JR for Madame Figaro with dancers atop the Opéra Garnier. His method is bold; his vision is magic.
Hopeless Wanderer: Tribeca/Hudson Edition
By: Gabriela Yareliz
A Wednesday Unlike Any Other
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Today was brutally FANTASTIC. It was a day where lawyering was done in an emotional and deep way. There is something just magical about spilling hope out with honesty. It falls silently and heavy. Today, I heard my voice loud and clear, and it was a gentle reminder that along this crazy journey of confusion, trial and error, hard work, tears, and hope–> I grew up. Someone today took me to the side and said, “See that? That is influence,” he shot me a mischievous grin with a wink, “use it, always use it.” It’s like he knows I will.
I survived weather that felt like 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 C for my many friends abroad), Amtrak, a bath of hot chocolate, a coat with soap foam, a pencil skirt that slightly ripped when I torpedoed myself into a van, a bat cave, a taxi driver who was probably legitimately insane, Penn Station, and running into a church member from Florida in a NYC public restroom. Now my room is 30 degrees, and I have a night of work ahead of me. My brain is flickering, so I thought I would get some inspiration, a water bottle and say some prayers. This eternal day is about to fade into the next.
“Life doesn’t always give you second chances, so take the first one.”
“Missing someone isn’t about how long it’s been since you have last seen them or the amount of time it has been since you last talked. It’s about that very moment when you are doing something and you wish that they were right there with you.”
“Call your mother. Tell her you love her. Remember you are the only one who knows what her heart sounds like from the inside.”
“So, do it. Decide. Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More compassionate? Decide. Breathe in. Breathe out and decide.” Meredith Grey
“Airports see more sincere kisses than wedding halls. The walls of hospitals have heard more prayers than the walls of churches.” Unknown
[Images from Tumblr, typos by me;-)]
Say Anything
Last Registration
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Today, we 3Ls registered for our last set of law school classes. (I am so excited!)
Graduation is gettin’ real, quick.
Many of us don’t know what lies ahead, and some things may seem like detours or things that weren’t in our plans…
“When God is getting ready to move you, in order to develop you, God will detour you, and I think most of us know most detours occur when construction is taking place. There’s a construction crew on the road creating a detour. The reason why God creates detours is because He’s got to do some construction in our lives first. He’s got to chip away at the parts that don’t fit where He’s taking us.” Dr. Tony Evans, The Purpose of Detours
Monday Inspiration: November 17, 2014
Hellooo beautiful week!
The skies are grey, the Holiday Market is being set up at Union Square (I can’t wait to take some amazing photos this year), and exams and interviews are coming soon. *giddy* This week’s Monday inspiration kind of reflects our NYC weather and vibe: soft light, twinkling details, old world & classic. That’s right, I used the ampersand.
The Secret Garden (1993)
Soundtrack:
Light breaks through darkness in the most beautiful ways.
“She slept with wolves without fear, for the wolves knew a lion was among them.” r.m. drake
“Throw kindness around like confetti.” Unknown
Notebooks, an addiction I see no end to.
“We lose ourselves in the things we love. We find ourselves there, too.” Kristin Martz
“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” Unknown
[Can you smell the knowledge and inspiration in this room? *tingles* If you want to leave me stranded or ditch me, lose me in a bookstore–simple as that. I won’t even be mad at you.]
“You will not find the warrior, the poet, the philosopher or the Christian by staring into his eyes as if he were your mistress: better fight beside him, read with him, argue with him, pray with him.” C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
La Dolce Vita
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“And men said that the blood of the stars flowed in her veins.” C.S. Lewis
“A man who says, I was wrong, in effect says, I am a little wiser today than I was yesterday.” Charles Spurgeon
“Sometimes, the world presents you with opportunities to show who you really are. Will you have the courage to stand up to someone who tries to take your spirit away?” Cory Matthews
“We are all broken, that’s how the light gets in.” Ernest Hemingway
“If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die.” Mik Everett
“Psychology says, always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to help you grow.” -Unknown
Persian Glam Couple: Leyla Milani and Manny Khoshbin
Keep working hard!
[Images from Tumblr and Webstagram]
That One Thing
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Many times, we try to give God a lot of things in our lives and different parts of us. We also hold some things back.
What is it that God wants from us?
“O my son, give me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following my ways.” Proverbs 23:26
When He has our hearts, we will be people who obey Him out of love. We will be people who are empowered to do what is right. When He has our hearts, He transforms us, and we understand that He wants us to have full joy. When He has our hearts, He heals us.
My Mistake on: What Every “Godly” Girl Wants in a Man
By: Gabriela Yareliz
So, I reblogged a post yesterday that I read, and I honestly think I read it thinking it was saying what I wanted it to say (it’s like being a bad listener, except this is being a bad reader). But after rereading it and thinking about it and discussing it, I realized it was not something I agreed with. Therefore, that post is gone, but no worries, it is replicated here with an explanation, and the original post: Secret Revealed: What Every Godly Girl Wants in a Man is linked here, if you are curious.
Above the repost, my blurb said:
Thanks Fel for sharing. Ahhh, the great question: What kind of a man is a Godly woman looking for? I have to say I agree with the author. A Godly woman is looking for a man who strives to be like Jesus. A man who will push her and challenge her to grow closer to God and depend on God with her. A man who will pray with her, side by side. Not a man with a shallow label of religion, but a man who truly sees God’s hand in his life, every day. Both people should mirror who they have chosen to reflect. A woman needs to become what she is looking for.
