Not Your Normal Trip to the Grocery Store

Today, instead of driving to the grocery store to pick up an onion for my chili and some salad for this week’s lunches, I spontaneously decided to walk there. I know. That’s not a normal person move; but, the weather was nice, the grocery story is only about a mile from my house, the neighborhoods are safe, and I’m young…so why not?

The walk there was dandy. Nothing to report.

As I was returning from the story with a string-pack on my back and a cloth bag full of groceries in each hand, I was thinking, “I must look ridiculous…people will think that I’m a bum…that I don’t belong in this part of town….” Then suddenly, “There are people who do this everyday.” 

It’s true. There are thousands of people in the world—probably more—who have no other means of transportation other than their own two legs. They don’t have a car, and they are not able to access a bus or train system, or they might be too poor to afford it. They have to walk anywhere they want to go. They walk to work, walk to the grocery, walk to church, walk to the library, walk to the pool, walk to everywhere. I am sure people get used to it eventually, but that still takes dedication in a world that is constantly zooming around past you.

I began to think about how not having a car to drive would affect me. I have a 20-minute commute one-way to work, so if I didn’t have a car, I wouldn’t have my job. I couldn’t have my job. It would be too far away from where I live for me to walk, and no bus could get me there (or anywhere close).

As I was walking and thinking about this, I felt a sense of solidarity with those who are forced by their circumstances to walk wherever they need or want to go.

Solidarity is not a new idea or experience for me. After all, that was part of what my time living and working in a maternity home was all about. Most of the moms had to walk, or ask friends for rides, before they came to live at the home. (Once they got there, we were able to provide them with bus passes, thanks to a grant.) I felt like I was really experiencing a small part of their lives—and others’ lives—by walking, even if it was only for this one trip.

It was good to be reminded of people other than myself and what their experience of life is like. My circumstances truly are a blessing.

Of A Lack of TP and Other Nonsense

Yesterday I discovered the one thing that has the ability to make me grumpy first thing in the morning: a complete toilet paper deficiency in my house. It wasn't just a toilet paper shortage. No. There was not one sheet of TP in the entire house. I can live without coffee or in grave circumstances, even breakfast. But yesterday morning I would not endure living without toilet paper, so I promptly took myself across town to the local Wal-Mart.

Now we have toilet paper again and I have enough dryer sheets to last me for a year. They're hypoallergenic. Yeah yeah…big deal.

In other news, I'm beginning to think that I may never need to water my plants this summer. It rains here, on average, every twenty-four hours. Three of my six tomato plants started to blossom this week, and the pepper plants are getting nice and tall. Hooray! Fresh vegetables will soon be appearing in my own backyard.

Since I don't have to take time out of my day (or evening) to worry about watering the plants, I can spend more time perfecting my Dutch Blitz skillz. I think Dutch Blitz is the most addictive card game ever, but maybe that's just because I can never beat my housemate when I play against her…

When Dutch Blitz stresses me out too much (or when there's nobody to play it with), I usually pick up a book and start reading. As a kid I devoured books, probably finishing two or three every week. I remember always going to the library during the summertime and checking out a nice healthy stack of books (approximately 5-8). My efficacy as an avid summertime book reader has greatly diminished. I have only finished one book so far this summer, even though I've started at least five. (Well, I guess I've finished two books if you count the one I had to read for work.) But the loss of my book-ravaging has come with a gain - the desire to spend more time with what I'm reading and to really understand it.

God-incidences

This past weekend, a household sister and I went downtown to the perpetual adoration chapel in one of the local parishes. It was about 9pm, give or take a few minutes, and we needed to ring the doorbell in order to get into the church. Just as I was about to push the doorbell, a short woman wearing a blue flowered shirt and a brown quilted coat opened the door from the inside. She jumped a little bit and we jumped too, startled to see somebody standing there. My household sister, B, said, “Well, that was good timing,” and made the nervous laughing noise that is her usual response to slightly awkward situations that she doesn’t automatically know how to react to.

“You startled me,” said the woman.

“Sorry about that,” I told her. She held the door open to let us into the church. I touched her gently on the arm as I passed by her and said that I hoped we had not startled her too much and to have a good night. 

She reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Thanks,” she said, and then “Oh! Your hands are so cold!”

“I know. They are always like that.” I moved to go down the stairs towards the chapel.

From the doorway she commented, “But you have a warm heart, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I said. She left and I turned to my household sister, who was already at the bottom of the stairs, examining the few posters on the wall asking for donations to the urban mission and advertising a consecration to Mary group. “Did you hear that?” I asked B.

“No, what?”

