In continuing
with yesterday’s post about things that refresh my soul, but this time in
community with others. Girlfriends, all women need a good set of girls for
comfort, support and relation. I have
been blessed with many great women who challenge, encourage and accept me. When I am feeling down (though I usually
would rather be alone) making the effort to interact with my besties always nourishes
my soul. This past weekend I got to enjoy
some time with my girls (who are my family) and though they are not Christian
spending time with them always lifts my spirit.
I mentioned that they are not Christian because for a while I thought my
Catholic conversion would affect my non-Christian relationships. Many told me that after they became Christian
they just didn’t have anything in common with their previous relationships and terminated
those bonds. I am not going to lie some
of our views are very different, but our love for one another is greater. This past weekend I got to unload with them
all the stresses I have been experiencing and they listened and lifted my
spirits making great jokes about my silly worries. They stuffed me with good homemade food and
sent me away full both in body and spirit.
Novenas. I love praying novenas with my friends. Now getting together for nine days to pray is
not possible – coordinating schedules and the distance we live from one another
makes it quite difficult. However,
thanks to social media I am able to pray with them virtually. The first Ave Maria cruise I went on I met two
girls that have been referred to on this blog as my cruise angels. Since, that first cruise we have been praying
novenas together even though I live in California, one lives in Houston and the
other in Guadalajara. I think I was
going through some crisis and I asked them if they would pray for me and Guadalajara
suggested we pray a novena together and thus our prayer group was born. Just last week we finished a Novena to Saint
Faustina!
Mom, she
always pokes her head in my room and smiles because she happens to be my
biggest cheerleader. She’s a woman that
you will rarely see without a happy resolution, just being in her presence
brings me joy. Together the two of us
are quite silly, when I am really sad she turns the radio and invites me to
dance, if I refuse she dances in front of me alone until I break into a smile.
Many times we annoy my sister with our shenanigans. And every day at the same time she retreats into
her room to pray the rosary. She’s a
woman of strong faith and great sacrificial love - am so blessed that God chose
her for me. She only went to school to
the second grade and taught me that, “I must always be intolerant of ignorance,
but understanding of illiteracy that some people unable to go to school are
more intelligent than college professors.”
She’s a gem, my mother and time with her even in silence fuels my spirit
with hope and peace.
What are
somethings that you do alone and with others that make you feel better? I think it’s important to have a list handy
for those times when we need to be reminded how to deal with negative feelings
in positive ways (smile).
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