i have a new goal for the end of the year. :) i'm really excited about it, and it was actually inspired by my visit to the nuyorican on friday with the brazilian. gotta love it :) it's going to be good, and i'm starting today...love it!
home is soon! gotta pack. one day, time of your song, for you, and repeat. i think i love it a lot and it's gonna help me get through packing tonight.
that's all for now folks...get excited! new york is bringing out all types of culture for me. i wonder if this exists in orange county...hmm...probably not. :)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
through the branches
though i have asked mary multiple times, and she has repeatedly explained the answer to me that same number of times, i still struggle with it. here goes: why is it that though it is sunny....it is FREEZING outside? i don't get it!! haha that has been quite the struggle, and the fact is that indeed, this is possible. instead of busting out my rainbows like i'm used to doing when the sun is shining, instead, i'm wearing my uggs. there is something so wrong here! especially with the fact that i am bundled up with my little coat, scarf, arm warmers, and gloves. excellent.
much has happened since the last time i actually had time to sit down and blog...all has been so good, and very much grace-filled. i am continually fed, emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally, and in every possible way, with my mission here in new york. the struggles end up becoming filled with grace, and the moments of grace are inexplainably wonderful.
i go home in less than a week, and it is crazy to see how fast time flies. crazy to realize that in less than a week, i will be on a plane, not headed to new york, but indeed headed back home to orange county, to see my family, sugar, spice, snoopy, and all my friends. i absolutely LOVE it! all i know is that me, jess, and ry are super excited to go back home to orange county, lounge on our couches at home, and eat all the in-n-out that we want. it will definitely be a breath of fresh air, and yet i feel like vacation always comes at a good time. it is interesting to think of, however, where i will be a year from today. where will i be? sure i have an idea, but at the end of the day, the God of surprises has yet to make that known to me, and watch me move in my life too.
it has been quite the past few weeks, where i had the experience of going to a a show where an opera singer sang motown songs, sitting through voidwell with JD, going to a matisyahu concert, walking around strand bookstore looking at interesting photobooks, dancing for 3 hours straight and loving every bit of it (let loose!), visiting kco's apartment finally, cookies with JD, endless nights and spontaneous dropins at amy's to see ryan, discovery at grand central, hangin out with jackie in the city, seeing Jesus in places i never thought possible, putting together my first artificial christmas tree, playing keyboard in my room until all hours of the night, jumping up out of bed and busting into a dance, and loving time spent with m&m...it has all been good.
i can see it now. when i get to church, people will ask me, as they have already been asking my mom, "how is crystal?" and my mom always gives the same answer i feel, " she's great! she loves it. " haha, it will be interesting and quite curious to see what responses i get back from everyone, but handling those questions in the two seconds that people may mildly be interested for, may be quite the task. i will just rope them in...maybe tell them a few stories or so in 2 minutes. i'll see if i can do it. :)
saying something as simple as, " it has been amazing and wonderful ! " does not nearly capture the experience in the tiniest bit, but i pray that God may give me the vocabulary that i need to do my best when talking to the curious. haha :) oh my life...it is good.
listen to my heart...that's what i gotta do...trust in the Lord, he is good. i believe it.
looking forward to spiritual direction tonight, and dancing. FOR SURE. :)
much has happened since the last time i actually had time to sit down and blog...all has been so good, and very much grace-filled. i am continually fed, emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally, and in every possible way, with my mission here in new york. the struggles end up becoming filled with grace, and the moments of grace are inexplainably wonderful.
i go home in less than a week, and it is crazy to see how fast time flies. crazy to realize that in less than a week, i will be on a plane, not headed to new york, but indeed headed back home to orange county, to see my family, sugar, spice, snoopy, and all my friends. i absolutely LOVE it! all i know is that me, jess, and ry are super excited to go back home to orange county, lounge on our couches at home, and eat all the in-n-out that we want. it will definitely be a breath of fresh air, and yet i feel like vacation always comes at a good time. it is interesting to think of, however, where i will be a year from today. where will i be? sure i have an idea, but at the end of the day, the God of surprises has yet to make that known to me, and watch me move in my life too.
