thanksgiving

In kindergarten, we had the choice of whether we wanted to dress up as pilgrims or indians during our thanksgiving celebration. as usual, my teacher suggested I be an indian--but I countered her b/c I wanted to white. isn't that funny?

well, thanksgiving was spent driving north to spend it with the in-laws. just like our family, they usually take turns holding the thanksgiving event. at this particular uncle's house, they are known to cater the event so the turkey is not your usual martha stewart au natural gala--processed turkey in a log in other words. the fixins', however were great and I can never get enough of can jellied cranberry sauce.

I called my mother today to tell her to save some turkey and stuffing for when I came back home. as much as my husband and i argue about whether "better" stuffing is stuffed or stove-top I shall always like "stuffed" stuffing better. I grew up on it, just like I grew up on the canned cranberry sauce. No one is going to convice me that the "real" stuff is better.

just come out and say it

Why is it so hard to say "i love you" even if that's the way you feel?

When I was a child, I could easily tell my parents I love them, but when I grew up, those words were few and far between. I love my parents, my brother, my friends, but I don't tell them "I love" them.

When you're relationship with people is a certain way for a long time, changing it is awkward. That is why I ALWAYS tell my husband I love him. We began our relationship this way so that it would never have that awkwardness. And I vow to do the same with my kids for the very same reason.

This past weekend, I guess started the ball rolling especially with my cousins who were at the church encounter retreat. I feel closer to my cousins than before and in our "emotional" state we did open up more to each other. Basically we verbalized our thoughts.

I guess I have to ask myself what the point is in holding back.

renewal

I just came back from a weekend church retreat and am feeling renewed in my Christian walk. I haven't felt this way since my Youth With a Mission stint 8 years ago. I took off two semesters of college to do mission work back then and I had such burden to spread the Word of God.

When I went back to college and then into med school I slowly started getting more laid back in my spiritual life. I've been struggling a lot spiritually even though I've been going to church and Bible studies. I just lost that fire.

The retreat brought me back to THE CROSS. I had forgotten in my heart the price that Jesus paid on the cross. I don't care how cliche it sounds to people who have never truly thought about the meaning of the cross, but that's what Christianity is all about. Without it, the whole gospel doesn't mean a thing.

I have been so preoccupied with my life, I became apathetic about the great commission to spread the gospel. I lost that passion I had that made me do mission work in the first place.

Anyway, here's to a renewed life.

two for one

The sneaky and opportunistic blood bank happened to be at the courthouse during my jury duty on Thursday. They expressed that since we had nothng better to do than wait for the courts to call our names, we could at least donate blood.

By that point, I had already been waiting 3 hours and so I volunteered. Unfortunately for me though, the baliffs said I couldn't do it, because I had been chosen for the first jury panel.

As they dismissed everybody else for lunch, 25 of us waited for the deputy to lead us to the courtroom. In anticipation of the voir dire (the time when lawyers hand pick appropriate jurors by asking them personal questions), I kept wondering how I could somehow make myself appear as an undesirable juror and not get selected.

When we finally sat down in the courtroom, the judge came to speak to us saying he had "good and bad news." As it turned out, they had settled the case a few minutes before we had come in and that we could leave. His bad news was only that we didn't get the opportunity to be jurors.

With my afternoon free, I ended up donating blood after all.

the spiritual part of me

I saw one of my "chronic back painers" the other day. As soon as I entered the room she came up to hug me saying," There's my favorite doctor!"

Basically, she still had the back pain, but was feeling a bit less "hopeless" than when I last saw her. Although she had started physical therapy and finally had a pain clinic appointment pending (took about a year to get this!), she noted that she had changed her attitude.

During our last visit, this 40+ successful professional said she was trying to go to church and be positive about her health. Towards the end of the visit, I basically slipped in a scripture "Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." I don't normally do this, but if someone seems pretty forlorn and expresses that they are indeed a Christian, the personal part me me might add a Word or two.

During the apointment, she mentioned how the Scripture had encouraged her these past few weeks to "move on." She attempted not to dwell on her back pain so much and focused more on reading her Bible, listening to encouraging music and going to church. I felt relieved that I could instill a tad of helpful "spirituality" w/o appearing fanatical or weird about it.