Aloe vera... does a stomach good

I got my hopes up about the job but apparently it's not time yet. I'm trying really hard not to worry. I read an interesting post here today about getting what you ask for in prayer. I have realized for a while now that I talk more than I listen to God and today I started timing how long I can "do silence" for. I did five minutes and it was hard. I'll try to increase that each day. Mother Teresa says it all starts with silence:

The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace. (quotes)


Being unemployed, I "did" this silence at the beach, where people were doing lots of fun things:

Plus I scraped some gel out of a leaf from my aloe vera plant for the first time. I got the idea to get an aloe vera plant because I am obsessed with this yogurt from Pingo Doce supermarket that has pieces of aloe vera in it. Apparently aloe is just as good for your stomach as it is for your skin... it's delicious and makes you feel great about eating it. So my mom and I bought matching aloe vera plants this summer. I admire how she is always so open to new ideas.

My cute mom

I read tutorials about how to get the aloe gel out of the leaves, but it didn't go quite according to plan. I was expecting a huge chunk of gel, but instead got a little blob:

That's okay! Enough to divide among my four little yogurt cups:

Yum! I'm excited about suddenly and inexplicably having the discipline to get up at the same time every day, run, plan my meals and rest! They say all these good habits such as eating yummy things and exercising only have benefits if you stick with them regularly over time. (I really hope I will!) Taking good care of ourselves makes us feel good (they say just five minutes of nature a day keeps depression away)... but also to be able to take care of ourselves we have to feel good (I'm thinking of people that can't stick to diets or the elderly that neglect their personal higiene). Which one comes first, taking care of ourselves or feeling good? Seems like a chicken and egg situation. My vote is for the feeling good coming first because that's how I finished my thesis (after coming back from Taize) and how I'm managing discipline now (after praying about it!).