protection. An avid reader of Scripture knows that wind is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit, who allows us our breath and life. It is the same spirit that rose Christ from the grave that dwells in us. (Romans 8:11) God, Himself.

We know wind can be an agent of destruction. It can cause insane damage, even outside of a hurricane. It breaks what is weak and without foundation. It can also move things quite quickly. It can make a tree bare in a matter of minutes. It can make things change shape. The other day, I saw a black mesh used for scaffolding projects ripple like it had waves in the wind against a building. The building looked like it had another shape.

The wild winds remind me of that scene in The Holiday— Santa Ana winds mean anything can happen. It can blow something in your eye, and it can also be the magic that changes everything. Just last January, we prayed for the winds to stop in LA, as the wind seemed like the most powerful agent of spread for the fires. Winds can change everything.

As I watched the wind howl through the trees, I thought of how the Holy Spirit barrels through the streets, seeking any heart that will allow it to make its home there. It seeks to move us forward and propel us in faith. And in its force, it reminds us to be ready for what is to come. For the winds will be held back a while longer— in grace. But are we ready for the time when nothing will be held back? When the wind’s judgment comes to cleanse and sweep aside what is not solid? Will we recognize the signs and see it move among us?

Will something stir our hearts with certainty when we see it? Will we feel comforted like a person warm and dry inside of a home in a storm? Will we feel fear and hear its final scream like a person chasing a storm?

When I observe the wind, I am reminded of all that can come from it; all we must be transformed to be.

A phenomenon is coming, and it won’t just be reflected in the natural world we can see. It will force us to grapple with our hearts and the world, once the fragile and unrooted debris is blown away. It will be less about what has blown away like ash and more about what is left standing.