The Broken Road

I was blessed today to share in a lunch with a great soul. We go through life with a lot of things on our plate. We are not meant to have all the answers. We fall into this trap of not accepting this as reality either. It also prevents us from leaning on others for help. Help is seen as a sign if accepting weakness. Who says weakness is bad? I can’t handle my broken family who is trying to put the pieces back together while juggling work, at the same time still determine what kind of woman I want to be and/or the type of boy I want to let in my life, while in the main time determing how I still feed my faith. But thanks to your wonderful story and your vulnerability today Nick, I was reminded through Luke 14 that:

• God humbles to exalt
• Carrying my own cross just leads me closer to him

Lord help me never to forget that my broken roads lead me back to you. You humble only to exalt me. Help me extend a helping hand without expecting anything in return. Help me to better carry my crosses in life and truly are your glory through them. Through my broken roads let me be the salt of the earth and light of the world. 

Ubuntu

Chronicles of Finding Me: Two

Chronicles of Finding Me: Two.

Chronicles of Finding Me: Two

Dear World,

I have been gone for a while but I am back. I am still continuing that journey of finding me but for now, at least I know who am not.

Ubuntu

Chronicles of Finding Me: One

I am at a point in life where finding my vocation and ad-vocation is really all that clutters my mind. I learned that my vocation is my underline calling; it is my purpose on earth. My ad-vocation is the practical thing(s) I do to fulfill my vocation. But have you ever been caught between the fear of vocation versus ad-vocation versus remuneration? It just feels like those three don’t play well together. I want the full trio not just a duo. However, every single day and the circumstances it brings pulls me towards the duo rather than the trio. Lord knows I need his help. Clarity is hard to find especially from where I stand. 

Can a duo lead me to a trio? Can the combination of ad-vocation and remuneration lead to my vocation? Or can the combination of vocation and ad-vocation lead me to remuneration? I find myself in search of me and today, in honor Waste Land and the pickers of Jardim Gramacho, I begin my journey in hopes of finding my trio. 

~Ubuntu~

 

Fundamentals

I have come to learn from economists, entrepreneurs, and many other business professors, students, and people that money/the bottom line/wealth is was drives/motivates a lot of things in society.

Money drives supply and demand, hence driving the economy. Wealth is also what drives a person’s motivation to become an entrepreneur. The bottom line is what drives a business to outsource and build factories where people work for very low wages. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the business argument behind it all; I am a business student. The theories and logic behind a “free market” economy, entrepreneurship, contributing to the bottom line, and many other business/societal related transactions, laws, and policies all make sense to me. But what if we changed the bottom line of all these laws and theories?

If every car was built with the same type of engine, the only difference between cars today will be their outer parts. But we buy luxury cars, or pay more for certain cars because we love the engine and the way it drives (if you are a car fanatic you understand). So why don’t we do the same for our theories, laws, and policies. If all things point to money/wealth/and the bottom line as one of the sole motivation for a lot of things, why don’t we change the driver/the motivator?

What if life, yes just life, humans, persons, people, were the drivers/sole motivators for theories, laws, and policies. What if we truly meant it when we say “it is for the good of the people or we have the people’s best interest in mind?” There are society’s that measure GNH (Gross National Happiness) and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) because they are committed to improving their economy because they want to increase their society’s level of happiness. Without life, persons, people, humans, an economy cannot grow, there will be no need for laws, policies, government, or politicians. So then why don’t we respect people, humans, persons, and life? Why don’t we integrate that into our  business practices, our policies, our lives?

Don’t get me wrong, money is a medium of exchange that we as society have chosen to use because it facilitates transactions. I don’t hate money neither do I detest the use of it. It is very useful in society. I also don’t disagree with outsourcing or the need for businesses to contribute to their bottom line. However, I think a lot of things will be significantly different if we were motivated by our respect for people, persons, humans, and life while showing that through pragmatic solidarity (aka action). Desmond Tutu summed it up with this one word: Ubuntu (I am because We All are). We are never really whole until everyone else is whole.

~Ubuntu~

“Unpack Your Heart”: The reason I love music

Meet me where the sunlight ends
Meet me where the truth never bends
Bring all that you’re scared to defend
And lay it down when you walk through my door

Throw all of it out on the floor
Your sorrow, your beauty, your war
I want it all, I want it all

Bring your secrets, bring your scars
Bring your glory, all you are
Bring your daylight, bring your dark
Share your silence
And unpack your heart

Show me something the rest never see
Give me all that you hope to receive
Your deepest regret dies with me
The days when you stumble and fall
The days when you grind to a crawl
The treasure that hides behind your walls
I want it all, yeah I want it all

Bring your secrets, bring your scars
Bring your glory, all you are
Bring your daylight, bring your dark
Share your silence
And unpack your heart
Unpack your heart

Oh, I’m on your side
So shed your shadow
And watch it rise

Oh, I’m on your side
So shed your shadow
And watch it rise
Into your darkness
I’ll shine a light

Bring your secrets, bring your scars
Bring your glory, all you are
Bring your daylight, bring your dark
Share your silence

Bring your honor, bring your shame
All your madness, I will tame
Won’t you lay down, down your guard
Share your silence
And unpack your heart

-Phillip Phillips-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN1I-w6qAOs

~Ubuntu~

Compassion is not enough

What is compassion anyways? Well according to a lot people the picture below sums it up. But you know what, I am kind of sick of compassion.