it has been quite the past few weeks, where i had the experience of going to a a show where an opera singer sang motown songs, sitting through voidwell with JD, going to a matisyahu concert, walking around strand bookstore looking at interesting photobooks, dancing for 3 hours straight and loving every bit of it (let loose!), visiting kco's apartment finally, cookies with JD, endless nights and spontaneous dropins at amy's to see ryan, discovery at grand central, hangin out with jackie in the city, seeing Jesus in places i never thought possible, putting together my first artificial christmas tree, playing keyboard in my room until all hours of the night, jumping up out of bed and busting into a dance, and loving time spent with m&m...it has all been good.
i can see it now. when i get to church, people will ask me, as they have already been asking my mom, "how is crystal?" and my mom always gives the same answer i feel, " she's great! she loves it. " haha, it will be interesting and quite curious to see what responses i get back from everyone, but handling those questions in the two seconds that people may mildly be interested for, may be quite the task. i will just rope them in...maybe tell them a few stories or so in 2 minutes. i'll see if i can do it. :)
saying something as simple as, " it has been amazing and wonderful ! " does not nearly capture the experience in the tiniest bit, but i pray that God may give me the vocabulary that i need to do my best when talking to the curious. haha :) oh my life...it is good.
listen to my heart...that's what i gotta do...trust in the Lord, he is good. i believe it.
looking forward to spiritual direction tonight, and dancing. FOR SURE. :)
Thursday, December 3, 2009
examen of the week
so the last i wrote, we were on our way back to the city from new york. that night, we had my sister's last dinner here in new york, before she got on a plane to move to hawaii! that's right, the sister moved to hawaii on saturday afternoon. off to her place in brooklyn we went at 8am, me, her friend janet, my best friend ryan (also, her roommate for the past 4 months), and her doggy alecs. we rented a car, took a trip to the aeropuerto, and off she went. crazy how that is, that she has made that leap of faith, but how beautiful it is at the same time. to be able to go where you feel you should be, while it is risky, maybe scary, there is the peace that comes with it too. it is like a deep stirring within, and if anything, i think it is wonderful that she has decided to make the move to go where she feels she should be. :)
now, that leaves one catalan in new york. now, while that is quite unfortunate, as i was processing it with my spiritual director on tuesday, it is also as if she really helped in my transition here to new york. we were able to spend some time together, and what a gift that is, that we made it tradition to meet up with each other at least once a week. while that seems like nothing, especially for sisters, with our busy schedules, it was what we were able to manage, and we did a great job doing it! so the rest of saturday was somewhat of a lull, and i got started on my christmas cards. love it!
sunday was a very church filled day. sang at the 930 mass with beautiful music...gotta love the beginning of advent!! yay! then headed over to meet up for lunch with mary and michelle, then attended filipino mass at pompeii, then called 911 for an emergency...someone passed out :(...homie was brought to the hospital, but he seems to be ok now. then headed over to meet mary and michelle at mass with some GSV ladies and then we got dollar pizza. so classy. i love it! so it was a beautiful faith-filled day. one of the best things of that day was that i saw people lugging around their suitcases...it is definitely travelling season...and with the crazy subway stations (all the stairs and ups and downs), i saw many people giving people a hand and offering their help. it was just lovely! and they say new yorkers are mean, angry people. shoot. haha, welp!
monday was wonderful! i have been in contact with a carmelite who is in charge of the carmelite NGO out here in new york with the united nations, and we got to have a meeting with her at her office...find out more about the work they are doing, and specifically on human trafficking and climate change (relating to the millennium goals). she gave us different things to read, and a lot of wisdom...it was wonderful to have conversation about these social problems and try to dive into them a little bit more...sure there is a ministry of being with those who are suffering, and who are facing injustices, but i also see the importance of getting to the root of the problem, and seeing how i can play my part in stopping it from continuing...the prevention. it's so important. oh, it was so great! even though it was raining...to be able to see that she attends all of these conferences that i have researched in college...it was just remarkable. such a blessing!
tuesday, we had our sophomore retreat, and i loved it. we had it yesterday too...the skits were awesome, and we talked about relationships - not just romantic relationships, but relationships in general...it was great to share some of my experiences, not necessarily acknowledging them as my own, but being able to provide them with wisdom...if i can call it that! :)...from what i know. there's a level of maturity that has to go in it, of course, and it was just wonderful to have discussion about these real life issues that these ladies are facing. i learned lots, that's for sure. i think in a great, beautiful way, they also put me at ease in a lot of ways.
