Mind, Body and Soul Manifestations

My mind has been racing all day and I was just watching "World News" with Diane Sawyer. This episode sparked my desire to write about addiction. There has been a ton of coverage about Philip Seymour Hoffman's overdose. There was a story on this news program about the heroin epidemic in our country. Apparently there are over 600,000 people addicted to heroin. This is sad and troubling. I have been personally affected by another type of addiction: alcoholism. I always thought that if someone I knew and loved had an addiction that I would be able to tell and that I'd be able to help them. That simply isn't the case. I can tell you for a fact that there are millions of "functioning" addicts in our midst and they are truly struggling internally. It's easy to judge someone with an addiction when you've never experienced it first-hand. I have never been addicted to anything myself and I don't have a great understanding as to how people become addict...

"Be what you would have your pupils be. All other teaching is unblessed mockery." -Thomas Carlyle This is a quote that my pastor shared during her sermon this morning. Her words struck a chord with me. I have always loved Pastor Sandy's sermons and teachings. She is a former teacher herself and has been a great influence on my life for the past 10 years or so. I found out that she will be retiring in July, which made me a little sad, but I am thankful and blessed to have been inspired by her words and her actions. A lot of our service today revolved around teaching and being a disciple. Sometimes in life, there are these moments where you just have an epiphany. When I was listening to her stories and the bible verses we read today, I realized that I truly am doing what I was meant to do. I struggle sometimes with whether I want to stick with teaching, but I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. Pastor Sandy shared another story about a graduate study done at John...

"It's a mystery of human chemistry and I don't understand it, some people, as far as their senses are concerned, just feel like home." -Nick Hornby, High Fidelity We're going on the third snow day in a row. As a teacher, these are the kind of things I live for! Don't get me wrong, I really do love my job (especially this year...last year was a s%*$show!); however, it is really nice to have extra time to get your grading done, plan your lessons, watch a few movies, and even catch up on reading a book or magazine. When you're a teacher, you get so consumed by work that you forget about living a little sometimes. Everyone needs a day or two to just breathe and relax. Anyway, let's get back to the title of this post: High Fidelity . This just happens to be one of my top 5, all time, most favorite movies. (Others include Love Actually, When Harry Met Sally, What Dreams May Come, and Bridesmaids .) It combines a lot of my favorite things: relationships, J...

Everyone always says patience is a virtue. I just wonder sometimes what is so virtuous about having "the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay." Obviously it depends on the situation. I pride myself on being very patient with my students, my nephew, the line at the grocery store, the person driving too slow in front of me...those situations seem appropriate for patience. However, I am feeling quite impatient and restless at the current state of my life. I am trying so hard to be patient and pray and "let go and let God" and all of that, but it just doesn't seem to be doing much good. I just finished watching the Season 3 finale of Downton Abbey and I couldn't believe how overwhelming my feeling was to have a family of my own. I feel like I have been waiting patiently my whole life for that part of my life to start. I always imagined that right after I graduated college, I would have the perfect husband an...

I just read an interesting article (blog?) about "secondhand love." Here  it is. I believe that I have experienced this both ways: first choosing someone else to be my secondhand love and then being someone else's second choice. However, my most recent relationship feels like it is real, all-consuming love. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie What Dreams May Come, but it's an amazing film that has always stuck with me. First of all, it shows that love can overcome even death. It also addresses the idea of soul-mates. Even though the husband, Chris, is killed in a tragic accident, he watches over his wife and he never gives up on her. It's a beautiful film and if you haven't seen it, you should check it out. Anyway, all of this lead me to thinking about the vows that I began writing to Ben before our wedding. I want to share them with you all. I am praying that 2014 will bring health and happiness to both of us and I honestly meant every word...

Well, I was sitting here diligently working on my "Internship Summary Paper" and also watching Rachael Ray. It happens to be an episode about her and her friends. They just mentioned how they met through men and that some of the men "went away" and they stayed friends. I couldn't help but reminisce about my own girlfriends. I really do have some of the best. This was a conversation I also had with my mentees last weekend. As 7th graders, they have a lot of drama about boys and friendships. We talked about how no matter how many boys come and go, you should always value your girlfriends. They are there for you no matter what. Sometimes you make really awful mistakes and there are hard times, but when you have true friends, they will stick by your side no matter what. I am very lucky to have several friends that have been in my life for 20+ years. It's awesome. I want to devote this blog to them. My first and very best friend is April. She and I have been fr...

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas. I have been very blessed to be able to spend time with my family and see my nephew be super-pumped about Santa and baby Jesus. He sang Happy Birthday with a Santa candle to baby Jesus. It was adorable. Now, I am sitting at home watching Martin Short on SNL singing about it being the "sexiest time of the year." It is certainly amusing and ironic... I can tell it's Christmas because I have successfully eaten my way through the day and now I feel like I need a pair of sweatpants. I am noticing more and more how much we all try to put on this facade that we have perfect families without any problems and we try not to talk about the hard stuff we've been through or the issues we are dealing with. I heard a really great quote on the radio the other day. Carlos Santana saw a news story about his former conga player being homeless and going through some addiction problems. The quote was, "sometimes we have family or frie...