I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day today (hey, it's technically still Monday here in California.) I know today wasn't exactly celebrated since it did fall during Lent but that didn't stop the t.v. stations from airing different St. Patrick's related things. I watched part of the parade that went on in New York City and the Ireland episodes of the shows "Trip of a Lifetime" and "Passport to Europe" on the Travel Channel. I watched part of the history of the holiday on the National Geographic channel. I watched Celtic Thunder perform on a rerun on station much like PBS. I have to say, I became a fan of Celtic Thunder after watching them performing. All have outstanding voices and the songs were awesome. I also caught them during the beginning of the St. Patrick's Day parade -- that's actually what made me tune into their concert. I am definitely getting their album and DVD of that particular performance. Whoo! :)
While watching all the festivities, I managed to read a good chunk of St. Teresa of Avila's autobiography. I have to admit, I struggled getting through it. Not because it was hard to understand -- I found it very well written and easy to follow. I think it was because I had promised a certain amount of pages to Our Lady of Guadalupe and I encountered A LOT of temptations to quit. The good thing is that, though it took me nearly all day to finish those pages, I did and stuck to my word. I have never felt so sleepy or tired reading a book (that wasn't for a class) before so I looked at it as a test that I had to complete to show that I was strong enough to keep my word. It was hard! I kept feeling like I was going to just fall fast asleep on the bed or go completely insane (seriously, I would get images of myself going nuts) but I stuck it out. I also got these really rude images in my head while reading so I asked St. Michael Archangel to please put those images out of my head. All that struggle was completely worth it, though! What a wonderful book to read. I can see why I was told it would be a great book to read during Lent. It's really changing a number of my habits for the better. And, I keep on finding more and more in common with her.
I actually had a dream that involved me falling to my knees and praying, asking St. Teresa and St. Benedict of Nursia to help me because the devil was trying to take me away with him. It was pretty intense. Maybe, and this is me just thinking/writing out loud here, it was a warning that I was going to struggle with the book today with a lot of temptations. I know we're not supposed to read into dreams (and I know I've said this before) but I can't help but make the connections. I've also been dreaming about asking St. Benedict to save me lately so I am going to actually look more into his life. I know he's the patron against witchcraft and temptations. Ah, temptations... okay... I see the connection more clearly now. :D I definitely want to get a Prayer/Holy Card of him (I have a thing about collecting Holy Cards of saints) to have with me.
Alright, well, sorry for such a short entry but I really am pretty tired. I want to get some sleep and get myself ready for my chat with Fr. Leo. I have a lot I want to talk to him about. I want to prepare because if I don't get my thoughts collected beforehand, I will forget. Boo for my forgetful mind, which I never had before. :D Okay, I am starting to ramble on. I will stop. lol. As always, thanks for reading and God Bless.
Showing posts with label Passport to Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passport to Europe. Show all posts
Monday, March 17, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Fasting, Niceness and England.
Well... I did it. I fasted longer than I did last weekend, and it ended in tears. I... am... weak! lol. I tried to hold out as long as I could but about 2 hours ago I just started crying because I was so hungry and hunger apparently makes me emotional. lol. Yeeaah. It's kinda funny. lol. I ate twice earlier today but I just ate to have food in my stomach. I didn't actually eat until I was full. It sucks that all the food in the house either a) makes me sick because I'm allergic to it or b) is meat. Actually, there's a long story there but it's kinda personal so, not going there. :D Anyway, I am going to be SO HAPPY when I get to go vegan/vegetarian shopping tomorrow -- that means I will be grocery shopping at organic stores that specialize in foods for vegans/vegetarians. ABOUT STINKIN' TIME! lol. Okay, I'm going to change topics because I still have like 10 hours before I go shopping and I am still hungry here!