“I want a man with a Bible is his hand, like this…”
[I love the high school quote I ended that blurb with, by the way. Always makes me smile.]
Anyway– here we go:
So, the original post says that “godly” women want Jesus (the term “godly” not meaning that these women are sanctified Mother Teresas but simply that they are striving to be a woman according to Proverbs 31). Okay, that is cool. I think one could safely say a Christian young woman loves Jesus, but that she should marry (a man who is like) Jesus? Whoa.
Someone much wiser than me was discussing this with me, and she wisely pointed out that no one would ever measure up to that. And I agree. It is pretty unfair to hold a human to the “Jesus” standard. When I reread the post, I thought, this isn’t talking about someone wanting to be like Jesus, but someone who is like Jesus. Then I thought: Am I like Jesus? And the answer is no. I am nowhere close to what Jesus was–I don’t even come close to what Mother Teresa or Amy Carmichael were (and they were HUMANS).
If I look at successful marriages and men and women that I admire, they are often older men and women who have had to go through difficult lessons, less than perfect lives and sacrifice. If someone would have taken the post’s requirements of being Jesus and measured these individuals before they got married, no one would have passed the test. NO ONE. Again, I wouldn’t pass the test.
It’s not fair to look for Jesus as a spouse because if a man were looking for a woman like Jesus, he would walk right past me and have every right to. Jesus is Jesus. We all need the actual Jesus, but we can’t pretend for another imperfect human to fill that void. Isn’t that one of the biggest flaws in our lives? We try to fill voids and feel complete with other human beings and things, but it doesn’t work that way.
I do think that two people planning to spend their lives together should mesh spiritually and have similar goals to grow together, and they should share beliefs, because beliefs are often at the core of our essence. You can’t fully understand a person and be fully intimate with them if you don’t understand and to some extent share their belief (if not you will probably think they are insane at some point). But, that said, we the people (wink) trying to grow and aspiring to reflect the character of God need to look for another human who wants to grow and seek like we do. There is a lot each gender seeks when seeking a partner as my wise mother told me. I mean, obviously people and doctors have written entire books on the topic. Women seek stability, security, love, etc. Men seek other things. It’s natural. Part of life. The key is to remember that no one is perfect (which should be obvious right?).
If you look for someone who has already “arrived”, you won’t find him/her. We have never “arrived.” If you are looking for a Jesus-to-marry on Tinder or at church, don’t be surprised if you don’t find him…
I stand by my comment: I do want a man who strives to be like Jesus, just like I want to–but that doesn’t mean he is like Jesus. I want someone who pushes me to grow and who will pray for me, just like I want to help another person grow and pray for him; a man who truly sees God’s hand in his life, every day. I can’t speak for masses, but I can speak for myself. I don’t know the formulas and I don’t do lists, but I want a human, a man who is flawed just as I am flawed. A man I won’t expect perfection from, just as I hope he doesn’t expect perfection from me. A man who isn’t afraid of challenge and growth.
I don’t have it all figured out. None of us do, right? It’s like my favorite novel, David Copperfield, where Davy can only see clearly in hindsight, with his gained maturity and after all of his mistakes. The end always makes me cry. As always, Dickens is on to something: His novel is like life. We learn and grow as we go, and the beauty of this is we get to find, not someone perfect, but someone to grow with us, imperfectly, along the way.
This little Davy has a lot to figure out, so I won’t pretend to be at the end of my book. 😉
Friday Glee: November 14, 2014
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Baby, it’s cold outside! Full-blown winter out here. And for some reason, the light rain and four-degree wind chill (I exaggerate…) with the twinkling lights makes us feel that life is like a Christmas jewelry commercial (with background music and all). New York City just has that vibe. It doesn’t always have that vibe. Only hours earlier, a dog walker was trying to convince fear out of a Jack Russell who was refusing to cross an intersection with a man standing in the middle of it dry shaving with an battery powered shaver. Things get weird around here. It’s not always a Tiffany’s Commercial on Fifth Ave.
It was a week of deep talk, BuzzFeed quizzes as breaks from work (that ‘Are You Type A?’ one is rigged), and sleepless nights.
It’s Friday, and for some of us, some adventures are just beginning.
Here are some thoughts for the journey:
“You have no business trying to find out where God is leading–the only thing God will explain to you is himself.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Not everyone you love is going to leave you.” Brian to Tibby, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” Madeleine L’Engle
“Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.” Rumi
“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” C. Joybell C.
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” C.S. Lewis
“No one has been brave enough to love you, and that shouldn’t make you sad; because you’ll find someone who fears you but is still brave enough to be with you, and that is worth a little heartbreak for now. Love will come, and it will need a courageous soul to stand and fight with it.” T.B. LaBerge, Unwritten Letters to You
“Start small with what’s in front of you and let God build it.” Joel Malm
This week, a popular theme in conversation was love. Here is to the hope that we will each find our match in intellect, spirituality, wit and ambition.
You will love being single, you will love not having to talk to anyone or do anything for a day, that you can do whatever you want because you are the master of your own life. But one day, you will realize that you want to be unselfish for someone, that you would rather have a lifetime with another soul than without; and that desire of being “free” that you so long held dear, will become a prison. Loving someone will start to be a freedom for you, and you will break all the chains of solitude that you once loved, just so you can experience the breathing process of loving another; this is when you know, that something within you has changed, and that you will never be the same.—T.B. LaBerge // Things I’m still learning at 25
“But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have to put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.” Psalm 73:28
GABRIELA YARELIZ 