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. 

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

Julie Rodrigues | 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...

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...

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?!

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...