Today was a lovely day and people were being super nice to me for some reason. Not just people I know... but complete strangers. I had the door opened for me by a total stranger, which was nice. What I thought was super nice was the fact that he saw me heading for the door, rushed ahead of me to open it for (he was in another section), and once I was out he went back in the direction he was originally going in. That's never happened to me before. It was very sweet. I also received a pretty out-of-the-blue gift from one of my best friends. I'm surprised it got here so soon because it usually takes a long time for things to get here from England. :D
And, speaking of England... how is it that some of the nicest people I've ever met come from that country or choose to be in that country? I'm serious. Two of my best friends are English and a few of my best American friends are there (or in Scotland) for either school or work. I was chatting with a good friend of mine a few days ago about how we both feel more at home in London, and England as a whole, than we do here in Southern California. I believe he is thinking about living out there sometime in the future. If I ever end up living there, I'd love to live in the English countryside. I'm just in love with Bath and that area. I actually almost attended Bath Spa University (and was very excited about it) but dad got sick, money issues came up and the plans were scrapped. Oh well. I don't regret it because I know I will be out there, even if it's just visiting, the first chance I get.
Just like my love of the Irish culture (which I wrote about 2 entries back), my love of England began at a young age. You can thank the literature for that. :D What I find very funny is that I've dreamt myself in certain parts of England way before I've visited them... or even known about them. In my teens, I had a dream I was vacationing in St. Ives (in Cornwall) years before I saw it on the show Passport to Europe. I remember the first time I watched the episode I went "*jaw drops* I WAS THERE IN MY DREAM!" Just as Samantha Brown was walking around the streets, talking about the town, I saw things I'd seen in my dreams. In another dream a while after my first dream, I saw another thing that was featured in the Cornwall episode of that show... St. Michael's Mount. I still remember the dream and how I was walking on the water, away from the island, and thinking to myself "This is so cool! I hope to come back and do this again someday." I was around 17 years old when I had this year and I didn't see this episode until about a year ago or two. It's very weird but it's the little things like this that make me feel that I'm somehow connected to England. It's comforting too, because I've never felt at home in my hometown so to have a feeling like that with another country is awesome. :D
Alright, well... I am going to go geek out over the music playlist I made on my facebook account. Except for the top 10 songs, I shuffled the rest so it's fun to go through all 70+ songs because I have no idea in what ordered they were shuffled in. :D 'Til next time... thanks for reading and God Bless. :D
Today was a lovely day and people were being super nice to me for some reason. Not just people I know... but complete strangers. I had the door opened for me by a total stranger, which was nice. What I thought was super nice was the fact that he saw me heading for the door, rushed ahead of me to open it for (he was in another section), and once I was out he went back in the direction he was originally going in. That's never happened to me before. It was very sweet. I also received a pretty out-of-the-blue gift from one of my best friends. I'm surprised it got here so soon because it usually takes a long time for things to get here from England. :D
And, speaking of England... how is it that some of the nicest people I've ever met come from that country or choose to be in that country? I'm serious. Two of my best friends are English and a few of my best American friends are there (or in Scotland) for either school or work. I was chatting with a good friend of mine a few days ago about how we both feel more at home in London, and England as a whole, than we do here in Southern California. I believe he is thinking about living out there sometime in the future. If I ever end up living there, I'd love to live in the English countryside. I'm just in love with Bath and that area. I actually almost attended Bath Spa University (and was very excited about it) but dad got sick, money issues came up and the plans were scrapped. Oh well. I don't regret it because I know I will be out there, even if it's just visiting, the first chance I get.
Just like my love of the Irish culture (which I wrote about 2 entries back), my love of England began at a young age. You can thank the literature for that. :D What I find very funny is that I've dreamt myself in certain parts of England way before I've visited them... or even known about them. In my teens, I had a dream I was vacationing in St. Ives (in Cornwall) years before I saw it on the show Passport to Europe. I remember the first time I watched the episode I went "*jaw drops* I WAS THERE IN MY DREAM!" Just as Samantha Brown was walking around the streets, talking about the town, I saw things I'd seen in my dreams. In another dream a while after my first dream, I saw another thing that was featured in the Cornwall episode of that show... St. Michael's Mount. I still remember the dream and how I was walking on the water, away from the island, and thinking to myself "This is so cool! I hope to come back and do this again someday." I was around 17 years old when I had this year and I didn't see this episode until about a year ago or two. It's very weird but it's the little things like this that make me feel that I'm somehow connected to England. It's comforting too, because I've never felt at home in my hometown so to have a feeling like that with another country is awesome. :D
Alright, well... I am going to go geek out over the music playlist I made on my facebook account. Except for the top 10 songs, I shuffled the rest so it's fun to go through all 70+ songs because I have no idea in what ordered they were shuffled in. :D 'Til next time... thanks for reading and God Bless. :D
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