"Mary Time"

The story of Mary and Martha is one that teaches us how to find the balance between working and finding time to relax. Martha overwhelms herself thinking that she always has to be working in order for her time to be worthwhile. Mary on the other hand, spends her time in the story talking with Jesus. When Martha accuses Mary of not working, Jesus teaches Martha that Mary's time with Him was equally necessary. Nutshell overview of the story.

This fall break, I planned on catching up (and possibly getting a little bit ahead). Well, the body has an interesting way of telling you that you need to just relax for a couple of days. Zero motivation. Unbelievably tired. Instead of hitting the books hard this weekend, I enjoyed the time off and recouped from possible overexertion over the past couple of months.

I have pretty much been on the go trying to anything and everything I can to make sure that my senior year is memorable and fruitful. Over the last week or two, I have not taken the time to just relax and be. This weekend was the perfect opportunity and my body told me to take advantage of it. With six more weeks ahead of me with plenty of work to do, I hope to be able to find the pockets of time to allow myself to take a breather rather than stay in 5th gear for six straight weeks only to collapse for an entire weekend. It's an important lesson to learn. And it's difficult sometimes because personally, I sometimes feel like if I'm not doing something I'm letting someone else down. Yet another lesson in humility. I'm simply not capable of doing everything for everyone. I was talking to a friend last week and I had given her this advice, "You're not that important." She had given the same advice to one of her friends recently. It's funny that all three of us really needed to hear it. The important things will get done when they need to be done. In the times that we can't make it to spend time with friends, there will be other times.

Life. 200mph

NASCAR!!! My fraternity had a fundraiser at the Kansas Speedway this weekend. Now, I do not really enjoy any surface level aspect that NASCAR has to offer: cars going around a circle track 200+ times, unbearably loud to the point where thinking to yourself isn't even an option let alone talking to the person sitting right next to you. However, in the spirit of the Jesuit value of finding God in all things, an observation that I was able to make was in how the racers respond to a crash (not the crowd because that's the most exciting thing for the crowd). What I observed whenever there was a crash on the track was the pace car made its way out onto the track in preparation for a restart and all of the other cars waited for the crash to clear. Here's the connection that I made: especially in our culture, we're all going around and around, often times completely unaware that the people around us are...well other people, not just brainless jerks who get in our way and slow us down on the freeway. In the development of my own personal faith life, one of the things that I realize that I have grown in is recognizing when a friend is really down, or has "crashed." What I have learned and really taken to is that getting to the finish line isn't the entire point of life; being there to help others finish the race is equally, if not more important. Realistically, this was not the reasoning for this rule or practice in NASCAR, but I do find it interesting that such a strong Christian ideal can be found amongst an obnoxiously loud sport with seemingly no real point.


The other awesome part of the weekend was simply the time spent with my best friends. Honestly, getting up at 5am throughout the weekend is not my first choice when it comes to recouping after a long week. But it was, and is always, so awesome to simply be present with my friends. Referring to my struggle early on in this semester in which I was just in my own little world much of the time, I believe to have learned quite well the importance of living in the moment and trusting that my future is in the hands of my Father. My life is infinitely more enjoyable when I entrust myself to Him and enjoy the life with which He has graced me rather than worrying about what is in store for me 7 months from now.

Geezer, Habitat, Homecoming

Well, the blessings just keep on coming. I had a little bit of a breakdown in the middle of the week getting overwhelmed with all of the work that I am involved in, but the weekend came soon enough and had another memorable one.
Friday kicked off the weekend with "Geezer Fever," one of the sorority's date parties. I was invited by the wonderful Colleen Smyth. This was my favorite theme party I have ever seen. Everyone was just so into it - there were walkers with tennis balls, walkers with toilet seats, gray hair, and retired folks...all dancing to the modern-day rap and hip-hop music. It was hysterical. Then we went to Chubby's for fourth meal (not the typical 2am run that college students often attend, rather, the geezer late-night meal at 10:30pm).

The next morning, I was up early to head to a Habitat build down the road from Rockhurst University. The best part about the day was that there was a perfect amount of volunteers there for the number of volunteer leaders. Typically, with builds like this there are simply too many hands for the work, but I got to work one-on-one with a leader as we hung doors and laid base board around the house. And, although I was not working directly with them, one of the things that I really like about Habitat is that they have the people who will eventually live in the houses help build them. It really gets the volunteers more involved in the lives of the people whom they are helping. And it gives those who are receiving the help a feeling of accomplishment as they play such a large role in the construction of their own home. It was a really great way to spend time with my fraternity brothers for the day - serving others.
The finale of the weekend was capped off with the homecoming dance. Firstly, I went to dinner at P.F. Chang's on the Plaza with Nate Olson and David Wallisch. Then on to downtown KC. The highlight of the night was a tremendous honor. I was voted homecoming king. I was just...well incredibly humbled. The thing is, I feel like that honor is not like in high school where people vote for you because you're the "cool kid on campus." There's more respect in it than that and, again, I cannot say how much of an honor it is to have been voted for it. Praise God for whatever gifts I have been given that made it so.

