GABRIELA YARELIZ

Blizzard Badinage

By: Gabriela Yareliz

“What is something married couples and families do not have as much of, compared to college students?” asked my professor.

“Friends,” said the kid in front of me.

The class whispered some giggles.

I started out the day in Family Law. Apparently, being a law student is like working for the postal service; rain, sleet, sunshine–you are there in the grind. The glassy walls had us, the class, distracted as we watched how with every passing minute the city turned white. The snow has been falling nonstop since then. Our professor ended the class with a question, “How does one get syphilis?” Silence. Everyone looked out of the window walls at the snow hurricane outside, beckoning us to make our escape from the school. The professor replied, “I guess you need a day and a blizzard to think about it?”

*Students exited quickly*

There is a blizzard outside. The wind is howling. Long lines formed at stores today as people scrambled for water and non-perishable food. Snow has been coming down on us as if it’s being dumped. So, we have stocked up for the apocalypse, and now, we wait. A strange feeling of boredom and apathy seems to take over us when the weather is so perfect for sleeping and blankets. Hurricane Sandy flashbacks, anyone?

I am taking a break from my case reading for some frosty inspiration; a few of my favorite things.

1] Zidane, this man can melt away anything.

2] Are we ever “ready”?

“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do them. Doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that–that’s what life is.” Amy Poehler

“Just by observing Jesus’s inner circle of friends, we see […] Jesus did not simply invite people who understood who he was. When he invited people to follow him, many began a journey that would slowly reveal how little they actually knew about him and who God really was.” Nathan Betts

5] What a pretty package.

6] Always look up because that is where it all is.

“Have you noticed how nobody ever looks up? Nobody looks at chimneys or trees against the sky, or the tops of buildings. Everybody just looks down at the pavement or their shoes. The whole world could pass them by and most people wouldn’t notice.” Julie Andrews Edwards

“Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.” Norman Vincent Peale

10] Juicing withdraws.

11]

“Don’t waste sunsets with people who will be gone by sunrise.”

12]

13]

“If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.” C.S. Lewis

14]

15]

“The strongest people aren’t always the people who win, but the people who don’t give up when they lose.” Ashley Hodgeson

16]

17]

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

18]

19]

[Boulevard des Capucines, Claude Monet, 1873]

20]

“To a great mind, nothing is little.” Sherlock Holmes

[Images from Tumblr]

Jehan’s Golden Birthday

Happy Birthday, Jehan!

She is an amazing colleague and an even more fantastic friend. Wishing you many blessings.

We have been following in each other’s footsteps for a while, and we finally crossed paths. We were meant to be friends! Someday, we will own that apartment in TriBeCa. 😉

Me and Jehan at her very golden birthday party.

Monday Inspiration: January 26, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Something tells me time is going to simply evaporate in these next few weeks. It’s time to embrace every moment and savor the details and slow ticking of the clock. It is a beautiful time, a strange time, a difficult time, an emotional time, an uncertain time–it’s time.

I hope that this week you find joy, peace and clarity. I hope your faith grows, and I hope that we can spend less time looking down at others or at our situations and that we may find the time to look up. Find healing; find love; find every blessing placed before you.

Currently, we are waiting for a blizzard in NYC. Pray for us.

Yours truly.

“Endure, my heart; you’ve endured a worse thing even than this.”

Homer, The Odyssey

“As long as I daily make the choice to be guided by His truth, He replaces my hollowness with a wholeness of love that has no gape.”

Lysa TerKeurst

“There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look.”

Henri Matisse

“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

Isaac Newton

“God doesn’t respond because someone opens up some new insight for Him. No. In persistent, fervent prayer, God prepares the soil of one’s heart to make room for the seed of His answer, from which will flower an alignment with His will. ”

Ravi Zacharias

“Even when we feel that God is silent, we can be confident that He is working and orchestrating all things, with exact precision, for His glory and our holiness.”

Jen Thorn

“If Christianity is just about purely feeling God’s presence, then it has no moral quality whatsoever. Like, what is it about having and receiving affection for and from a human friend so amazing? It is the knowledge that we have of their character. We know our friends and enjoy them. We cannot and will not enjoy God’s presence until we know His character. Christianity is knowing God through Christ, and then enjoying His redemptive presence in our lives.”

Unknown

“Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Don’t look at your weaknesses. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.”

St. Catherine of Siena

“It seems very safe to me to be surrounded by growing green things and water.”

Barbara Kingsolver

“When there is a fight between your heart and your head, experience has taught me that the best thing you can do is pick up your Bible and remind yourself of what God says.”

Christine Caine

“I find a gentle but ferocious strength in being vulnerable. Honesty turns shame into light.”

Erin Brown

“You are waiting on God, but He is waiting on your faith.”

Jason Lee Basora

“I’m here. I wouldn’t go away. I’m always here.”

– Ernest Hemingway, from A Farewell To Arms

Have a beautiful and blessed week.

[Images from Tumblr and self-identified websites]

A Walk to Remember: Jamie Sullivan

This movie came out 13 years ago (1/25/2002), and it is still one of my favorites.

By: Gabriela Yareliz

This is a tribute to my favorite Nicholas Spark’s book and film, A Walk to Remember. He has written and scripted so many of his books into movies. I am not a fan of all of his stories, however, my favorite is and forever will be A Walk to Remember, based on Nicholas Sparks’s sister’s life. She was a very Godly young woman who died young because of her illness, but she changed people powerfully during her life, like Jamie Sullivan, the protagonist of the movie and book. So, here is a little tribute to the best Nicholas Sparks love story–one that actually happened. It is a walk that never ceases to inspire me, and a walk I haven’t forgotten.

