Lesson Learned

Hello all!
So it has been a while since I last posted. I believe my last post was on how priceless I found my air conditioner and the many precious lives in my life. Well since then I have had quite the "adventure" with my air conditioner! I have discovered that Columbus OH has many strong storms during the summer time. The first of which I experienced a week or so after placing my air conditioner in my window. Up until this point my duct tape/ card board construction had held up in both rain and shine. Then this storm decided to pop up over Columbus, stick around for a couple of hours (it felt like forever), dump 2 inches of rain (it felt like 4), and then disappear over Columbus, it never moved! During this time water started to seep into my room, I did my best to stop the leak but before I knew it the dam broke and 2-3 buckets worth of water came rushing into my room!!!! When it calmed down enough for me to put down the buckets I tore my beautiful card board construction and air conditioner out of the window and closed the window. With in minutes the storm decided to stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well now it was hot and steamy in my room ... AKA Sauna!!!! I cleaned up the mess in my room and the kitchen downstairs where some of the water ended up. So I now realize that I only had a half roll of duct tape left and would have to return to Home Depot to purchase some more supplies. I returned to my room 20 mins later with a large roll of the most weather proof duct tape the store sold and preceded to reconstruct my masterpiece! About 10 pm that evening I was finished, my hair now resembling a Fro and my stomach growling, but my room cool! Now that I have you all laughing, I'll tell you that the story goes on because God has a funny sense of humor! About a week or two later I was awakened by another storm to which I reflexively checked my window. It was wet but not to bad. I was prepared this time ... the towels and buckets were in place in no time! I went back to sleep. Then a second storm woke me, this time so close that the house alarm started alarming!!! This lovely power surge also fried both TVs, internet modem, and my computer charger. Therefore I had no clue that there where tornado warnings in my area! I then discovered that there was now more water coming into the kitchen downstairs, this time not through my floor/window but through the closed downstairs window!! Don't ask me how this happened because I can't explain it except to say that this apartment is REALLY cheap!!! I proceeded to clean up this mess and went back to bed ... because I was clueless to the tornado warnings! This very long story explains why I am now sitting in Panara Bread typing this email to you all on their free wireless internet. Two weeks later my apartment still does not have internet or working TVs and my landlord continues to say that she'll be over today or tomorrow to fix things!!! What did I learn from all of this besides I hate thunderstorms and window air conditioners?? You get what you pay for, for one but on a serious note, I learned that while God has a funny way of showing it God loves and protects me through the storms of my life just as He did through the storms in Columbus.
I also recently have applied and interviewed for Physical Therapy jobs for the next phase of my life. I have been offered a position at one, asked to return for a second interview at a second, and still have to interview at a third at the end of the month. Please pray for me as I discern where and what the Lord wants for me in my life. Please also pray that I can trust in God's Love and will for me.
Keep the Faith,
Betsy

Priceless

One small cardboard box ... $2.25
One small roll of Duct tape ... $4.27
One small razor blade ... $1.19
The feeling of accomplishment and cool air blowing into my room on a 90 degree week .... Priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm living in Columbus OH while on my last clinical for PT school. I'm living in an apartment with no central air, but there was a window unit provided. This is the heaviest/ dirtiest thing you have probably ever seen but I was determined to use it when I looked at the forecast for this week which is in the 90's every day! So I pulled the thing out ... almost breaking my back ... shoved it in the window and realized that the side panels that are supposed to cover up the remaining open space in the window do NOT work!!!! Now what?!?!? So I decide the find the nearest Home Depot to find something the fill the ~22" by 15" hole in my window! Praise God. I found the nicest man at the store that directed me to the cheapest/easiest solution. I then returned home to cut, bend and tape my solution into the window hole! Mission accomplished!!!!!!!!!! Cool air is pumping into my room at this very moment and it is priceless! So what does this have to do with God working in our everyday lives??? EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come one people!! God sent me the nice man at the store ... taught me patience ... gave me the gift of ingenuity to solve the problem ... and graced me with the means to buy the materials I needed to fix the problem! But not only that, God gave me a new perspective on cool air! He has helped me to appreciate it that much more and empathize with those that don't and won't have cool air pumped into their rooms this week or all summer long. You see I know that there are millions out their that don't have this luxury, I've even helped a few rebuild their home, but when you leave and go back to our everyday lives we forget about how good we actually have it! We take for granted so much! Last week one of my patients died of cancer ... her life was Priceless!! She was a feisty one and would often put up a fight to participate in therapy and tell us to go away, but when she stopped fighting and just said "I can't it hurts to much," I realized that we had taken for granted her feistiness. May we alway remember that no matter how much someone fights with us or gets on our last nerve, their life is priceless. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, And may the perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. Please pray for her and her family.
Keep the Faith,
Betsy

