It’s true. Our destiny does lie within us, but the question is- how do we get there? This weekend I watched the movie Brave with my boys- if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It’s a great movie, great message for kids, and even me- I’m 23 years old and the last line of the movie is the quote above. One that I have been thinking about since Friday night. It’s powerful, it puts things into perspective and gives me the reasoning to be vulnerable at times- all of us for that matter, because in the end of it all, we have to be brave enough to see it, to know who we are and to stand behind ourselves.
We celebrated our 19th anniversary over the weekend with our local sponsors. The kids are pooped from all of the recent activities, and even the volunteers for that matter. Towards the end of the day, I was sitting on a park bench watching kids run around and play, honestly just being tired. Out of no where, two of my boys start running towards me saying Hi Magdalena and Kendy just plops down on my lap and Ricardo right next to me, under my arm all cuddled up. These 14 year old, teenage boys, just all cuddly wanting to just hang. Mind you, Kendy is the tallest in the house, almost as tall as me, and it was just a moment I will never forget. How tough and ‘cool’ these boys can act, but then they go through phases of pure sweetness, pure youngness, and just keeps your heart tender. They sat with me for probably a half an hour and at one point, I said to Kendy while sitting on my lap, ‘you will always be my baby- no matter how tall you get or when I go home, you will always be my boy’ and his smile grew ear to ear. Just one of those moments- parents, you know what I’m talking about.
Sweethearts
And of course- we had to :)
Finally the mural is finished!!! SO GLAD! Can you guess who it is? The one and only Psy- with over 1billion hits on youtube. We are also putting up things we are proud of underneath the mural. Right now, we have artwork, which is really cool to see and they just want to share what they did, even if it’s something as simple as coloring a picture out of a coloring book.
I had a great talk with Kristen the other day. Just processing with her, processing out loud. Here, it’s really hard to have a life of your own. We live in community, we live where we work, and we don’t have the luxury of just getting out to blow off some steam, or to go for a drive, or just to take a minute to think, breathe, and process. This experience has really forced the emotions out of me. I am not a patient person and I realize that and have to get better at that, but along with it- I have zero tolerance for ‘BS’, (according to Tim) which is not always a good thing, but it goes along with how it’s hard to take that ‘you’ time here. It’s hard to essentially get away- ‘go for that drive’ and just think without someone looking for you, without hearing your name yelled across the compound, which essentially forces me to share my emotions when I am frustrated, when I want to giggle, or when I have to break down. Does that make sense? I guess it’s not something I can really describe, just something to experience. Anyway, we all have flaws, we all have strengths, but it’s how we handle it and I guess here, I am much more forward with my emotions than I have ever been in my life. But that goes back to the quote- brave enough to see it. And with that comes emotions, comes the challenges of life and comes the intelligence in which we gain after the experience. Standing up for what you believe in, not letting anyone taking advantage of you, and living with a purpose. That's just it- with destiny comes passion, comes motivation, and comes purpose. So how will you tie it in together?
Enjoy- xx
I get to wake up to this every morning while running. Blessed? I think so.
Brothers, Bruthas, Brufahs?
Talk about some serious swag with these 3.
Heart palpitation. I get that from Tim... HE WOULD NOT APPROVE!