“She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn’t help but feel guilty, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“You’re a wonderful person, Jamie. You’re beautiful, you’re kind, you’re gentle…you’re everything that I’d like to be. If people don’t like you, or they think you’re strange, then that’s their problem.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“Jamie: You have to promise you won’t fall in love with me.
Landon: That’s not a problem.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“I hadn’t done any of the things that I normally did with girls, yet somehow I’d fallen in love.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“I don’t think that we’re meant to understand it all the time. I think that sometimes we just have to have faith.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“If you put your trust in God, you’ll be all right in the end.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

“But this is okay. I smile slightly, looking toward
the sky, knowing
there’s one thing I still haven’t told you: I now believe,
by the way, that
miracles can happen.”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

[Images from Tumblr]

Wisdom Personified

Wisdom Speaks

Does not wisdom call?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
    at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call,
    and my cry is to the children of man.
O simple ones, learn prudence;
    O fools, learn sense.
Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right,
for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
They are all straight to him who understands,
    and right to those who find knowledge.

Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
    and I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
    and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom;
    I have insight; I have strength.
By me kings reign,
    and rulers decree what is just;
by me princes rule,
    and nobles, all who govern justly.

I Iove those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.

Riches and honor are with me,
    enduring wealth and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
    and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
    in the paths of justice,
granting an inheritance to those who love me,
    and filling their treasuries.

^{[Proverbs 8:1-21]}

Left My Heart in Cedar Key

Photos and commentary by: Gabriela Yareliz

We started 2015 with a little trip to Cedar Key. I love that place.

Sea shell heaven.

I am ever the nosy one. Between the pubs on C Street.

Nature’s many shades. Gray glitter.

Because in Florida, you don’t have to wear shoes.

XOXO from the fishing pier and beach front.

“I wish for the same thing I’ve hoped for since the beginning. I wish for a life so brave, so unpredictable, so full of unexpected joys and unforgettable love that no box could possibly contain all my memories.” Chelsey Philpot, Even in Paradise

What I Believe Is In My Name

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I’ve learned that people in life will look at you strange if you don’t exactly go with the flow. I’ve gotten looks and snarky comments. I’ve been laughed at, and I’ve gotten an occasional sigh. Some don’t understand why I do or don’t do certain things, why I believe certain things, why I have a conscience about certain things… While listening to Dr. Tony Evans the other day, I was reminded of a simple answer:

Don’t people know my name? Gabriela means devoted to God and God is my strength; He is able. The truth is, when you say my name, you invoke a praise to God and recognize Him as able and supreme above all. When you say my name, you remind me of who has sustained me and never failed me. As I am reminded of this, I pray that my life can live up to my name. When you say my name, you say what I believe.

Wednesday Musings: January 21, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Back to reading and studying like a beast. Yep. We are back. Vacation is over, people. The law school is bustling like an ant pile that has been stepped on. The adrenaline is pumping, the soul is sufficiently sleep-deprived, and the arms are full of 50-pound books. It is a weird feeling, knowing that it’s the last hurrah. Praise the Lord. Being back in the city is a bit dark and weird–I can feel the difference after being away for so long. On this busy Wednesday, I thought I would post some inspiration to help us all remember it is all going to be ok. It’s nice to have perspective, always. Anyway, I hope 2015 is just FANTASTIC for you, and I hope it keeps getting better.

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you find some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you are wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art–write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” Neil Gaiman

“Most good things happen without a plan: friendships, falling in love, finding a job, and so on. If you want to make your new year count, you’ll need to be intentional–by making space in your life for what really matters.” Jeff Goins

“What emerged from our talk was nothing less, we believed, than the central ‘secret’ of enduring love: sharing.” A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

Mark Twain

“The Lord says, ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.'”

Psalm 32:8

“Would your 8-year-old self be proud of you right now?”

“If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.” Elisabeth Elliot

“Use every opportunity of humbling yourself before fellow-men as a help to abide humble before God.” Andrew Murray

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14

“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15

As always, when we are broken, stripped and hiding, God walks through the garden asking us, ‘Where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9)

[Images from Tumblr]

Alchemy

“Go for someone who is proud to have you.” Frank Ocean

Complex Math

“There is a sense in which two and two are four, the plane of ledgers and cashbooks – on which these propositions are approximately sound. But if you rise from that plane to a loftier one, you will find at once that they are untenable … it is obviously untrue that half-a-baby and half-a-baby make a baby. Let the sword do its deadly work… The two halves of a baby make no baby at all. On this higher plane of human sentiment and experience, the laws of mathematics collapse completely.

When a man distributes his wealth among his children, he gives to each a part. But when a woman distributes her love among her children, she gives it all to each … No man who has once fallen in love will ever be persuaded that one and one are only two. He looks at her, and feels that one plus one would be a million … No happy couple into the sweet shelter of whose home a little child has come will ever be convinced that two and one are only three. Life has been enriched a thousandfold by the addition of that one little life to theirs. And I am certain that no pair from whose clinging and protecting arms their treasure has been snatched will find comfort in the assurance that one from three leaves two. In the great crises of life, one’s faith in figures breaks down hopelessly.”

— F.W. Boreham, excerpt of “The Sword of Solomon”

As heard quoted by Ravi Zacharias in his message “Raised to Run.”