Tis the Season to being Thankful

Hello, Dear Reader.

Yes, you. Thank you for reading this post. I am especially thankful for you. Whoever you are. Whether I know you personally (which I am guessing is a 99% possibilty) or you somehow stumbled across this post...(How'd you find us??) I am thankful for you. I am thankful we are able to walk these next few minutes together. Thank you for taking the time to read and experiece my journey for just a little. Even though this always is just a snippet of my life, I hope to bring some enlightenment to you and your day and that you find hope in my joys, laughs, and struggles. But, I'm being thankful on this today. So.. let's share in joy and laughs :) I thought with Thanksgiving being a week and a half away, I would come up with what I was thankful for. Since I am not in school and writing what I am thankful for has not been a lesson for me to do in a while (Carly, are you having your kids do this?), I thought it would be good for me to write this out for myself and for you since it helps me catch you up on how life has been !

1. I am thankful for traveling. I had the most fun traveling to Denver, Colorado and Houston, Tx over this past month. Have you ever been to Colorado before? It was my first time and I could not believe my eyes the entire time. The mountains were so glorious and majestic. There was even snow on the ground in the mountains in Breckenridge. Oh goodness. That town must be the cutest at Christmas. A literal winter wonderland. I want to begin planning my next trip out there... if only my hands were not cold in 80 degree weather in Texas I would want to call Colorado home. I think I would have to wear 20 lbs of extra layers just to stay warm. I don't think the winters there and I would get along. So, spring time? (Carly.. you in ? ;) ) These pictures do not even do the beauty justice.

2. Thankful for family. As I mentioned above, I was able to make the 45 minute flight home to Houston, Tx. I was so excited the entire flight because the weekend was going to be filled with Kristin's birthday, wedding dress shopping for her, time with my brothers, mom and dad, and Alex even made a trip in to celebrate. And alas, Carly King and I did not see each other. She was on her way to Boston! And we originally thought we would be in the same airport overlapping but turns out she was at Hobby and I was at Bush. #thestruggle Things turn out to be pretty funny. Ya know? But, I digress, this is a thankful post after all ;) My family is seriously the best. I have gone through so much with my siblings and it is so humbling to see what God has done and is doing.  And to see how there was a plan all along to bring us close together. Matthew and David's comedic acts don't hurt either to laugh at it all. I love them with all my heart and it had been since early June that we had all been together. It was much overdue. And in just over a week we will be together again! Months go by very fast nowadays...

3. Thankful for my dear friends. For my friends here in Dallas and ones that are far by distance, not by heart. Thank you for all the times we have had in the past and present. Thank you for continuing to be there for me and helping me to always become a better me. I love you all to pieces. To go on and on, I could. But you know who you are. And, I am so thankful for you.

4. Thankful for people's good nature in my life. Work has been a funny one, and I could not be more thankful for the two women I am working with right now. We are in a war room and I love the time together to laugh about life, talk about our own very different experiences, and getting to spend time with people throughout the day. There really are so many different paths in life. And whether my path with these women and those at my company will last months or years, it is nice to overlap for this time. We really do have the choice every day to make it the best one based on our attitude and we all have so much power to make another's day by smiling, talking, helping someone late at night, and being patient. You never know what will make another person's day.

5. Thankful for God's unwavering hand in my life. It is so easy for me to forget and overlook, but when I do look closely I know and can see Him guiding me every day in my work, relationships, and my own heart. I am thankful He continues to guide me even if I turn my head or am not seeing clearly what He is wanting to show me during this time in my life.

I am literally at a coffee shop so for that I am thankful. I am pretending you are sitting right across from me on that bench right there >>> Sorry. Hope the sun isn't too hot on your back.

What are you thankful for? I wish I could be talking with you right now. But, whenever you answer that question on your own, I will be pretending you are talking with me. Deal? So, I guess we can be in each other's journey a bit longer. I would like that.

Thanks for sitting across the bistro table from me,
Elizabeth

Still and Silent

Ma-Ra-Na-Tha…which means come Lord Jesus

I hope your drinking tea while reading this. It’s a soothing idea I’m sharing.

New additions to the list of things that make me sound like a hippie.

1.     I teach Christian Meditation to my first graders.

2.     I live in community with ten other teachers

3.     I hate going to the doctor

4.     Well I used to be a vegetarian

5.     I sometimes dress like a hippie

The list weakens rapidly, but I am excited for what meditation is doing for my students and in my life. I asked my kids today how their feelings toward meditation have changed since we began (about a month ago). Their answers were things like; “I like it”, “It’s gotten shorter”, “It makes me calmer”, “I can listen to Jesus”, and “It really is beautiful”. Say all those in the voice of a six year old and it will melt your heart. I attended a lesson called “How to Teach Christian Meditation” taught by two Australians who have implemented this practice across their entire district and have seen amazing results. However this whole idea is not result driven. It’s just a natural repercussion of teaching children to be silent. “Know thyself” is a simple yet powerful statement by St. Augustine. Silence is the perfect classroom for lessons in self-awareness, but more than that awareness of the presence of God within.

