A Future of Life and Hope

Last year, I attended my first March for Life with a couple of my college friends by way of grabbing a ride with a high school youth group. It was lots of fun and we made some interesting memories, but one of the things that made the biggest impression on me was the sheer size of the crowds. Especially the vigil Mass, which in case you've never been there- it took a half hour just for the entrance procession and there were literally hundreds of seminarians, priests, deacons, and a few archbishops who celebrated the Mass. Afterwards, the metro station at Catholic University of American was overflowing with people! It was estimated that about 300,000 people attended last year.

This morning I was reading the Catholic Register (which is an amazing publication, and totally worth the price! :) and in it (it's a couple weeks old by now- I've been busy) there was an article about this year's March which said that it was estimated between 100,000 - 200,000 people attended this year. The article mentioned something about the "disinterested and jaded media." This comment stuck out to me, because I remember being in complete awe last year after arriving home from the March that there was nothing on the news about it last year. It was the largest turnout the March had ever had and it didn’t even get a 30 second mention on any mainstream news media. It’s outrageous! How can the world be so disinterested and jaded from something that according to new statistics more than 50% of Americans be in support of? The news would rather discuss another homicide story or some new scandal. Craziness!

But let’s also take a look at who is attending not only this March, but the west coast one, and even the 12 year old who just organized the Colorado’s pro-life March for the third time in his life! It’s the youth. The youth is seriously representing at these events! We’re also the ones who are organizing events, promotion the message, and urging love rather than death. We are the future and I think more people our age are really taking this to heart. We’ve grown up in a cold world. A world that’s the product of raging, messed up times, and we don’t necessarily like the world we’ve been raised in. So, now as Americans that live in a country “by the people, for the people,” it is truly up to us to make the changes that we want and we need. If our young generation is doing this much now, give us a few more years. Give us a few years until we’re experienced and old enough to be in places of power. Watch us then. We’re already making changes now in our culture and the opinions of our country. Wait until we’re actually in control of those changes. We are a generation of hope, faith, and power. We will not stand for injustice or unsanctity of life.

Ok, so it's not letting me link this really cool video made by some youth group kids in Maryland, but maybe if you copy and paste the web address below into your browser, it'll work :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcCypMORf4k

Peace and Love!

Life and Love

I want to play guitar. And I want to be able to really sing too.These are two of the many things on my bucket list. There's lots of different things on that growing list. Maybe you think it's too morbid to think of death at such a young age, but death is an important part of life- it doesn't consume my thoughts, but occasionally it does cross my mind. Living life to the fullest is my main goal in life, as I suspect it is important to many other people as well. I want to experience many different flavors, places, people, music, art, ideas.... etc.

Recently I was able to listen to Bishop Blair speak and when asked what the biggest blessing in his life has been, he answered that it was all the people he's met in his life. I think he really hit the nail on the head for all of us. His answer wasn't something that he has done, or experienced, or a place he's visited. It was simply his life crossing the paths of other people's lives. Relationships.

Relationships with people is love- in some degree, not always because we're not perfect, but sometimes it isn't necessarily our love or their love, it's God's love even when we don't feel it. He has created the relationships in our lives for some purpose, so shouldn't we focus more on the people in our lives and how we interact with them? Are we really aware of all the people whose paths we cross each and everyday? If living life to the fullest weighs heavily on love, then shouldn't we love to the fullest? Even the people who make us want to scream, pull out our hair, and slap them. Maybe it is these people through whom God offers the best opportunities of learning. We learn patience, how to hold our tongues, trusting in Him to see problems through, and a variety of other things- even lessons about ourselves.

People come and go in our lives, but no matter the duration or type of interaction, God works through them to shape us into the people He wants us to be. Shouldn't we love these trying opportunities to the fullest? These opportunities to grow into the person God desires of us? Wouldn't loving to the fullest be living to the fullest? Isn't God's infinite knowledge and plans for everything in His creation be better than our own microscopic ideas of the "fullest" that litter our bucket lists?

 If only life was simple enough to put these ideas into action, but a simple life is another topic for another day.
Love and warm wishes. :)

My First Post

Hello.

Blogging is something that I've been considering for a while, but only recently decided to really try it. I have a lot of different thoughts to express and I can't be the only one with these interests and the occasional... opinion.
First, let me properly introduce myself though;
I am a Fashion Design student in my second year, but thankfully I've reached junior status with my total credit hours this semester which means I'm one step closer to the real world. It's a terrifying, yet exciting thought and I can't wait for the adventure that God has planned for me. Maybe I should say that I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next part of this adventure called life. I have so many hopes and dreams! But my first hope is that I give Him the glory in some way and reflect as much love as He made me able to reflect.

I also love the arts! Music, art, movies, literature, broadway, dancing.... all of it! What kinds? Well, that's a bit difficult because there's very little that I do not like. Originally I wrote out a whole description of everything in those categories I liked, but it was a horrendously long post that even I wouldn't have read. In the future I might give each one their own posting though.

I'm also a bit of a country girl. It's where I was born and raised. I've lived 95% of my life in the middle of fields and on county or township roads. I didn't grow up in the barn, but my dad had one, and when I finally took an interest in horses I did what I could with what was available to me- but that's a whole story in itself. Unfortunately though, I have skin allergies to animal dander and if my busy life wasn't enough to take me from my 13 year old Paint mare, Babe, then my allergies have blocked me from getting close to her at all really. I'm still dealing with the pain of it, but I hope that some day when I have time to put into a horse and the money for it, I'll try and find some way to get rid of that allergy. I also love the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) and although I have some favorite competitors, I don't faithfully watch each competition because of two reasons: 1. I don't have the Versus channel. 2. I'm busy a lot of the time. My favorite rodeo events are bull riding, broncs, and barrels.

I look forward to whatever this adventure may offer to you or me! :)
Love and warm wishes!