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What a beautiful gift this man brought to the world, with no shame or hidden agenda.  Please pray for the soul of Pavarotti and his family. He will be missed.

Grace

Just check out You Tube’s Miss Teen speeches. That’s all I need say…..

I will be the first person to tell you that there is always room for personal growth in my life, as it should be for everyone.  I do not strive to be perfect, I strive to be excellent, and therefore if I have learned something that is true, I believe that I should share it to the best of my ability.

The topic for today is hypocrisy, and the biggest problem I have with hypocrisy is when it is diplayed in religion or faith.  For I have seen in the world, those who claim to be Christian speak the words of truth or of the Word of God, but do not live it out. And yet, those that I see that make no such claim but do, I believe that God must be working in their lives as well.  What I find it comes down to is that hypocrites of religion or faith perhaps do not know what it is to be selfless or truly loving. 

This scripture comes to mind 1Corinthians 13: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing”…This verse goes on to talk about how prophecy and knowledge will end, but love will never end.  If this is so, will those who are hypocrits who speak about God but do not live their life in his love and his teaching, consider themselves to really live the Christian life?

I know for myself that God gave to us many beautiful gifts and that every life is precious. To me, that means that every person I meet needs to be shown the love that God has given me to give to others.  God has given me many gifts like chastity, love, a caring family, good friends, hope, theology, etc…Having study these areas since I was a small child, I feel that truth has been revealed to me in each gift.  I pray everyday that I will walk the walk I talk. And you know what? I’ve never given up yet to be as excellent as I can be.

Please pray for those who speak but do not live it.  You may know the truth, you must still choose  to live it.

Peace to all,

Grace

The last couple days at work have been so busy, the busiest I have ever worked, but after starting my days with longer peaceful prayers, I have two days in a row now, not felt any anger or anxiety in my heart.  I feel like the Holy Spirit is influencing how I behave and that God is giving me great, great strength.

And let me tell you, I needed it. At work, they gave me an assignment two days in a row that would be impossible to do, if it were not for the fact that they assigned a new orientee to work with me who was very proficient in her skills.  You know, it really was amazing, I finally managed to find balance and peace in my heart, knowing full well that my day would be non-stop.

I literally spent about 7-8 hours with one patient today, that’s how heavy it was.  My other patients were lucky to see me.  But I had many tasks to perform (six dressings for the one patient alone, as well as many other tasks) and only 12 hours to do them in.  But somehow, I just kept finding reasons to smile, kept having the energy. On the two days of work in my life so far I should have been crying, I just took it with smile and saw how it was my work and service others that I must do these tasks for the good of the person.  And I think it started with two things…

One: Lent and Easter are wonderful times of re-evaluation and rebirth. I feel so moved to be in a deeper relationship with Christ and living morally it is just so inspiring.

Two:actually, two is two parts. You see, I was taking care of a very heavy patient whose husband kept thanking me and thanking me for fighting for his wife (both of us)  and taking care of her and thanking me more and I usually say “no problem.”  I just thought of this as a kind gesture on his part. However, I went and sat down, literally for one minute in the charting room as I needed a minute to breath.  I picked up a card that a family member had given us for a patient who had died, thanking us for everything we had done.  But what the card explained is the GRATITUDE they felt toward our staff. They spoke of how gratitude towards someone can never be tainted after a certain task is done. It lives with the person who recieves the kindness and is remembered for a lifetime.  I never really thought of it that way but they were right.  Although people can hurt me or I don’t like something they did, if they did a great task for me, the gratitude for that task, for that person was never lost; not once. And so, with this heavy patient, I went into the room and informed him that what we had fought for all day was finally going to happen. I could tell he wanted to hug me, but he reached into his bag instead and gave me a small gift.  With tears in his eyes he patted me on the back and said thank you.  And I got it. I understood his gratitude; I think until that point I thought I had been nursing and not making much of a difference. ( I think a lot of people don’t realize the difference they make everyday).  And now, when I look at him, after his long battle, he looks at me with trust in his eyes.  God bless his soul.

I fell asleep while eating during all of my breaks, my legs were like Jello, my head spinning, I couldn’t have answered one more question if I had tried.  And then, I went out into the hall and I saw a colleauge walking toward me.  She had tears in their eyes.  I can’t say what happened but I had never seen any staff cry before.  I looked at her and asked her what happened, she told me, and I just hugged her and let her cry into my shoulder.  As I tell this story, I get tears in my eyes, but at the time, I didn’t cry.  I just stayed strong and kept going.  I even stayed late to make sure she left okay. 

 At work, I don’t cry, which most people I know probably can’t believe because I, and the women of my family, are weepers.  I cry when babies are born, I cry when a teens’ death is broadcast across the news.  Situations move me more than most people will ever know. I just think life is so precious.

Had I been stressed I may have cried, but God was granting me peace.  I thank God for the strength he gave me today. And you know what? I’m glad, with the help of God, the love of my family, fiance, and friends, I can make it through the tough stuff. I’m glad my life is challenging and tough sometimes.  It really helps me grow….

So, I have to clear something up oh reader. I was sitting here blogging the other day, after I turned my taps off, and there was a knock at my door. The handyman of the building came in and told me he was here to shut my taps off.  I looked at him perplexed and then he explained to me that while he was fixing my light switch, the people belong me needed some assistance witht their plumbing, which required him (for some reason) to turn on my taps. He did this of course while I was not in the apartment.

So, the case of the spontaneous tap is solved!!

Grace

Happy Easter to all!  I just wanted to say that I had a very splendid and interesting Easter with my family, Ken’s family (hosting Easter breakfast at my place), singing at all the masses and spending time with my friends.

To my wonderful fiance, thank you for allowing me to host Easter breakfast and for all the hard work we did preparing, and thanks for putting up with my stress levels.  And driving me home after my glass of wine….

Thanks to all the music ministry and campus ministry volunteers and priests for the wonderful services this weekend as well. 

As we carry on with this glorious Easter season, may we allow Christ to transform our lives and may we live in the peace he gave us.

God bless,

Grace