Photo by Benoit Preverelli for Madame.lefigaro.fr Purifiée : mise en beauté Mickael Noiselet pour Clarins
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I read an article that was all about restoring our body and skin and detoxing. It speaks of the dangers of some fad diets and fasting, but the benefits of some simpler purer diets and a more controlled and safe fasting. Here is an excerpt (the heading is linked to the article):
Être en forme physique et mentale. Ne pas le concevoir comme une punition mais comme un cadeau que l’on se fait. Choisir un jour off et le transformer en rituel beauté et bien-être, avec massages, bains, masques, hammam relaxation, […] Se réveiller naturellement, boire un verre d’eau à température ambiante (si possible déminéralisée). Aller marcher une ou deux heures (de préférence au vert) ou pratiquer une activité physique douce. À midi, un jus de fruits frais de saison (fraîchement pressé ou centrifugé). Sieste avec compresse chaude sur le foie. Balade ou activité physique douce. Le soir, un bouillon de légumes (carottes, poireaux, navets, oignons, tomates, herbes fraîches…). Boire régulièrement eau ou tisanes (romarin, thym, fenouil, chardon-Marie…). Le lendemain, prévoir des menus légers, faciles à digérer.Infusions coups de pouce: Melissane Digestion, Detox Tea de Detox Delight, Detox de Kusmi Tea.-Marion Louis, La folie diete
Google Translation: “Be physically and mentally fit. Do not think of it as a punishment but as a gift that we do for ourselves. Choose a day off and turn it into ritual beauty and well-being, with massages, baths, masks, steam relaxation, […] Wake up naturally, drink a glass of water at room temperature (if possible demineralized). Go for a walk an hour or two (preferably green) or playing a gentle physical activity. At noon, juice fresh seasonal fruit (freshly squeezed or centrifuged). Nap with hot compress on the liver. Walking and gentle physical activity. In the evening, a vegetable (carrots , leeks , turnips, onions, tomatoes, fresh herbs … ) . Regularly drink water or herbal tea (rosemary, thyme , fennel, thistle … ). The next day, provide light menus , easy to digest. Infusions: Melissane Digestion, Detox Tea Detox Delight, Kusmi Tea Detox.”
2014 has been a year of detoxing for me. Getting rid of gluten, GMO, processed products (including veggie meat), and eating a lot more veggies and juicing. After my detox and withdraws (there were times when I felt terribly hungry and not very happy), I feel great, and it’s reflecting on my skin and body. Something worth considering…
Based on Tony Evans: Jehovah Jireh-The Lord Will Provide message (click here to listen)
Sometimes, a condition to a blessing is action. God provides when He sees us act in faith.
Jireh, means to see. Provision requires pre-vision. “It’s when He [God] sees, that He provides.”
“Could it be you’ve been waiting for five years for something God would’ve given to you in five minutes, if He still wasn’t waiting for you to complete your sacrifice.” Dr. Tony Evans
Just as in the case of Abraham, when he was tested and told to sacrifice Isaac, God often waits to see if we are willing to sacrifice what we love most (the blessing) to obey and show superior love to the blessor. Sacrificing Isaac was a test because God provided a ram for the sacrifice.
Sometimes, our solution is right next to us (like the ram in the story of Abraham), but we’ll never know it until God sees we are ready for Him to reveal it. Abraham had to put Isaac on the altar for the provision of the ram to be revealed.
God gives, but He often wants to see what we are willing to give up when we worship.
When God instructed Abraham, Abraham arose immediately to comply.
“Delayed obedience is immediate disobedience. Partial obedience is complete disobedience.” Dr. Tony Evans.
We often want delayed or partial obedience and full manifestation. God doesn’t work that way. (Paraphrase)
God put Abraham in a situation that only He [God] could fix Himself.
Are you willing to give to God the thing you love most?
“Are you willing to trust God with your Isaac?”
Isaac is a type of everything God wants to give you. He wants to know He has you before He unleashes the blessings from heaven and pours them on you. (Paraphrase)
“When Abraham was willing to put Isaac on the table, He got Isaac and everything else. Some of us are willing to keep Isaac and give up Isaac plus everything else.” Dr. Tony Evans
Gertrude was a mentor and friend to Ernest Hemingway, and he speaks of her in his memoir, A Moveable Feast, fondly yet realistically, as one can only do when you know someone and his or her intricacies very well. She is known to have coined the phrase, “a lost generation.” Many say this describes society after World War I, after so many young men lost their lives fighting. She, however, used this to describe the young men who remained. She described the expatriates in Paris who drank a lot and had certain lifestyles, as a “lost generation.” She often criticized Hemingway’s drinking habits.