I have children in my class with anger problems, or situations at home beyond their control that have become more peaceful and reflective through meditating for only one minute everyday. The time frame for meditating s is intended to be the same number of minutes as your age. For adults it’s about 30 minutes max. I can get nowhere close to this. And to be honest I am much better at scheduling into my kids day than into my own, but it has definably served as a reminder and inspiration to allow for more solitude and reflection in my own life. To be still, and know that He is God, to know that He is God and loves you is where we find our identity and life source. This is by no means a self-help remedy or a one step solution to happiness. Just a simple thought from a simple first grade teacher on being still and silent.

Thanks for sitting across from me.

I hope this left you cozy and curious.

“And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” 1 King 19: 11-12

Good To Me

Hi Friends!!

It has been awhile, hasn’t it. I have been missing my little space in the blogosphere. While I have been making up for my lack of writing by reading blogs (and sitting drinking tea), let’s try again at this little randevu.

Can I just be the first to say it:: (Or maybe, the second, hundredth, thousandth girl)…

I could not be more excited! Dallas has been gorgeous. Right now it is 70 degrees, breezy, and beautiful!

(My view on this gorgeous day so far). There just is something about this time of year that gets me super excited. It could be due to no longer getting long breaks off  (womp womp) so seasons become all the more special in the working world!! Except, when stores begin to jump ahead. While I do love snowmen, it is not even October yet. Let’s enjoy Fall first, pretty please!!

Besides being super excited and loving every possibility of being outside and enjoying this amazing
weather we have had, (and getting to wear scarves, smell cinnamon, and eat pumpkin!!!) here is a semi wrap up of what has been going on since the last time I wrote.

Work has been work to say the least. With anything, there are little struggles that pop up and
sometimes you get to a point that you say “but there is a whole WORLD out there” and I am sitting. In a cube. But, then, there are other days when you feel very good about the work you are doing and things just make sense. It’s all about the pluses and minuses and taking each day for each day. Remember how earlier I said I had been working on this? Progress!

These last weeks...months? (oh wow) have been incredibly blessed though and challenging and exactly what I needed. My life has consisted of tap dancing, yoga, young adults, Mass, prayer time, dinners, exploring, game watching, catching up, picnics, walks, coffee drinking, trying new eateries, meeting new people, and traveling to College Station. It has all been a whirlwind (an exciting one at that) after working hours. But,unfortunately, it can be too easy for me to forget all the good things and to look at very minute details of a job, the things that don’t make me the happiest, and struggling with “Is this really what I am supposed to be doing” . But, when I step back, and see ALL the great and beautiful things in my life all I can think of is Audrey Assad’s new song “Good to Me”. ( We are on an Audrey kick right now aren’t we Miss King?!)

Maybe you haven’t heard the song yet or do not like her music, but please just look at this one line at
least:

“I put all my hope on the truth of Your promise and I steady my heart on the ground of Your goodness”

For me, it can be very difficult to see the goodness of the Lord, as I too often fall into my own
melancholy. (Oh..I could talk about temperaments for DAYS. Next post. I am just about to finish the
book!) But, what a beautiful reminder to remember God is always there to help and not hurt us. To lead us to His heart. Yes, some days it is very easy to see the goodness and trust in God’s promises. But let’s try in those difficult times and days to not focus on the dreary but, instead, focus and see the very great things going on in our lives.

On some days, the only good things going on in the office world can be pretty funny. And I just have to laugh sometimes at Corporate America. So, in trying to see the good things in sometimes difficult days… let’s have a laugh at scenarios I have written down shall we?

1. Getting your own cube!!! (which is actually getting taken away to go back into a “war room” #techie
2. New designs on the Dixie cups?! Exciting! Good day.
3. Going for a walk outside during lunch! Gotta get that Vitamin D, sunshine, and fresh air. Also,
leads me back to the “There is a whole world out there!”
4. Being on someone’s water/coffee/tea cycle. You see them at the kitchen at the same time.
Good day. We are both like clock work.
5. Tea. Tea. Tea. (which explains why number 4 happens)

To good things, God’s goodness, and Fall!!!
And living moment by moment with this girl:

And to being better at this blogger thing.

