La Morenita Nómada

Prayer has always been difficult for me as an adult. As a child, I recall having a sense of constant communication with God. But as I grew older, sprouting into my pre-teens and early teenage years, I lost that sense of communion and while I didn’t stop having belief in God, my view of God as my Heavenly Father had been replaced with my personal Cosmic Santa Clause. More recently, I’ve been struggling to return to pursuing that childhood relationship with God through genuine prayer. Truly, a struggle. As a child, I knew prayer as having heart-felt conversations with God. I have memories of me in my early elementary school years talking to God in my mind and out-loud, confident in God’s love for my family and for little me. I recall calling out to God whenever feeling sad or whenever I sensed my parents in a disagreement. I remember praying to God for my family and their needs. I knew God as my Heavenly Father and I recollect that with this relationship came a sense of sweetness...

Today, I learned that giving should be done more freely, not with reservation. We were shopping at Walmart for some mid-week essentials when a man decked out in rubber boots and saggy gym clothes slowly approached us and bashfully asked us for some change. I briefly looked at him and shook my head and said, “I’m sorry, we’re not carrying any cash”. The man timidly winced away from us and in a very soft-spoken manner apologized for bothering us. We continued shopping. But I couldn’t concentrate. There was something in that man’s facial expression that told me he wasn't asking for change for frivolousness. My mother saw my face and said, “I have a dollar… it isn’t much, but it might help”. She had the same thought as I did. Maybe he needed change to be able to complete his shopping list. I didn’t have to walk much to look for him as he was still nearby. As I approached him, I saw him picking at the change he held in his palm and glancing at his almost empty buggy. He gin...

This week will be a good one. I have a lot of good intentions and a lot of good motives. I intend to get a lot done for work and personal matters, and my motivation is myself, my faith and my family. I have a lot to give thanks, and this morning I realized that as I sipped my green smoothie for breakfast. However, I tend to focus on the negative more than the positive, and the negativity tends to overshadow the good things I want to do and have. A few weeks back, a dear FB friend, who is also a very strong Christian woman, suggested I do "Soul Detox" on the Bible App, which is a bible devotional about how to think positive thoughts. I did OK on the first 14 days, then fell off from it (Sorry, Bonnie!). Well, this morning, I decided I would finish up the devotional. Sometimes what is considered negative or pessimistic is actually being realistic. And there's nothing wrong with that. However, there needs to be a balance and I, for one, tend to focus on the negative o...

I am the type of person that likes to get to know people on a personal level, sometimes for the sole purpose of finding out if they do something that I like enough to emulate. Some people might consider that as lame. Why not be original? My take is that there is nothing new under the sun ( Ecclesiastes 1:9 ) . Since there is no such thing as original, I might as well find out what works for others and see if it works for me. And for me, there is a certain level of excitement that comes along with exchange of ideas, especially when ideas are of value.   As of late, I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin’s “ Better than Before ” and “ The Happiness Project ”, books focused on research-based ways to form habits. In her book “The Happiness Project” she lists her own version of the 12 commandments to live by. So, in honor of one my own commandments, Emulate the good in others , I have decided that today I’ll post my own version of my commandments to live by. 1.    ...