Sometimes, it seems like our generation is not too far off. Perhaps, we are even worse than they were before. We young people only care about money, self-destructive habits that seem okay because they are “socially acceptable” and getting ahead only for ourselves in the way that requires the least work sacrificing anything (value and morals) or anyone who stands in the way. We are selfish and honestly, absolute imbeciles. In a college class, what you will see are laptops open to shopping websites or Facebook. These are the future world leaders, the future of our country, the future? God help us.
We want shortcuts, fame, money, some glamorous façade of being an imitation of people we admire despite them being slaves to their own addictions and disastrous lifestyles.
Gertrude Stein would’ve probably looked at us in horror. Forget Gertrude, she’s no longer here. How does God feel when He looks upon our lost generation? We are lost, not because we were abandoned, but because we took the map and burned it.
Hemingway’s lost generation was a generation that was self-destructive, but still took time to think, feel and live life. Today, people don’t have a moment of silence to self-analyze, to feel, to live. We would rather sit in front of something that tells us how to live. We would rather do things we know are not right, to fit in. We would rather die slaves, than live free.
3]
“But some things, no matter how unlikely, are just supposed to happen. You know what I mean. Some things just smack of the future and feel part of an overarching rightness.”
― Marisa de los Santos, Belong to Me
4] Favorite Psalm of the month: Psalm 73
New King James Version (BibleGateway)
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish;
You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God;
I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,
That I may declare all Your works.
5]
6] We are back in schooooooool. Reading, less sleep, pages, pages, pages… but we are here because we love it.
Stephen Colbert had too much fun with this, but it was clever.
8] Gori Tere Pyaar Mein- a fabulous love story about a social activist [Kareena Kapoor] and a self-absorbed young man [Imran Khan]. As he accepts an arranged marriage to a young woman who is in love with someone else, before the wedding, she forces him to remember the love of his life. He then realizes, it’s never too late to be with who you love and to grow as a person by caring about someone other than himself.
“For a president invested in showing leadership by setting the tone for discussions of race at home, he should answer that question directly. He should then announce an end to signature strikes, since nobody should ever be killed based on how they look or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Each person hits walls of frustration and sadness. We all have our rough patches. Today, I found my devotional, Limitless, by Nick Vujicic, so inspiring.
“Just know better days are ahead, and this too shall pass. Your comeback, like mine, may come in small steps day by day, over a period of weeks or months. I hope yours comes quickly, but there are benefits to gradual revival. As the fog of despair lifts, be grateful for every ray of light that comes through.”Limitless, Nick Vujicic, pg. 111 (Water Brook)
/Prefiero caer luchando siendo valiente
ya supe que aunque se gane no es suficiente
no se puede ser feliz cuando a tu lado lloran
a veces toca sufrir
lo entiendo a mi persona
prefiero bailar con ganas aunque no sepa
los filos del corazón mueven mi marioneta
no puedo ni quiero ser aquello que no soy
prefiero seguir presente
allá por donde voy/-Manuel Carrasco, Prefiero Seguir Presente
“My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26
“But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.” Psalm 73:28
See the beauty and life in every day. In the boxing ring of life, it’s not about never falling, but about being the last one standing.
Today, be bold, fight brave, find joy and be all there, in the present.
“Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” pg. 22, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It’s finally warmer than 60 degrees in my little living space. It’s warm out; warm meaning 20 degrees. Yesterday, the weather warmed up when it started to snow. The snow looked so beautiful. It always falls in blinding swirls, but beautiful blinding swirls. The city is bustling with snow. It is in no way dormant or quiet. Delivery guys ride their bikes on the sidewalk, always making for an exciting near-death experience when you suddenly realize that there is a bike coming at you for a head-on collision, but you had failed to notice because you were blinded by snow.
The city isn’t the only thing that seems to be bursting with energy and life, despite the world being frozen over. Some people are sick, but they press on (who has time to be sick?). Recently, there have been a lot of broken hearts. The thing about these hearts is they are hearts that were once frozen in fear and indecision, and suddenly, now that they are free, they are alive again.
Others are thawing the icy philosophies that envelope their hearts. Some are building snow forts around their souls. Some are stubborn and ignoring mistakes, beginning the slide, chest-first, on the icy lane of destruction.
The world is frozen; it reminds me of how we can be so frozen with fear, arrogance, selfishness, indecision, sadness and stubbornness.
Lately, the questions swirling in the air is: Is “this” something you are willing to live with? “This” can be a person, a habit, a decision, a lifestyle, a circumstance–
No matter what happens, it was brought to my attention that we must always dare to dream.
No matter what weather comes our way (sometimes it’s out of our control), we must not lay dormant and blanketed by the snow, but decide to bustle and live in the swirling madness and beauty.
Maybe thawing isn’t possible right now, so instead dance in the magical inconvenience. It can still be beautiful.
Words have power. What we say can cause serious damage.
“With it [tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” (verse 9)
We got to watch it.
James 3:4-16
English Standard Version (ESV)
4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Wisdom from Above
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 