Thanks for sitting across from me,
Elizabeth

Lead Kindly Light

 “You liberate me from my own noise and my own chaos, from the chains of a lesser law you set me free”- Audrey Assad

Apologies for the extended absence, life gets crazy sometimes. I’ve started life as a real life teacher and it turns out that is pretty time consuming, especially your first year. I’m so thankful for my GRACE community in all this chaos and I sincerely think we need to have our own reality T.V. show just based on our dinner conversations when eleven crazy teachers live together.

 I’ve been assured it gets easier as you go, which is logical and reassuring because I’ve realized that any new experience brings out a lot of challenging questions and requires an amazing amount of energy. Good thing my first graders love questions and energy, I’m still brainstorming ways for them to transfer some of it to me around 1:00pm everyday.

As cliché as it may sound, teaching has already taught me more than I could have imagined.

Here is the short list:

-Patience is good, but understanding is better.

-Our teachers growing up didn’t know as much as we thought they did

-A lot of my teaching is trial and error aka this has to get better with time

-Teaching is probably the hardest thing you could do. Don’t believe me? Lock yourself in a room with a bunch of six years olds for a day.

-Teachers are never finished

-This experience has made me more excited and paranoid to be a parent one day (God willing and in the far, far, far long ways away future)

-Kids really do teach us how to love. They can be mad and hurt and then two minutes later be best friends again. I pray for a heart like that.

-Kids make me pray more. To keep my sanity yes, but also because they teach you so clearly about the heart of God and I desperately hope I am doing what I can to point them to Him.

I have every level and personality in my classroom and little people have a way of teaching you about adults like no adult ever could. Children haven’t learned to put up a mask or a filter like the rest of us have, and that transparency is what makes them so beautiful….and hilarious.

Some think they are tigers, or birds. Some just have the ability to use tiger and bird powers for super speed on the playground. All of them could lift a car if you needed it. One is convinced I am an elf (and found out I have a squishy nose which only confirmed this belief).  Their creativity and imagination is amazing. I’m doing what I can to maintain and encourage that. Often school is the place where wonder is replaced by correctness, but making mistakes is how we discover innovative ideas.

Random class updates:

We’ve planted beans on the window seal and excitedly watched them grow in wonder (myself included). We made turtles out of leaves.

 Addition is coming together, both literally as we combine rubrics cubes and mentally. My class loves singing more than life, so I’m searching for ways to incorporate music into every subject. I am so thankful for donations. That’s what stocks majority of my centers and the generosity of people is inspiring. I asked for carpet squares and received enough for all the kids at our school! 

This week we are mailing our first letters to our Nun pen pals in Ecuador thanks to the beautiful Arianna Olivares who is a missionary to these new friends of ours. http://arianainecuador.blogspot.com/

This post was as random and scattered as my life is right now. But as the beautiful lyrics in the song, which inspired this post proclaims, “here in the dark I do not ask to see, one step ahead enough for me”. When my world is chaotic, stressful, and unsure I am confident that the only security comes in finding the light. Some days is blaring, some days it’s a sliver in the cracks, but it’s always there.

All My Love, 

Carly Rose

Truly Present

Hello from Dallas!

It is official. I am here!! My new adventure as a yuppie (young professional) has been under way! I have been all settled in jumping into the next phase of my life. It seems funny how it can all change so fast. Or in a day really. Or how all of a sudden, I can no longer look at a computer screen at night because I am at my laptop for most of the day at work. Part of the reason this post has taken so long  is because I need to be active and do other activities once I leave! But thanks to my first weekend since end of May not having to travel I am able to get back to you across the table :)

 

While driving all around the city I am lucky enough to come back to my apartment and see this view from my balcony!!!    

 I love the tree lined streets and sidewalks. Walks at night are the BEST. Especially during the summer right after dinner until the sun goes down. Something about those gorgeous Texas skies. Feels like home no matter what my Texas address is. 
 

With most of my weekends getting filled with wedding festivities (CONGRATS KRISTIN,JACKIE, AND LAURA!!) and getting used to that rush hour traffic my car has recently become my best friend. With all the hustling and bustling it can be hard to remember to be truly present in the moment when life is going from one event to the next (no matter how fun filled and exciting this time is for us all)

 

A good realization I have been reminded of is how important it is to be truly present in each moment. Some parts of the work day it is easy to look at the clock and wish for time to go a little faster and other times the day just flies by it is unreal it could be over already. Too many times I have found myself throughout my life, not just right now, looking ahead and being too future oriented. When we are too focused on anything besides the present, we miss the grace God is sending us right now. He just wants us to be present in every situation we find ourselves in whether it is super joyful or a more challenging time.

