Friday, November 30, 2012

Set the world on fire

I think our greatest fear of all must be to be alone. We're so relational. I've been trying to face this fear, making time for me and God at home at night, but it's hard. It's easier to turn on the TV or go online and forget about it all. 

I hope your weekend is slow and simple ...


"If you are what you should be, you would set the world on fire!" - Saint Catherine of Siena

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Wandering around in Lisbon...


This past weekend was very unproductive (my house is still dirty...), but it had lots of little surprises: an unexpected walk in Lisbon's Monsanto Park, unexpected Starbucks (I haven't had Starbucks in a looong time)  and a sponteaneous pizza dinner (very yummy) with my handsome Daniel, my goddaughter and our parish priest! 


Monday, November 26, 2012

Happy Birthday Rosita

Happy birthday to my sweet mom... who tries everyday to change fore the better, has a truck-load of courage (she slept on floors and such at World Youth Day in SPain last year!) and has always been there for me. I hope I can one day get to her age with her audacity and playfulness. 

Friday, November 23, 2012

Love and America

My thanksgiving was spent downtown at Hard Rock again, but this time no one ate turkey! I enjoyed my veggie burger and strawberry lemonade very much though, and of course the company. I also enjoyed the Christmas lights already up. I’m thankful for so many things, especially the people that love me and… American food in Portugal!




PS Our picture is blurry because a (probably already tipsy) Scottish man took it. He came to Lisbon for the Celtics soccer game. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Medieval picnic

My friend made a quiche for a lovely two-person picnic we had on Monday evening. I contributed an entire... sandwich bag of peanuts to the picnic. (I've been very lazy about cooking and preparing things lately.) We picnicked outside of what is to me the most beautiful church in Portugal, in Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. I had never been inside without tourists, and it was so quiet, dark and sacred-feeling. It was like another being in another world: a huge, medieval, calm, beautiful world. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Pleasantly surprised

I spent this past weekend at a retreat for youth ministers. Other than being really tiring and Portuguese in its schedules (activities finished at 12.30 at night!), it has been the fourth diocesan retreat of the kind I've gone to and the fourth surprise I've gotten... of how awful I thought it would be and how pleasant it actually was. Life is full of surprises sometimes. 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Government Is Not Our Father

I've already ranted on this blog about strikes in Portugal and Portuguese Angst, but today I couldn't help it: I had to write a full-blown article about it this month for Ignitum Today. It has just been too much! I hope you're not sick of politics just yet...



The Government Is Not Our Father

 | November 14, 2012 AD Reply
Living in Europe (and more specifically, Portugal) has been tough in terms of politics lately. I would venture to say even tougher than in America, even with this thorny election. Today is another day in many recently when Portugal is on strike or protesting in the streets. Today is a “general strike” when all are called to skip work and protest against the government, which is supposedly robbing us of money and any hope of happiness. Because of this, I don’t have public transportation to my job, which I depend on.
At the root of all these protests seems to be a certain ideology: the government needs to take care of us and our well-being depends on its policies. The Portuguese don’t want the government to increase taxes, which seems logical enough, but they also don’t want any cuts in the “social obligations of the State”. It was an outrage when they tried to cut on university funding and non-profit organizations (yes, they’re government-funded). In stark contrast to the Catholic uproar about the HHS mandate, we’ve been paying taxes for everyone’s contraception and abortion in Portugal for years. It’s the government’s fault the country is so backwards and there are so many poor. Yet the majority do not pay their taxes, tithing is unheard of (except for 50 cents every Sunday) and the iPhone5 sold out in an hour with people lining up outside .


To keep reading on Ignitum Today, click here...

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Happy birthday Dad...

Today I'm happy my dad was born, that he is my dad and that he is so sweet, funny and smart. 


Here we are on the island where he was born, S. Jorge, this past summer...

He has done AMAZING things like design a church. Yes, actually draw and make the plan for it! Here it is, on the island of S. Jorge...

Monday, November 12, 2012

Red, red, red, red, red...

"Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark grey all alone
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met
But loving him was [is] RED..."
- Red by Taylor Swift 


Like this author here, I also painted my nails red this weekend: 
Everything I Know About Love I Learned From Taylor Swift on LifeTeen.com

My weekend was RED...
How was yours?


PS Don't you just LOVE my new socks?!

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

A normal life.

Life has been rather uneventful lately for me. 
Home--work--home--work. 
Or little coffee/lunch dates with friends that seem so few and far between. And... I guess that's okay. As I told my friend Catia last Sunday, I've been discovering that the small and hidden things are really the greatest. And I'm slowly accepting that my life and talents are small and hidden... using your talents doesn't have to mean success and popularity. I'm accepting it: I have a "normal-person" job, a "normal-person" life, a "failed" and small youth group, a "little" blog and talents that are only shared with a small amount of people. And I have this sneaking suspicion: that the level that my desires for greatness/prestige decrease, my level of happiness/peace increases. 

When you don't have anything, then you have everything.  Mother Teresa

Downtown Lisbon during my coffee date last Sunday...

Thursday, November 01, 2012

hOWLoween

The moon was just perfect for Halloween. My friend Sofia was ultra creative and ultra hardworking and put together a Halloween dinner party that was really amazing. I was not only impressed but also inspired to get back to doing dinner parties myself. Getting people together around homemade food and being creative I think are some of the best things in life. Daniel felt so at home he took a little nap on the couch while listening to Smashing Pumpkins, one of his favorite bands. How can anyone sleep with loud rock music on? I'm not sure. Daniel and I were owls and Sofia was lovely Mary Poppins...