"You're Never Fully Dresssed Without A Smile..."

"Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."

-Mother Teresa-

Mother Teresa has always had a special place in my heart. When I was younger it was because I always knew my parents named me after her so in as a child would do, I always loved to point out to my friends how cool she was. Now that I am older and really can appreciate all the incredible work she did I am even more proud to know that she is the one I am named after. She was one fearless and intelligent woman, that's for sure!!!

Inner Beauty

This past week-end my mom decided she wanted to look at some old antique stores in Tennessee and took me along. I must say antique shopping is not really my thing. I was pretty content when I found some boxes of posters though and spent most of my time looking through those. I found some pretty interesting ones with John Wayne, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, James Dean, Elvis, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz...so forth and so on. Among them I ran across lots with Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Now, I have always found Marilyn Monroe a little over the top as far as make-up and attitude goes, but that is what has made her so famous. I was pleasantly surprised to find one Marilyn Monroe poster where she was pretty much natural. She was not trying to be showy at all. I found it really refreshing and beautiful to look at... In fact as I looked at the others she did not always even seem happy.....

Audrey Hepburn, on the other hand is someone I really think was classy and beautiful. She did not really try to be sexy, she was just herself pretty much. She was an amazing actress, but of all the pictures I have found of her that are not for movies that she was in, she really was not showy. I always looked- up to her for that. I also enjoy the many quotes she has said, my favorite happens to be in another blog post I've written.

Anyway, so to the main point of this post. True beauty is not about how much make-up a girl wears. It is not really about how sexy a girl tries to be. It is really how a woman carries herself; with respect. It is too exhausting trying to be someone you are not, and eventually it will bring a girl down. A girl needs to be happy with who she is and what she does, and that will end up helping add more to a person's beauty than anything else.

"There's No Place Like Home..."

Just a quick post to re-cap what I have been up to all this past week-end.

I went down to Tennessee for a cousin's wedding. It was not a Catholic one because my cousin is not Catholic, but it was still very beautiful. I am somewhat sad because I left my camera at home, so I was not able to take any pictures of the ceremony. It was an out door wedding, and the view was spectacular I must say. The bridesmaids dresses were so pretty and the bride was beautiful. I think that my favorite part of this wedding was the moment right before the father gave the bride away... My cousin looked at his bride with the sweetest expression on his face as he whispered to her how beautiful she was. It was an intimate moment and it was sweet. The reception after was a lot of fun, and although I did not catch the bouquet, my little brother did indeed catch the garter.

Sunday morning the part of the family that is Catholic all went to Mass in this little tiny church. It was kind of quaint, I must say. I really enjoyed the priest that was there. He was pretty old, but as he gave his homily I kind of forgot about that because his mind is obviously still pretty young.

The rest of the week-end was spent hanging-out with family. We spent one evening at a park playing endless rounds of horse shoes and corn hole. I started off a bit rusty, but by the end of the night I was not so bad, I must say. It was a fun and relaxing week-end without much of an agenda so we just enjoyed spending time together.

That was my week-end in a few paragraphs. :)

I'm Gone

Just wanted to let ya'll all know that I will be away for the week-end. I am going down to Tennessee for a cousin's wedding and will not be back until sometime Monday evening... With that said, I probably will not get a chance to blog for the next few days, but I hope to make up for it once I get back home. I hope you all have a safe and fun Labor Day week-end!

Friends Who Pray Together Are Unstoppable

This past week-end a really good friend of mine, Robbie, ran and finished his very first ever ironman race in Louisville, Ky. For those of you who do not know what an ironman race is the easiest way for me to describe it is a tri-athalon on steroids pretty much. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and then finishes off with a 26.2 mile run. The reason he entered into the iron man was to help raise money for children with down syndrome. His little brother has down syndrome and so he is very passionate about raising down syndrome awareness. He started his ironman at 7:30 a.m. and finished two minutes after midnight, just barely qualifying as an official iron man. He was the last one to officially cross the finish line. He said there were about sixty others who did not finish in time and even more who chose to drop-out throughout the day.

I finally saw Robbie for the first time since his big day to hear all the details that I missed out on by not being able to watch him. Apparently in the middle of his bike run he started to get pretty sick. He could not hold anything down and even threw up a couple of times. He said he seriously thought about dropping out of the race, but ended up deciding against it. He pushed himself to finish the race, and immediately after it went to the hospital. Apparently something went wrong with his kidneys, a chemical imbalance of some sort, which is why he got so sick. He had to stay in the hospital all Monday because the doctors were wanting to keep a close eye on him as he got re-hydrated. Knowing he was that sick and still wanted to finish that race is so crazy to me.

Hearing all of this I have come to the conclusion that an iron man race is the most intense torture one can put themselves through. It is inspiring to watch a person train for, and even more exciting when they actually do finish what they put their minds to. It reminds me how far we, as humans, can really push ourselves to. With the right training and frame of mind we really can accomplish those goals we set that seem so scary and unobtainable.

Robbie, came up to me last night and gave me a big hug and to tell me how grateful he is for all the prayers I have prayed for him in the past few months, and especially on Sunday. He kept saying how he is so incredibly lucky to have friends who have supported him and would not have been able to do it without our prayers. I have to say though, that I am truly blessed to have been able to, spiritually at least, be a part of his journey. I think I have learned a lot more through watching him, and in turn am the luckier one to be able to call him a very close friend.

"Alive Again"

Alive Again
Matt Mahar


I woke up in darkness
Surrounded by silence
Oh where, oh where have I gone?
I woke to reality Losing its grip on me
Oh where, where have I gone?
'Cause I can see the light
Before I see the sunrise

You called and You shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again
You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

Late have I loved You
You waited for me, I searched for You
What took me so long?
I was looking outside
As if Love would ever want to hide
I'm finding I was wrong

'Cause I feel the wind
Before it hits my skin
'Cause I want You,
Yes I want You I need You, and I'll do

Whatever I have to just to get through
'Cause I love You,
Yeah I love You

"We need God because He is love"

God,

Supply what is wanting in me so I can love You much or at least as much as I have offended You.

Amen.

That is such a short prayer with a heck of a lot of meaning.... supply what is wanting in me so I can Love You much or at least as much as I have offended You.... we can never ever come close to loving God as much as He loves us. We cannot really truly even understand and comprehend just how much He does love us. We strive to love Him back in that way, but we are all really pretty bad at it. That does not mean we should stop striving, but we must keep working on our relationship with Him. It is the MOST important one we all have, so it should also be the one we need to work on the most.