Family & Alumni Weekend

This past weekend was family and alumni weekend. It was kicked off with a festival on Lower Bourke field with student organizations providing games and small fundraisers, food, cotton candy, snow cones, and blow-up obstacle courses. There was also three athletic events: men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball. The weekend doubled as the kick-off for homecoming week. The introduction of homecoming court was made at halftime of the men's soccer game. Honored, I was one of the nominees. Finally, I got to sport my vest that I got from Belize again.My family was unfortunately not able to make it out this weekend just with all of the busyness going on back at home with younger siblings sports events going on all weekend. I made the most of it, rather the least of it. I took Friday night to relax as the next few weekends have been filled up already with tons of plans. I stayed in on Friday and watched a movie. As the weekend continued on, I went down to the Plaza Art Fair for a couple of hours. There were some really awesome works of art down there. My favorite was a collection of running gears. I have always wished that I was more artistically talented, but that's simply not one of my gifts.

The next few weeks are pretty full. My first interfraternity Bible study is coming up on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to it as I have been planning for it since last semester. I'm also meeting with Campus Ministry to begin planning a men's retreat for the spring semester.

Don't just survive. Thrive.

The Present is a Gift

I am so incredibly blessed. The past two weekends have been just what I have needed. On Friday evening I had some friends over to the house. Originally, we were going to have a fire in the backyard, but the weather didn't cooperate so we moved the party inside. It's interesting how what you're doing is not nearly as important as the people with whom you do it. All present: Nate Olson, David Skelton, Josh Hollis, Frank Kane, Colleen Smyth, Anna Stroop, Maddie Burkemper, and Wils. We didn't do anything special, we just sat in the living room and talked and played a board game, but it was simply perfect.

The next morning, the girls and I went to the Farmers' Market just outside of downtown. It was a really awesome atmosphere down there. I saw God in so many ways there this weekend. Very clearly in the girls, but a couple of observations I made really made an impact. First, I saw a brother and sister interacting with each other. The older brother was probably about 8, and the younger sister about 3 or 4. It was so awesome to watch the older brother taking care of his younger sister. He was holding the umbrella over her head when it started raining and had his arm around her. The second impact observation was seeing an older couple walking around the market. With the inexcusable behavior of men in our country today who don't take responsibility for their actions and don't remain committed to their promises, it is so incredibly refreshing every time I see a couple who has been together for many many years - not to mention, the wife was not in great physical health and the husband was taking care of her in her frail state. Doesn't get much better than that.

Well, two weekends in a row now of having great opportunities of simply being present with those I am around have provided a great remedy for my feeling of detachment from Kansas City and from college and my friends here. I have been thinking too far into my future about what is going to happen after I graduate and that had been preventing me from enjoying the present moment.

Don't just survive. Thrive.

Toga, Hopkins, Karaoke, Chalk...and a new business?

This was my fourth and final Toga party of my college years at Rockhurst. It was so much fun! So many memories. I stayed out afterward and had some awesome conversations with great people over at my friends' house. While I don't regret staying up and talking with people until 6am, running a 5k starting at 10am wasn't a great way to treat my body. I did run it in 22:30 though so I feel pretty good about that. To the winners: 18 minutes, Wow! Way to go!

Last night I went out with a group of friends to the Westport Flea Market to do karaoke. It was awesome! It started out being just me and my friend Nate for the first 45 minutes, but then people started coming in waves and there was a solid showing of Rockhurst people. That was the first time I ever done karaoke there...it won't be the last. What a night!

I came home to a pleasant surprise from my night out on the town. I had received a text message earlier in the evening that said, "Hope you had a great night...Be sure to use your front door tonight ya old geezer." What? I was obviously very confused. But then it all came together when Nate and I walked up the steps of our walkway and saw the sidewalk decked out with chalk. Jordan Siebenmorgen and Colleen Smyth asked Nate and I to go to the date party for their sorority. It was really cool because it brought back memories of my high school days because I asked a couple of girls to dances using chalk on their driveways. Pretty effective. 100% success rate, no big deal.And finally, in the past year I have baked up a loaf of my mom's banana bread for a few of my neighbors. They have been asking for more ever since. My neighbor Judy gave me $20 for a single loaf yesterday. Now, if something indeed does come from this, I certainly will not be charging $20/loaf; however, I wouldn't mind having a little side job income while satisfying people with the best banana bread that will ever touch your taste buds. Just ask them!

Nature's Call...Don't Worry, It's Not What You Think

I went on a camping trip over Labor Day weekend that was organized by a young adult Catholic group in Kansas City. The event is called, "Nature's Call." For me, it was really refreshing because usually when I have gotten together with large groups in that type of weekend setting, there's a lot of talks and personal reflection and "let's get really close this weekend and pretend we're going to keep in touch after we leave." This was nothing like that. It was organized, but unstructured fun all weekend long. We just hung out together - going swimming in the lake, playing lawn games, cards, there was an Iron Chef competition, a greased watermelon game in the lake and a live band at the marina.

Now, contrary to the point I made at the beginning about meeting people and then pretending that we're going to keep in touch, I met a handful of people that I really would like to keep in touch with. One guy, Kiran, who I met there (he ended up staying in my tent because he didn't have one) works at an Indian Cuisine restaurant in Overland Park called, "Chilli n Spice." He invited me to come to the restaurant sometime. And we're friends on Facebook now which makes the friendship official (sarcastic).

So the main point that I would like to make clear through this entry (which also relates to my experience this entire summer at Camp Wojtyla) is that living a Christian lifestyle often has this misconception of only being a list of "Dos and Don'ts" and you're condemned if you don't follow the rules; the real truth of the Christian life being that having a right relationship with God and others and living life to the full is actually FUN!!!