“Experience is the teacher of all things” – Julius Caesar

We have both positive and negative experiences in our lives. I’ve always had the worse time getting over negative experiences. With age, I learned to focus on positives and learn from negatives. I realized that negative experiences were there to teach me and make me stronger, but only when paying special attention to positives in my life.

We encounter people, read something, see things that make a great positive impact on us. Those encounters awake our senses, our ambitions, our reasoning.  They make us stop for a moment, look around, appreciate what we have. They teach us how to handle negative events in our lives. Those valuable encounters also make us want to explore and learn. They put us at ease that we are doing enough, and they help us realize that we are being appreciated.

Our lives are filled with lessons. And there is a point that we just know it better because of the experiences we’ve had. ABC Awake is a collection of my “awake moments” that help me with everyday life. From having fun taking pictures, cooking, making various DIYs projects, through every day struggles to physical and mental well being. It is my reference, a place to store important reminders and maybe a place that will make someone’s life a little easier as well.

“Awake” book by Fr. Ronald J. Hoye is one of my great inspirations. As the subtitle states the book includes “Short Reflections on Faith, Happiness and the Joy of Living in Christ”. And that is exactly what it is. The short stories, reflections and quotes make you think and reflect so that you see things from different perspective.

“Can a Cow Bless the Lord” reflection makes us realize that a cow as well as other God’s creations glorify God by being the best at what they were created to be. Cow grazes on a grass. Flowers grow to the highest height, live and thrive regardless of their mortality.

“The Glory of God is the person most fully alive.” Living the fullness of who/what God created us to be. Nature and animals teach us just that. Everything that is created including us serves a purpose. By being fully alive, by doing what we were created to do we serve the Lord. 

“When you seize your life and make the choices, every day, to live BOLDLY – to savor the food that is a gift this day, the friendships, the ability to work; to recognize the blessing this day of breathing clean air, drinking cold water, making it through the darkness of night; that’s when we bless God and praise His holy name.”

“Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart.” – Psalm 90

Our close ones that pass away before us remind us of the shortness of our lives. They remind us to seize what really matters. Father Hoye reflects here:

“[Grandma] reminds me that part of wisdom is the sacrifice for the care of others; the tenacious holding on in faith. She reminds me that something as simple as frying chicken and making rice dressing can fill a house with comfort and bring joy to the lives of others, if only for one evening. Her greatest joy, despite having so little, was the doing without so she could leave something for her grand-kids. This empathy, faith, cooking, laughter, caring and kindness lives in me, and my brothers. Who pass it along to their kids, who share it with the people we call friends and who, someday, will teach it by example to their kids. All without uttering her name or even knowing who she was.” (Fr. Hoye “Awake” p. 55)

“Happiness is not having what you want; it is wanting what you have.”

“We chase the idea of “I will be happy when…” I have a new car, when I get a new job, when I get married, when I lose 10 pounds (…) to think in such terms is to deny the generosity and goodness of God. That somehow the blessings in your life right now are not enough. (…) What if instead we choose to be happy…right now? To recognize the abundance of blessing and gifts we hold at the moment, now, in the present. That if this were all there is my life would most definitely be full and truly blessed? Just the fact that you are reading this, with hands to hold it, eyes that see the words, thoughts that process them – heck, just the fact that you can read – is pretty amazing.” (Fr. Hoye “Awake” p. 73-74)

These are only few of many simple reflections and reminders that father Hoye offers in his book. Life is full of challenges. And having a resource that grounds us and reminds us of what really matters is very important. That is what “Awake” book is for me. And the blog is my way of keeping what is important in one place.

Sources:

  1. Fr. Ronald J. Hoye “Awake” (2016)