Never a Dull Moment

This weekend was jam-packed with all kinds of awesome memories. Friday night, after I got off work, we got the evening kicked off with some guys only time for a couple of hours. More people started rolling into the house (the best turn out we've had for any of our gatherings). Best part of the night...I made brownies that were delicious. I love having people over to the house so that I can share the many blessings which I have been given. They're not worth much if you don't share them.

Saturday was go, go, go. Planned Parenthood at 7am. Had a little bit of a scare on the drive home. We hit a patch of ice, swurved one way, then another; the driver almost saved it, but the car ended up spinning 360 degrees. We slid up onto the median and came within a couple of feet of smashing into a light pole. We lifted up a prayer of thanksgiving for God's protection. Our guardian angels were up to the task. Thanks, Samuel.

Later, Josh and I went to volunteer at the YMCA again. Kelly wasn't there this time, so I got to meet a new kid. His name was, "B-E-A-U. Beau." (Pronounced Bo). That's how he introduced himself. He spelled it out for me. It was awesome. Beau and I really connected well. It was so much fun working with him. After we got back from the Y, I went and saw Rockhurt's production of Macbeth with Nate. I didn't find this out until after, but in talking with one of the members of the cast, I found out that they put the entire thing together in 3 1/2 weeks! Memorizing the lines, building the set, everything. Very impressive. Lastly, on Saturday evening, I got to go to one of the sorority's dances. The one setback of the night was that I accidentally put BBQ sauce on my strawberry. It looked like chocolate syrup for fondu; plus, the chicken tenders weren't out yet so I don't feel too bad about the misunderstanding. (Still tasted ok by the way). Other than that, the dance was so much fun. We had a circle of good friends just tearing it up. Afterwards, some of us went to Chubby's for a late-night dessert. Oh, it had been too long since my last visit to Chubby's.

So all of this great stuff happened over the weekend, but there is one thing that I am particularly excited about that has been taking shape over the past couple of months, and is actually still in progress. I started learning a new song on the piano a couple of months ago. It's the first new song that I've tried to learn in two years. It's called "Ridin' West" by Jon Schmidt. Well, I was struggling with a couple of the pages for a relatively long time, and I finally made it through that part of the song. Still some polishing up to do, but I did it pretty well. I connected this as a life lesson. There will always be struggles in life. Yes, there will be some things that come easy, but when we get to those rocky parts of our lives, we cannot give up. For, when we meet those challenges head on, and we work through them, that is when our life's song comes together in harmony. Does that sound good? I was trying to be somewhat deep and metaphorical. Ah, either way, you get the idea right?

To Better the World of Men Around Us

This weekend, I got to go to Atlanta, GA for a conference for my fraternity. I won't go into details, but here is the lesson that I took from the weekend:

My duty as a Catholic is not to be exclusive. What good would I be if I secluded myself to a group of people who held all of the same beliefs and values as I did? I'm not saying that I'm right about everything. In fact, that is one of the benefits of stepping outside of my own comfort zone to be around people that hold different views than I. I am fortunate to learn from them; similarly, I believe them to be fortunate to receive that same benefit. I believe that we all become more well-rounded people when we listen to and are exposed to different world views. They challenge the views that we hold; and if we value those ideals, we will hold strong to them; if someone presents a new view, we can then make a well-informed decision.

So there's my lesson from the weekend. Outside of that, it was so much fun to be able to have a weekend with my fraternity brothers from around the country. Also, I got to share 26 hours in the car with my friend and brother, Tim Dulle. We don't exactly get a ton of time to just hang out together, so it was a really great opportunity for us to talk about a bunch of stuff together (not to mention listening to Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the Tru Lovs multiple times). When we arrived in Atlanta, one of the guys from Catholic University of America had just won $500 dollars on a Georgia scratch lotto ticket...which led to a free pizza dinner. That was kind of random, and I don't really have much else to say on the matter. That was good pizza.

Retreat on the Rock

What a weekend. The anticipation has been building over the past couple of months. The other retreat leaders and I have been preparing since November and this experience was just a homerun. I will fill you in on what details I can.

First off, I was really excited to do my talk for this retreat. It wasn't one that I had chosen as a preference, which leads me to the simple conclusion that it was completely out of my hands, and in the hands of someone else. That's right, my friend the Big Man. I accepted the challenge of giving the talk on Christian Values. I don't mean to brag, that's not my style, but I knocked this thing out of the park (sticking with the baseball references). It just felt so good. I was confident. My delivery was great. Everything went according to plan.

