Blogging from: the comfort of my awesome bed
Ash Wednesday
This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and I didn't actually receive my ashes until I attended 7 PM mass at St. Elizabeth. Luckily, I came in around 15 minutes before mass and was able to find a good seat because the parish was PACKED. It was nice to see so many people come out to celebrate the beginning of Lent and I suppose it's to be expected since St. Elizabeth is the largest parish Houston.
A beautiful mass was celebrated but something happened that really bothered me (Which reminds me of a particular sister who would go crazy if she saw this sight): after people were receiving their ashes they were just heading straight out the door. I was very much bothered by the fact that at the beginning of mass people were standing along the wall and packed into the atrium but then after the ashes were distributed only 1/5 of the whole congregation remained.
There was this family in front of me: a husband, wife, their sons, a teenage daughter, and grandma. The teen girl was looking around the church and when she saw that everyone was leaving I heard her pleading to her father, "Come on Dad let's go, everyone else is leaving. We're supposed to leave." What made me more angry was that after he heard his daughter's lobbying he started to survey the church. Then from his facial expression it was as if he was thinking to himself, "Yeah, everyone else is leaving, I guess there's no point in staying."
I seriously wanted to tap his shoulder and say, "Excuse me, sir, but we are not to leave until the priest dismisses us. Obviously, your daughter lacks patience and reverence." Haha, of course, this scenario was played out only in my head and was spawned from resentment.
The whole family ended up leaving before everyone received their ashes.
I looked up at the crucified Christ and asked Him, "How could you have suffered for people who can't even wait to leave your house? It pains me to see them treat you with such disrespect."
He spoke to me, "I love them just as I love you. I would die for each one of you individually, knowing that my love is not acknowledged at all times. This is how great my love is."
I remembered a younger Miguel who could not wait to leave church. He was still there, though, in the times when I didn't even know He was working in my life. I bowed my head in shame and asked Him for forgiveness. I looked down on on the faith of others when I, myself, sin on a daily basis. I have much patience to learn this Lent and I pray for a heart that may love others, just as the one our Lord has.
Tagalog
This happened back in early January when I first started doing P90X. I was at Sports Authority one night shopping around for some dumbbells. I went to check out and the cashier was this Filipina girl who sparked some conversation.
FG: are you filipino?
Me: haha yeah, you?
FG: yeah, *in tagalog* do you speak tagalog?
Me: *in tagalog* only a little bit
FG: *in tagalog* where are you from?
Me: Manila, Pasig City
FG: *chuckles*
Me: hmm?
FG: Sorry, your tagalog is terrible. You speak with an accent.
So we continued on with some more small talk but I left the store with this renewed passion to once again learn my native language. Next time I'm feeling superfluous with money I'll invest it in the Tagalog Rosetta Stone. It's like $230 just for level one, though, knowledge is expensive.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Three Nurses
Blogging from: Barnes & Noble on Highway 6
Three Nurses
This past Friday I had a pretty interesting experience while volunteering at MD Anderson. Instead of doing my usual Clinic Aide rounds, Margaret moved me to run the Cyber Center (computer lab/fax machine/printer/call center for patients).
I was getting a run down on how to use all the equipment and take calls when a lady walks in. As she was signing in, I glanced over and saw that she was lugging around a huge textbook with the word "NURSE" written across its cover. I thought to myself, "oh she must be a nursing student. I need to remember to spark some conversation with her if she's not too busy." Later, two more ladies walk in, one in a wheel chair and the other one pushing her. It was obvious the lady in the wheel chair was receiving her chemotherapy, as her head was covered by the caps we give out and she looked quite fatigued. They signed in and went to a computer.
30 minutes later and the lady who was pushing around her friend/relative got up and left the room. The scene is now the nursing student at her computer putting together a power point, the patient blogging at her computer, and me behind the check-in counter reading an article on uveal melanomas (which, by the way, was actually very interesting), all quiet, all entrenched in our own business.
After finishing the article I finally asked the nursing student,
"Excuse me, ma'am, are you a nursing student?"
"Actually, I'm a nurse, how did you know?"
"Oh, I saw your textbook."
It turned out that her husband was diagnosed with cancer and they moved to Houston for treatment, she's unemployed at the moment. The patient in the wheel chair then looks at us and says that she's also a nurse from which I reply, "Awesome, I'm applying to nursing school."
Exchanging smiles, they share their experiences as nursing students and work experience with me. As our conversations dig deeper, we come to learn that the three of us are also Christians. We all laugh realizing how the Hands of God brought 3 people in the same field of study with the same love for God together, alone in one room.
I was touched and amazed as they recounted their struggles battling cancer and how through it all God remained as the foundation of their comfort. The lady whose husband has cancer told us how 4 years ago the doctors said that her husband would only have 6 months to live. Obviously, God's plan for him was different.