I actually opened up to a prayer that went just along the path of what these last few weeks have been that struck a chord and I hope it does for you too:

“Let me see Your presence in the everyday events of my life,Lord. May I recognize that these small things are really miracles of Your love”

What a great reminder for us all that every moment God is trying to send us little glimpses of His love. If we are too busy or not paying attention enough, we lose the opportunity to be in communion with what He wants to send us day after day and minute after minute. I was also reminded of these little loves this past weekend in San Antonio for Laura and Harry’s wedding. During the time we were all together celebrating the sacrament of marriage, all I could feel was a sense of belonging and home. The gift of friendship has been present in this transition and what a gift it was to "stop time" while celebrating in that moment with some of the people who have made my college years so special. Cheers to you all(and you others)!!  

Whether you are on a new journey, ending an old one, or in the middle of one My prayer is for you  to be truly present today and every day forward. Look into the gifts of what God is sending you right this second!!

Thanks for sitting across the bistro table from me,

Elizabeth

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything Beautiful, for Beauty is God’s Handwriting” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Uplift Everybody and Uplift Yourself"

Flying

"You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of us"

I'm officially a Houstonian. Or at least I live in Houston and I'm learning the art that comes with this foreign tittle. Knowing the hidden gems, how to navigate the crazy traffic and trying to soak in all the creativity that this city's diversity has to offer. If it wasn't for explaining the differences between Texas and Ireland to my new roommates I think I would forgotten that I live in the same state. This city offers such cultural richness and a unique intelligence of the arts that I am amazed and somewhat overwhelmed by all that I have yet to learn. That's all I want to do for the rest of my life though, learn.  About cultures, fitness, books, music, language, food, photography, religion, phycology and people. I've already learned a tremendous amount from my community life. 

 

My New House- If you are in Houston join us for a dinner anytime

Before I explain that let me back up and explain exactly what I am doing living in Houston. I am part of a program called GRACE through the University of St. Thomas. This program has 3 pillars: professional development, community, and spiritual development.  I live in community with 10 others that also teach in under resourced Catholic Schools in the Houston area. I am working towards my master’s degree (for free) to become a Reading Specialist and God willing will graduate in May 2015. I am beyond excited for this program, for teaching, and getting to know these lovely people over the next 2 years. If you are interested in teaching check out applying for this awesome opportunity. 

My brilliant community

http://www.stthom.edu/Degrees_Programs_Courses/Additional_Academic_Programs/GRACE/About/About_GRACE.aqf

Even with all the excitement, transitions in life have always reminded me of the feeling you get waking up in a strange room (other than the obvious that this happens when you move). You open your eyes a bit confused, startled, and feeling out of place before you settle into the realization that you are where you are meant to be and overtime feel comfortable in this foreign place. I had a moment of the frightened dreamlike state of waking the other day, and when I need to center and unwind I run. Running in a new place also helps my painfully handicapped sense of direction seek some orientation. Running is also one of the easiest ways for me to pray when I’m stressed. If my body is occupied and exhausted, my mind has time to process and breath. So that’s what I’m doing in Montrose, running and praying and gasping in amazement at the inspiring character of each unique house I pass when I see a pile of rubbish on the side of the street. Broken furniture, pieces of cabinets and half empty paint cans form a pyramid of garbage to the naked eye. Along side this garbage is a tiny, petty bird, hobbling around on a broken foot. Pausing out of natural instinct, drawn by compassion, I found myself watching the bird struggle to walk past the junk alongside a tree whose leaves spotted the sidewalk like stars in the sunlight. Maybe empathy is a better word than compassion. I understood the bird’s position; I could see my broken self in the discarded wood. And I was reminded yet again of Gods love. In the handicapped bird and splintered wood I saw my brokenness. I image though from God’s eyes he knew that the bird could still fly, and would gain strength in his wings without dependency of his legs. The wood that one family found as obnoxious garbage, I could see the potential to become the beautiful art that our community house desperately needed, but the wood didn’t know that. The wood probably felt like unwanted trash, the bird was lost and frightened at this new challenge in life, and I also was feeling out of place, like a coal with wobbling legs. But my father in heaven is ready to catch me when I fall, and he sees potential when I feel discarded, and when I complain of some pain or hardship he loving looks on his children and sees the strength, courage, character and faith that will remain when the pain passes.

 

Before

It’s amazing what some trash and a broken bird can teach you.

Fittingly the next night I went with my cohort, which consists of three Irish kids, a Cali boy and southern bell from Virginia and went dumpster diving to rescue the wood.

The finished products are below. The bird was gone. I’m sure because it had gained the confidence to fly. There are to many indications of God’s hand guiding me to the GRACE program. So I'm learning to trust I’m where I am meant to be while learning to fly. 

This will eventually grace our courtyard
created by the lovely Emily Engelking

“May today be peace within. May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be... May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you... May you be content knowing you are a child of God... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of you.” –Mother Theresa