Joie de Vivre

 Last week, I saw a beautiful French movie, The Women on the Sixth Floor, about a rich, French man who falls in love with "the help": Spanish women who really have "joie de vivre". It's the second French comedy I see that is really funny.

It's one of those movies where someone rich and disconnected discovers love and joy through a poorer (but more family and community-oriented) culture in his own country. Like Spanglish, for example. Some of my favorite things that the French man said were, "They're poor, they get up at six in the morning and get home late and tired, but they're happy." And, "I've found a family here." I really identified with the movie because I had a similar fascination for the Mexican culture my last year in high school. It was actually through that fascination that I came back to the Church. When the French man in the movie went to mass with them and prayed the rosary with them at night, I saw the same beauty I had seen back then.

I loved how they had so little, but they were rich in community and friendship with one another. The movie showed them supporting each other in hardships, helping each other with their work, laughing and telling stories in the park, making fun of each other in a playful way. It made me sad to live alone and far from people I'd like to build community with, but it was definitely a reminder of what's important in life.

Back to Lisbon

Well, I'm back in Lisbon, to a new job and to the adventure of everyday life (as opposed to the comfort of being taken care of at my parents' house on an idyllic island). 

I miss my mom's crunchy salads everyday for lunch and the latte my dad makes for me everyday after lunch. It's a stark contrast to the leftovers I eat for several days while braving life here on my own. Everyone says their mom's cooking is the best, but I do appreciate my mom's healthy food (I guess I owe my health-freakness to her) which you just feel good about eating. She always has salads for lunch and soups for dinner. 

Every now and then, when I get nostalgic, I think about those salads for lunch and that coffee sprinkled with cinnamon. 

Swimming

I ♥ swimming in the ocean.

Especially in the Azores, where the water is a lot warmer and more transparent than in Lisbon. But I don't love it nearly as much as my mom (who recently learned how to swim) or even as my boyfriend Daniel (who has been swimming as a sport since he was little and loves all things ocean). I love it, but I get cold easily and wimp out. Then I sit on my towel taking pictures of my mom. I love my mom's enthusiasm though, how she stays in the longest and splashes around with pure glee on her face. It's incredible how someone how is sixty-two can find such childlike joy in a simple thing.

Vacation is for...

... projects from pinterest.

I found the cutest US map puzzle on pinterest here and it was easy to make. I printed out the printable map, glued it onto boxes with paper glue and cut out the states. It's a fun way to learn the states, which I never did (despite having taken the states test at least three times... my memory is pretty bad). Now I'd just like to have a printable booklet with information about each state!

Finding moments of prayer

I have a church literally two minutes walking distance from my parents' house here in the Azores, which makes it very easy to make a daily "retreat" while on vacation. Which is one of the main goals of vacation after all...

 

"Dear friends, St. Dominic reminds us that at the origin of witnessing to the faith, which every Christian should give in the family, at work, in society, and even in moments of relaxation, is prayer, a personal contact with God; only this real relationship with God gives us the strength to live every event, especially the most suffered moments, intensely. This saint reminds us of the importance of external attitudes in our prayers. That to kneel, to stand before the Lord, to fix our gaze on the Crucifix, to pause and gather ourselves in silence, is not a secondary act, but helps to us to place ourselves, our whole person, in relation to God.

Once again, I would like draw attention to the need to find moments to pray quietly everyday for our spiritual life, we particularly have to take this time for ourselves during our vacation, to have time for this attempt to talk with God. This is also a way to help those who are near to us to enter into the luminous rays of the presence of God, who brings the peace and love that we all need." - Pope B16

(http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=47219)