Tuesday True, Good, and Beautiful #12

Just another manic Tuesday? Or actually a pretty normal, routine Tuesday. The only mania showed itself on the ultimate frisbee field this morning. More on that in a later post :)

It’s been a long but wonderful week that included a 48 hour silent retreat for me. WOOF. I enjoyed it a lot (up until the final afternoon – it got really hard during the last few hours!) and had a lot of great time for prayer, rest, and remembering that eating alone is actually really nice sometimes.

Everything else has been swimming along wonderfully here though. I can’t believe we’ve only been here for 2 weeks and 2 days. It feels like it’s been so much longer! I appreciate that feeling, though, because it comes with a level of comfort around these people and in this place. Except the giant grasshoppers. I’m still really wary of those guys.

So until I can write an actual post about things here (which is coming, I promise)…

True: We’ve been listening to the song I Lived by OneRepublic basically on repeat over the last few days. It has not left my head and I’m totally okay with that. This song is so beautiful. It makes my heart want to fly every time I hear it. I want to live out the lyrics not only during my time in Ave Maria, but once I go home, when I get to Wayne State, and every day beyond it.

My favorite lyrics:

Hope that you spend your days, but they all add up
And when that sun goes down, hope you raise your cup
Oh, I wish that I could witness all your joy and all your pain
But until my moment comes, I’ll say “I, I did it all”…

Check out the song if you haven’t heard it. Or if you have, listen again!

Living life, eating ice cream, watching a gorgeous sunset. This place is wonderful.

Good: I have an incredible roommate here in Florida. We have so many things in common, including our birthday and an intense love for She’s the Man. Stephanie writes a blog too, so check it out because she’s a really great writer. I am so grateful for the ways that she’s been able to love me, like listening to me when I’m upset about something, being on the same page about forcing ourselves to go socialize, and helping hold me accountable for the ways I’m trying to grow here in Ave.

We laugh a lot too. Like about Taylor Swift on SNL videos and awkward encounters with people here and meeting the people that we Catholic-fan-girl about.

We somehow haven’t taken a picture of the two of us together yet. Oops. But aside from that fact, I am so grateful to be rooming with her here in Ave!

Stephanie, Maria, me, and Callaghan on an impromptu ice cream run. #mishlife

[Our current conversation:
Stephanie: Are you working on your tax stuff right now?
Me: No, I’m writing a blog post. I’m actually writing about you!
Stephanie: Oh! I can’t wait to read it! Unless it’s mean…….]

I hope this is nice enough for you :)

Beautiful: During dinner last night, I sat with four of the women from our college (what they call the small groups here at training). I had only met two of these women very briefly before arriving here at training, but in the past two weeks, we’ve all grown so close. While eating dinner, the five of us were laughing hysterically and obnoxiously at something that I don’t even remember. It was a simple, brief moment, but my heart was so moved with gratitude for these ladies that I just had to write it down.

This happened again this morning when I was telling a story to Callaghan about how to flush the toilet in our room, we have to pull the handle up because it fell off and got put back on upside down, so now all four of us struggle with flushing regular toilets. I was laughing so hard. People were staring. It’s fine.

ALSO. We saw a dolphin at the beach this weekend. A REAL LIFE DOLPHIN. It was just swimming around the pier, being all cute and showing off. On this same excursion, I decided that pelicans are my new favorite animal. They’re so awkward. I love them.

I definitely made this reference. #noshame

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I hope you are all having a fantastic Tuesday and a lovely week! Please let me know how I can be praying for you and your loved ones!