Monday, October 22, 2007

Who is your nail technician?

I go get my nails done every two weeks on Saturday mornings and have been doing this for a very long time. Consecutively, the longest stretch has been the last 10 years. I keep my nails longer than most people do in 2007, and even though I do realize that long nails are no longer considered “in style,” I feel like long nails make my hands look more attractive than short nails do, so, I am willing to go against the grain on this one.

I have known the woman who does my nails (my "nail technician") this entire span of ten years. We get along great. She is a few years younger than my parents, but is single and very much a free spirit. She curses like there’s no tomorrow and says any and everything that’s on her mind without apology. Sometimes she thinks so fast that she’ll throw out a common phrase that’s not quite correct. For example, this past Saturday she was making mention that possession is nine-tenths of the law and instead she said that possession was “9%” of the law.

She adds something to my life that I just wouldn’t have otherwise. Our relationship is one that exists only two times a month for only about 90 minutes each time, but we always pick our conversations up right where they left off. We are very different in our lifestyles, beliefs, and so on, but we still manage to see eye to eye on a lot of things and still have a lot of respect for one another. Even though I only see her twice a month, over such a long span of time I feel like we have gotten to know one another pretty well.

I think people like my nail technician keep us grounded and keep us from getting too boring. If we only surround ourselves with one “type” of person we can’t stay relevant in the real world. Even if we don’t agree with everyone we know, it’s important to at least know what else and who else is out there trying to live in this world, and realize that at the end of the day, even if we are living really different types of lives, we ultimately want a lot of the same things and dream the same dreams.

Think about the people in your life who are your “nail technicians.” I'd like to hear about them.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Thoughts for Deacon Pat...

My friend, Deacon Pat (a man my age I met several years back who is now a mere 7 months away away from being ordained a priest!) e-mailed me while I was in Italy and asked me for some input about being a Catholic young adult in the world today.

I assume it's for a paper he may be working on for a class or the like, but he really didn't say. I e-mailed him some thoughts and thought I'd post them here as well. I've stated a lot of this here and there, but this is kind of me "in a nutshell" over these past several years.

As a Catholic young adult who is truly trying to live a wholly Catholic life (as best as I can, that is), I think my experience is much different from others in my age group who consider themselves Catholic and attend mass, but do not take their faith experience much further than that. For young adults that fall into that latter category, I doubt they would notice that they weren't being "supported" by the Church, ie, they wouldn't necessarily expect the homilies to speak to them, they wouldn't expect any programs or ministries for anyone other than the "old people," etc, so on some levels, I feel like a committed Catholic young adult has it harder than most because we actually KNOW we are SUPPOSED to expect more!

At my particular parish, I was blessed beyond measure for the past 3 years because of my pastor, Fr Pat, who is very orthodox and faithful. His homilies spoke to everyone, they were very easy to follow and they taught the truth of the Catholic church in a firm but loving way. I do believe that many priests today are sometimes timid about teaching the real truth of what the church teaches, and I think we all suffer as a result of not being fed the truth, no matter what out age group.

I ran a young adult group at my parish for about 2 years or so (it ended about 2-3 years ago now) and only one young adult from my parish ever came to it! Luckily, I did advertise at other parishes in my county and I had a few faithful folks come to join me on a regular basis, but we were a very small group and I found that even among that group they were mostly seeking out social interaction and only secondarily seeking a closer relationship with Christ or a deeper understanding of His word, but, I realize this is also very common among my age group and the social aspect is an important part of drawing people out to come to learn more about the faith, especially those who may not feel like they know very much about it.

In general, I do feel isolated in parish life. This is not the fault of the church or a parish directly. It's the fault of all of us, in that we have raised a generation of poorly catechized, secular young adults who no longer hold the Church or her teachings in a high regard. I can only thank God that I heard Him call me into a deeper relationship with Him when I did--I did not attend Catholic school, I was not catechized in any deep or complete fashion, and I was living a pretty secular life when He found me. Once I responded to Him, my life was never the same. I praise God it happened when I was a young adult, so I can spend the rest of my life trying to glorify Him! So, if being the youngest face in the room at events and having difficulty finding a like-minded man of my age group to share a life with are my current by-products of living a life in Christ, so be it. At the end of the day, I'm the happiest I have ever been!


Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Ciao Italia!

I just wanted my small group of loyal readers to know that I am back from my trip to Italy and now also back to work and back into the swing of my normal life!

We had a really great time. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there and we saw so many awesome things. My knee held up like a champ. Actually, I am happy to say that by the end of the trip my ankle was completely back to normal and my knee was at about 85%. All of the walking and the stairs wound up being very rehabilitative, praise God.