Our society has become a compassionate society. One might think, well isn’t that a good thing? Well, not really. A compassionate society is only a good thing when that compassion encourages the said society to act. In this society of ours today, we are so compassionate that we’ve accepted compassion as the answer for everything.

We feel compassionate towards the men, women, and children killed in the middle east everyday. We feel compassion for the homeless people on the street, the staring children we see on television, and that person sitting by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at night with a flat tire, tears in their eyes, and the their hands on their heads. Yes, compassion is all we feel and nothing else. Wasn’t it some famous psychologist or personal growth development trainer who said compassion propels people to act? Well then, where is the action? Do we ever stop to give the homeless guy water/food, or help the stranger stranded on the street, or speak out for the dying men, women, and children? Do we?

Wait a minute, this might be asking for much. Let me put it “closer to home for you.” Do you ever help your sibling when their chores are too much for them even when you “feel bad” for them? Do you ever help that neighbor of yours with the many grocery bags when you “feel compassionate” towards them? No we don’t because we feel good when we feel compassionate towards people because “hey, at least we still have some sort of compassion/emotion towards people right?

All I want is to live in a pragmatic society not a compassionate one.

~Ubuntu~

Thoughts of May Uno

You never know where life leads. Trying to break off and get out of one’s comfort zone is always very scary. For those like me, comfort is all we know. At 21, trying to move away from comfort is still difficult. But fear is only false evidence appearing real and forgetting that everything is alright. Take as many little steps as you can to be comfortable enough when getting out of your comfort zone. Don’t let the fast pace of the world and pressure from friends intimidate you. Most importantly, never throw out your core beliefs and/or ever change who you are when taking steps out of your comfort zone. Being true to ones self is as simple as accepting who you are in the reflection of your own eyes and not in the opinions nor descriptions of others. The world is an empty canvas for us to paint over. Let’s get out of our comfort zones and begin painting on the canvases of the world.

Signing off work: Ubuntu

Love from a Female vs. Male perspective

Bear with me for a second. I think I am in a love phase this week. I have been contemplating a lot about relationships and boys and what not. I found this picture below and I loved it.

However, I have come to realize that only girls post things like this on their walls or social media sites. So I wanted to ask the males gender (young boys, men, father’s,etc), What do you look for in love and relationships? Would you agree with the picture above as well or would you have to reword it to sound less emotional. I an simply Just trying to figure why pictures like this appeal more so to women rather than men? Please females feel to to give me your opinions as well.

Signing off world: Ubuntu

2 Things in my 20’s

As I contemplated on a lot of things that have been going through my mind, I realized that my thoughts could be summed up into two categories; Job and Love.

At age 20, I have come to the realization that most of my conversations and thoughts are either about love and/or jobs. I have been trying to figure out what that is. Let’s begin with jobs.

I am a 20 year old senior in college with friends who are all about to graduate. So I guess the topic of what is next after college is all on our raider. A lot of friends have been blessed and have all been offered jobs or acceptance to graduate school. However, I am still on this journey of searching. What am searching for, I really can’t tell you.

My search, if I really had to examine It, is to find my vocation/calling. My friends know I can get the jobs they are being offered. They know I can work for any company I want. However, I know that my heart wants to make a difference wherever I work. I want to be impactfull. I am just waiting for the Lord to translate my passion into a humanly tangible career. My vocation/calling brings me to the 2nd thing in my 20`s; love.

This topic of love (relationships) had never been on my raider until I celebrated my 20th birthday. I have never made the topics of liking boys or getting in relationships a focus of mine. Yes I liked a couple of guys in high school But never told them nor was I even interested in entertaining the idea of a relationship. However that all apparently changes when one enters the 20`s.

I have realized that with my friends, the updates in our personal are mostly consumed by the discussion of finding love. It never use to be like That in our teens. I on the other, have seen myself entertaining relationship ideas and partaking in these discussions. However, the entertainment of this idea stays in my head and never do I act upon it. I am also on a search of figuring out why.

My hesitation to not acting upon this idea, I think, is because of fear. Not fear of rejection or failure. I think my fear stems from the fact that I want to pray for my soul mate before acting upon the idea of a relationship. I think I fear that I would fail in praying and just be immersed in this fasade of just having a significant other. I also think that my real hesitation stems from my own fault of over thinking and hoping for a utopian significant other.

Love and jobs are both classified under vocations. So I pray that I find my vocation that enables me to impact the world, to draw closer to Christ, to work hard, love selflessly and to grow into a beautiful swan (my ideal self).

Signing off world: Ubuntu