“She just told me my hands were cold. And then asked me if I have a warm heart. That’s the title of my blog.” We both had a minor freak out moment. It seemed like too much of a coincidence to be coincidence. I certainly saw it as Providence, but what convinced me of the fact was a nearly identical conversation with a different person not even twenty-four hours later.

I was again with household, but we were at a local nursing home for our bi-annual service project. We were there simply to have a little cake and coffee social with the residents. Upon arriving, I made eye contact with a little woman wearing a pink and white checked shirt and green pants, so I went over to say hello and talk with her. I gave her my hand and, of course, since I didn’t put my mittens on for the short journey across the parking lot and into the building, my hands were cold. Very cold. The first thing the woman did was comment on this fact and begin to rub my hands.

“Oh my. Your hands are cold.”

“I know. I should have worn my mittens.”

“But you have a warm heart, don’t you? I can see you do,” she said to me.

“Yes.”

What does it mean that two people, entirely unrelated to each other, neither of whom I had met before, should both have a conversation with me and tell me the title of my blog? I have no idea. All I know is that there are some things in life that can’t be explained simply by coincidence and seem to show us that there is Someone watching over us and calling out to us. These conversations reminded me of exactly that: God is there and He is calling to me at every moment.

Have you had any “coincidences” like this in your own life? How is God calling out to you through them?

Still Growing...

Alright.  Now that the coolest, craziest, most blessed four months of my life (at least thus far) have drawn to an end, I thought I would get back to blogging before my summer job begins.  But be warned, the stories about my semester abroad have only just started.  

This past weekend I was blessed to go back to main campus and to see some of my household sister graduate from college.  (That's crazy!  They're old!  Glad that's not me!)  While I was there, an interesting thing happened: two different friends told me I looked older.  What?  It blew my mind because somehow, just by looking at me, they could see that I had grown while I was away in Europe.  I didn't look any different than when I left them in December, but they could tell that something was different.  And I didn't even have to tell them.

When I was thinking about this later, I realized that we talked about this very phenomenon in my Philosophy of the Human Person class last semester.  A person is made of a physical part (the body) and a spiritual part (the soul), and the only way that we are able to see the spiritual part of a person is through their body.  The soul is revealed in the body.  This weekend proved this truth to me.  My friends, just by looking at me, were able to tell that my soul had grown.  I know this idea might sound weird, but IT'S TRUE.

So there.

Quotable Quotes

Just for fun, here are the best sibling sayings from the past week....

"But MOM....every time I dust it grows back!"  Gabe was complaining that Mom was being too picky about his dusting job.

"That thing is so awesome!" said Kevin, after taking a shower with the newly installed hand-held shower head.  "I'm gonna take a shower everyday now!"  Let me tell you, it has been one long battle to get this kid to shower every day!

Happy Tuesday!

The Incredible Versatility of a Croquet Mallet

Summer is a time when my family loves to play games together outdoors.  Friday evening, after a lazy dinner (Chipotle) on the patio, we decided to play a calm game of croquet.  Now, anyone who has ever played croquet, knows that there can sometimes be a bit of waiting involved.  My siblings and I, while waiting our turns, began to discover other uses for our mallets.  Some of them involve a little imagination, but try your best to see what we were getting at....

1)  A guitar (or banjo) - this is (by far) the most obvious and popular thing to do with anything that has a handle (broom, shovel, croquet mallet, etc.)

2) A jackhammer - I was really impressed when my sister came up with this use.  I never would have thought of that.

3) An umbrella - "The weather is looking pretty bad today, isn't it?"  *said with a British accent*

4) The pendulum on a grandfather clock - tick tock tick tock

5) A crutch (or a cane)

6) A grappling hook - I didn't even know what a grappling hook was...my family had to explain it to me.  Basically, it is a 4 pronged hook attached to a rope.  You throw it and it hooks onto things like walls and mountains.  Then you can climb up them.

7)  An anchor

8)  An oar - or as my brother G said, "It's a row!"  Hehe

9)  A hammer - not a very creative use of a mallet

10) A hitching post - picture the mallet with the handle side stuck into the ground and a horse and buggy tied up to the mallet part

11) A machine gun - well duh.  Boys always turn things into guns.  It's no different with my three brothers.

12) An axe - "TIMBER!"

13) A wagon handle

14) A bicycle handlebar

15) A pump trolley - one of those railroad cars that has two pump handles that propel it down the track

16) A jet ski - specifically the handle bars.  This is similar to the bicycle concept

17) A car shift, a train lever, or an airplane throttle

I think we had more fun imagining what our croquet mallets could be than we did actually playing the game!  Go figure!

My brother and I playing our croquet mallet instruments.  

Photo by my sister.