The next awesome part of the retreat for me as a leader was this: I got to witness a group of five all but complete strangers develop into a group of five people bound by a friendship that has been enhanced by the sharing of their lives and the prayers which were shared. Just awesome. I wish I could go into detail. But if you want to know more about the powerful experience that is Retreat on the Rock...SIGN UP!

Only six hours of sleep over the weekend...but I wouldn't trade what happened this weekend for anything.

Trust in the YMCA

I volunteered for the first of hopefully many times at the YMCA this past weekend. My roommate Josh and I drove over together, not 100% sure of what exactly was going to be expected of us. We knew we were going to be working with mentally handicapped children in the pool, but that was the extent of our knowledge.

When we arrived, the pool was in complete chaos. Funny, because there were only about twenty people there. We got changed and jumped in. At first, every kid already had someone working with them, so Josh and I were just wandering around the pool with mostly nothing to do. Then, in walked Kelly. Kelly is a ten year old boy who is full of life. We started having so much fun that I never even thought to ask him, his dad, or the head volunteers what his handicap was. We raced through the pool from one end to the other. The first time, we both used noodles, but then his dad told me that he didn't need a noodle. I smile at Kelly, "You've been holding out on me." I told him that I wanted a rematch. We raced back to the other end of the pool without the aid of a noodle. He beat me again! Kelly loves racing.

The next thing that we did was I tried to teach him how to do a canon ball. It was harder than I expected. I got him to get up on the pool deck, but then he just slid into the water rather than jumping. I got out and showed him how to do it. We then went over to the stairs so that he would have something on which to balance when he was getting ready to jump. He jumped! I was so excited. Here, I had only been with this kid for about an hour, and already I got to see him leap bravely into a new experience. And even better, he wanted to do it again. So I challenged him to step away from the stairs. He came. He trusted me to hold his hand while I was down in the water so that he could balance on my hand.

Here is the lesson that I took from this experience. How often are we able to put our complete trust in God? Would I have been as excited had Kelly just grasped the rail of the stairs and walked in? Definitely not. But he trusted. And he did it without hesitation. If anybody thinks that there is nothing we can learn from children, and that we are always the teachers because we're older - WRONGO! I would argue that we learn more from them than they do from us. Thank you Kelly.

Oh, by the way, the woman in the pool...not me. And the little girl jumping in...not Kelly. It all happened in the moment so I was not able to capture a picture for myself, but I wanted to give you a clear idea. And, since pictures are worth 1,000 words, I wasn't 100% up for typing out a 1,000-word description of a kid jumping into the pool.

Peace in the Midst of Chaos

The spring semester is off and running. One week down, fourteen more to go. With classes, work, fraternity business, trying to keep up with my family back home, and all of the other obligations of everyday life, it is not hard to feel completely overwhelmed. In addition to all of the craziness that is going on in my own life, I look to the news and see the problems that are going on around the world and I want to try to keep up with those too and pray for them. I see all of the world issues and one word comes to my mind - perspective.

Now, I haven't read all there is to know about every single world event, but it doesn't take a lot to realize how tremendously blessed I am (and we all are) to be living in America. We have our problems, there is no doubt about that. And I know that even people in America don't always enjoy the same luxuries as I do, in fact there are plenty that don't, but that is where my moment of peace came in. Last night, I got back to my house at 11pm, in from the bitter cold winter weather, stepping into a climate controlled environment in which I could enjoy warmth from that cold. Already, I am part of a very fortunate group of people who can enjoy that luxury.

Secondly, I hadn't eaten dinner so I went to the freezer. Oven - 400 degrees. Timer - 15 minutes. Frozen pizza to satisfy my hunger - perspective. I had come home with many complaints on my mindn about all the work I had to do during the day, all the work that was still left to do, and the fact that I hadn't gotten to eat dinner until 11pm was making me even more stressed. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. How many people in this country, in the world, cannot just go to their freezer in their climate controlled home, and have a warm meal in 15 minutes? This is no small number. It didn't take long after that for me to drop to my knees, praising God for everything that I take for granted, for the very air I breathe.

I won't say that this realization completely settled my mind for the rest of the night. I still had a ton of reading left to do. But I am becoming more and more aware of the struggles of those around me. I mean, I have done some service here and there just because it has felt like a good experience and it was the right thing to do, but no there is an ever-developing reason behind it. "To whom much is given, much is expected." If what is expected of me is a small fraction of that which has been given to me, then this world is in for a treat. Ah yea!