A Collage of Sorts

More baking adventures this past week. Banana muffins and apple turnovers. Both taste absolutely yummy. Take a look!

I'll be taking a break from baking for a little while. Too many sweet temptations in the house. Lucky for me I work in a building where there are plenty of mouths to feed :D



I was reminded this afternoon of my all-too-easily fading spirituality since leaving the mount 8 weeks ago. Being too overwhelmed with the move the first month was easy to understand and forgivable. Slacking the past 4 weeks is not an excuse nor is it something I'm proud of. I realize I will never be a morning person. If this past year's 5:45am daily alarm could not change that, nothing will, so meditating to start off my day might not ever happen. I will be trying something new starting tonight.

Along the same lines, I have been reading a book entitled "Fearing the Stigmata." Now, before your mind starts wandering in a billion different places trying to figure out what is meant by that title, this is a book written for young, 20-something to early 30's Catholics. The subtitle: "Humorously Holy Stories of a Young Catholic's Search for a Culturally Relevant Faith." It consists of a bunch of short stories and is an extremely easy read. It is written by a 28-year-old who was brought up in a pretty traditional Catholic family, so some of what the author writes about is a bit foreign to me. But most of it I can relate to in some way, like his chapter about publicly accepting your faith. How do you become comfortable with it when everyone around you that is your age seems to be slipping away? "A public faith life may bruise your head. It can embarrass you, challenge you, and create large amounts of anxiety or fear--on buses, in restaurants, along roads...This is even more difficult if you are twenty-seven and some of your friends look at you the way you looked at someone of a different faith. Yet, along with its bumps and bruises, toads and dirty looks, the key ingredients to having a public faith life still include generous heapings of joy and grace, love, wonder, and strength--the strength to sometimes do things you never thought you could do."
Check it out: "Fearing the Stigmata"



And now for this week's yoga pose:

 

High Lunge/Crescent Pose

Hold for 5 breaths in and out, then switch legs

Benefits:

Improved balance

If you're really looking for a challenge, try the tripod pose...

Just kidding! I mean, you can try if you'd like. I learned how to do this in gymnastics class when I was like...8.