Today's Discernment

So ... about a month ago I was teaching a friend how to make knot rosaries while having dinner and great conversation. We were updating each other on our lives since the last time we talked. She is always eager to hear about my discernment and always has some intriguing questions. One of these questions was, "Do you think it is possible that part of the vocation shortage is because many have never discerned their vocation to married, single, or religious life because they never even thought to do so because of the circumstances of their lives (hurts, wrong doings, of self and of the world, or just ignorance of vocation)?" She then said, "You know I've come to the conclusion that I'm not single and 40 because I've discerned that I am called to single life, I'm single and 40 because I've never discerned to which vocation God has called me." I replied by saying, "I think you have hit one of the key issues as to why we have a vocation shortage! I think I can name 5 other friends I have that fit the same discription. We are not presenting the different vocations to our youth, especially the vocation to religious life. Religious are not seen today! And many have become so jaded in their view of themselves, the Church, and the world that they never even think to discern their vocation. Whether it's because there are so few religious, or because they are not in our schools and hospitals anymore, or because many do not wear the habit, etc. ... Whatever the reason, they are not seen and the youth and secular society wonder if they even exist!" I had someone ask me when I told them I wanted to be a nun, "Are they really still around?!?!" This conversation and others like it have continued to plant the seed of the desire to renew and change, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the world, community, family, and relationships that I am in, in order to plant the seed of vocation and discernment in others. If we do not have solid relationships with these people and the people around us the seed will never be planted.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to have lunch with this friend again. This time she said that, "For the first time in my life I'm ready to discern my vocation. And for the first time, it's ok if I never marry." At the end of August we are planning on going on a "Road Trip" to visit a community together so that she can, for the first time, look into a religious vocation ... while having me as a buffer! Please pray for my friend and her vocation, whatever it may be. And please pray for her family and friends that have no clue that she is in the beginning stages of discernment, and who may or may not support her.
Keep the Faith,
Betsy

John 15:16

John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

This is one of my favorite Bible passages. It was my favorite before I fully understood why it was my favorite. The part that strikes me the most is the 16th verse in Bold. Before all else ... before I learned of Him ... before I chose to follow Him ... before I loved Him ... He chose ME! Before I understood why this passage meant so much to me this is all I learned from it. But in time I found myself moving on through the words to discover that not only did He choose me, He appointed me to go and bear fruit that will remain! He didn't just choose me and say just "be." He chose me for a specific task and vocation. One that would spread His love to all His children, a love that will remain forever. But even more still I gleamed from this one sentence in John's Gospel ... Whatever I ask the Father in His name the Father will give me! He didn't just leave me to my own devices to accomplish this task! He made sure that whatever I might need to "bear fruit that will remain" would be within my grasp. All I have to do is ask! If I do not receive what I have asked for it must not be what will bear much fruit.
This is how I understand my vocation ...
Keep the Faith!
Betsy

Hope

Three years ago Tuesday I realized that what I had felt for years was real and true and OK ... God wanted ME to be a nun! Three years have past and I still feel called. Many things have changed. Communities come and gone. Feelings up and down. Emotions crazed and peaceful. Temptations big and small. But today I have hope. Hope for my future, but especially hope for God's plan for my future. Tuesday marked three years of discernment, but Tuesday also marked the first day of my last clinical before graduating!! In three months I will finally graduate from College with my doctorate in Physical Therapy. Not only have I waited and worked six years for this degree but I have waited three of those years knowing that God was calling me to something different. Now that this time has finally come, I'm nervous and scared about what the future holds and where it will lead, because for the first time in six years, or for that matter first time in my life, I have not idea what will happen next. I don't have a definite plan and I finally have to truly and completely trust in the Lord and the Holy Spirit's guidance. But I have HOPE! For the Lord says, "For I am with you always, until the end of the age."I'm praying for you all please keep me in your prayers!
Keep the Faith!
Betsy
P.S. I just got a new roommate that does not speak english!! Does anyone know Chinese by chance?? If not say a prayer that we can think of really good hand signals!

First Things First

I can't promise you an interesting, exciting, or witty tale every day or even every week of how I came to where I am in my life at this moment. I have always learned and spoken English, but can barely understand or speak it correctly, let alone write it intelligibly, so please bare with me. As for what I want to accomplish in this blog ... I want to make clear that all I want to do is share my experience of God and His call to me with others who feel they might have a call, have a call, or are just interested and want to know more. I am open to friendly discussion and to answering questions as well as to comments and experiences of others, so please feel free to share.
I have decided that to make a summary of my life up until this point would be to long and tedious to start with in my first post so instead I will give little snippets of my life along the way. To start I will just say that I am a 23 year old college student who is in her last year of studies to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy and who has been discerning her call from God to become a religious sister (nun) for the past 3 years. I grew up Catholic, baptized at age 5, educated in a Catholic grade school, high school, and college. My father is a practicing Catholic, my mother is a non-practicing Lutheran, and my 17 year old sister is no longer sure what she believes. I love my family and my life, including all of the trials and sufferings that come with them. First and foremost I love God, everything else follows and falls into place.
Well I think that's enough for now. I will leave you with a fun joke my sister just gave me off a Laffy Taffy rapper. I firmly believe that you faith can and should be fun.
What do you call a nun sleep walking?
A Roamin' Catholic!!!! ;)

Keep the Faith,
Betsy