tuesday night, me, michelle, and mary saw the blind side, and it was so great! so inspiring...beautiful story! wednesday, me and michelle hung out at the girls' basketball game...we won!! woohooo! it's crazy how into it i get, but it was just so awesome to watch the girls do their thing on the court! they are great! AND they won. :) haha did i already say that? so proud of them! and then we went to novena/mass at pompeii...sure enough, the bishop of samar, and a couple of other priests from jersey were in town, and so we had some delicious food. thank you for feeding us :) haha.
it's been such a whirlwind of things happening after one another, but in such a good way. yes, i'm busy, but busy for me is good. i still get time to process at the end of my day, and i think that that is really important. my 19th annotation is awesome, and while challenging, it is something that is truly helping me live out my "spiritual component" in full mode. :)
i go home sooonnnn and i am looking forward to it, that's for sure!! the sun is out today. be happy for me and new yorkers. :)
i will leave you with this (thank you to Gina and Sr. Grace!)
To the true servant of God, every place is the right place and every time is the right time. - St. Catherine of Siena
now, that leaves one catalan in new york. now, while that is quite unfortunate, as i was processing it with my spiritual director on tuesday, it is also as if she really helped in my transition here to new york. we were able to spend some time together, and what a gift that is, that we made it tradition to meet up with each other at least once a week. while that seems like nothing, especially for sisters, with our busy schedules, it was what we were able to manage, and we did a great job doing it! so the rest of saturday was somewhat of a lull, and i got started on my christmas cards. love it!
sunday was a very church filled day. sang at the 930 mass with beautiful music...gotta love the beginning of advent!! yay! then headed over to meet up for lunch with mary and michelle, then attended filipino mass at pompeii, then called 911 for an emergency...someone passed out :(...homie was brought to the hospital, but he seems to be ok now. then headed over to meet mary and michelle at mass with some GSV ladies and then we got dollar pizza. so classy. i love it! so it was a beautiful faith-filled day. one of the best things of that day was that i saw people lugging around their suitcases...it is definitely travelling season...and with the crazy subway stations (all the stairs and ups and downs), i saw many people giving people a hand and offering their help. it was just lovely! and they say new yorkers are mean, angry people. shoot. haha, welp!
monday was wonderful! i have been in contact with a carmelite who is in charge of the carmelite NGO out here in new york with the united nations, and we got to have a meeting with her at her office...find out more about the work they are doing, and specifically on human trafficking and climate change (relating to the millennium goals). she gave us different things to read, and a lot of wisdom...it was wonderful to have conversation about these social problems and try to dive into them a little bit more...sure there is a ministry of being with those who are suffering, and who are facing injustices, but i also see the importance of getting to the root of the problem, and seeing how i can play my part in stopping it from continuing...the prevention. it's so important. oh, it was so great! even though it was raining...to be able to see that she attends all of these conferences that i have researched in college...it was just remarkable. such a blessing!
tuesday, we had our sophomore retreat, and i loved it. we had it yesterday too...the skits were awesome, and we talked about relationships - not just romantic relationships, but relationships in general...it was great to share some of my experiences, not necessarily acknowledging them as my own, but being able to provide them with wisdom...if i can call it that! :)...from what i know. there's a level of maturity that has to go in it, of course, and it was just wonderful to have discussion about these real life issues that these ladies are facing. i learned lots, that's for sure. i think in a great, beautiful way, they also put me at ease in a lot of ways.
tuesday night, me, michelle, and mary saw the blind side, and it was so great! so inspiring...beautiful story! wednesday, me and michelle hung out at the girls' basketball game...we won!! woohooo! it's crazy how into it i get, but it was just so awesome to watch the girls do their thing on the court! they are great! AND they won. :) haha did i already say that? so proud of them! and then we went to novena/mass at pompeii...sure enough, the bishop of samar, and a couple of other priests from jersey were in town, and so we had some delicious food. thank you for feeding us :) haha.
it's been such a whirlwind of things happening after one another, but in such a good way. yes, i'm busy, but busy for me is good. i still get time to process at the end of my day, and i think that that is really important. my 19th annotation is awesome, and while challenging, it is something that is truly helping me live out my "spiritual component" in full mode. :)
i go home sooonnnn and i am looking forward to it, that's for sure!! the sun is out today. be happy for me and new yorkers. :)
i will leave you with this (thank you to Gina and Sr. Grace!)
To the true servant of God, every place is the right place and every time is the right time. - St. Catherine of Siena
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