The outpouring of love for God from these two ladies, even in their unfortunate situations, reminded me of how Christ is the strongest foundation and true beacon of healing. The night ended with each of us offering prayers to each other: me to them for their respective fights against cancer, and they to me for nursing school.
St. Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 1,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God."
Christ wipes away our tears when we weep, He picks us up when we fall, He carries us when we cannot walk, He is compassionate and empathetic to our sufferings, He embraces us with His warmth when we feel the shivering coldness of the world. He is not a band-aid that superficially covers up our cuts, but rather the clotting factors that heal our wounds from the inside out. Just as He does for us so, too, must we do for our fellow brothers and sisters.
P90X
A little more than 1/3 of the way through P90X and I dropped from pant size 32 to 30. I bought a cheap pair of jeans because it was getting too annoying to keep pulling up my pants. I told myself that I would go jeans shopping once I'm at the end of the 90 day program. It would, after all, be a waste of money to buy new jeans every time I went down a size. Who would want to waste money in this economy (or at all for that matter)?
I also feel much healthier after starting the program. My body is naturally starting to eat much less and is even rejecting foods that it knows are bad for me (i.e., oily, greasy, MCDONALDS). Seriously, just the sight of such food makes me want to hurl now a days. My vertical is also slightly higher (which isn't saying much since I have the leaping ability of a sumo wrestler). I feel more energetic/lively and my sleeping pattern has even started to look like that of a typical human being. Seriously, people, avoid the caffeine and just go outside and play if you want more energy. Exercise rules!
Three Nurses
This past Friday I had a pretty interesting experience while volunteering at MD Anderson. Instead of doing my usual Clinic Aide rounds, Margaret moved me to run the Cyber Center (computer lab/fax machine/printer/call center for patients).
I was getting a run down on how to use all the equipment and take calls when a lady walks in. As she was signing in, I glanced over and saw that she was lugging around a huge textbook with the word "NURSE" written across its cover. I thought to myself, "oh she must be a nursing student. I need to remember to spark some conversation with her if she's not too busy." Later, two more ladies walk in, one in a wheel chair and the other one pushing her. It was obvious the lady in the wheel chair was receiving her chemotherapy, as her head was covered by the caps we give out and she looked quite fatigued. They signed in and went to a computer.
30 minutes later and the lady who was pushing around her friend/relative got up and left the room. The scene is now the nursing student at her computer putting together a power point, the patient blogging at her computer, and me behind the check-in counter reading an article on uveal melanomas (which, by the way, was actually very interesting), all quiet, all entrenched in our own business.
After finishing the article I finally asked the nursing student,
"Excuse me, ma'am, are you a nursing student?"
"Actually, I'm a nurse, how did you know?"
"Oh, I saw your textbook."
It turned out that her husband was diagnosed with cancer and they moved to Houston for treatment, she's unemployed at the moment. The patient in the wheel chair then looks at us and says that she's also a nurse from which I reply, "Awesome, I'm applying to nursing school."
Exchanging smiles, they share their experiences as nursing students and work experience with me. As our conversations dig deeper, we come to learn that the three of us are also Christians. We all laugh realizing how the Hands of God brought 3 people in the same field of study with the same love for God together, alone in one room.
I was touched and amazed as they recounted their struggles battling cancer and how through it all God remained as the foundation of their comfort. The lady whose husband has cancer told us how 4 years ago the doctors said that her husband would only have 6 months to live. Obviously, God's plan for him was different.
The outpouring of love for God from these two ladies, even in their unfortunate situations, reminded me of how Christ is the strongest foundation and true beacon of healing. The night ended with each of us offering prayers to each other: me to them for their respective fights against cancer, and they to me for nursing school.
St. Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 1,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God."
Christ wipes away our tears when we weep, He picks us up when we fall, He carries us when we cannot walk, He is compassionate and empathetic to our sufferings, He embraces us with His warmth when we feel the shivering coldness of the world. He is not a band-aid that superficially covers up our cuts, but rather the clotting factors that heal our wounds from the inside out. Just as He does for us so, too, must we do for our fellow brothers and sisters.
P90X
A little more than 1/3 of the way through P90X and I dropped from pant size 32 to 30. I bought a cheap pair of jeans because it was getting too annoying to keep pulling up my pants. I told myself that I would go jeans shopping once I'm at the end of the 90 day program. It would, after all, be a waste of money to buy new jeans every time I went down a size. Who would want to waste money in this economy (or at all for that matter)?
I also feel much healthier after starting the program. My body is naturally starting to eat much less and is even rejecting foods that it knows are bad for me (i.e., oily, greasy, MCDONALDS). Seriously, just the sight of such food makes me want to hurl now a days. My vertical is also slightly higher (which isn't saying much since I have the leaping ability of a sumo wrestler). I feel more energetic/lively and my sleeping pattern has even started to look like that of a typical human being. Seriously, people, avoid the caffeine and just go outside and play if you want more energy. Exercise rules!
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