Don't look back

(a really cool photo taken of me by Holly when she was here this past week!)

Genesis 19: 16-17,26

16

When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.

17

As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."

26

But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

How often is looking back a bad idea? Often I look back at "my city" the places I used to spiritually reside and those I used to be intimately involved with, wondering how I can help my brother or sister, how I failed, or how comfortable it was... Just as Lot must have wanted to do when he was told to not look back... he was probably wondering about his sons-in-law whom he had warned. Probably always hoping that at the last minute they left...

14

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters. "Get up and leave this place," he told them; "the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

This weekend I made a mask for a masquerade, Michelle, her roommate Michelle, and I are going to in Connecticut this friday. We also took time out for prayer and cooked several meals together, with Marine providing a nice french meal on Sunday night. And somewhere in all of the excitement, we took time to review St. Ignatius' first six rules as a group. ( http://cfpeople.org/Books/Exercise/EXERCISEp15.htm )

It's incredible, the wisdom in these rules. They remind you how much one needs to focus on God and God alone, how when you look to "earthly things" you begin to fall away from peace, joy, hope and everything that makes life a beautiful symphony.

It's like riding a bike on mountainous trails or on slick roads... point the head wheel in the direction you want to go, the rest will follow. Regardless of how out of control the rest of the frame feels, if you focus on this one thing (and the small things that support keeping the wheel pointed to where you want to go) you'll be riding smoothly soon enough. You just have to trust.

Sometimes I forget to keep my eyes on the Cross. I forget to do the small things, the quick exclamations of prayer, the moments of meditation, the daily reflections, the minor acts of penance (i.e., not eating ice cream after every meal or waiting ten minutes before I do). And in these times I find my feet moving away from the Cross and I find myself becoming the saviour, "how can I.."? Instead of realising that there is only one who can save someone, only one who's prescence can move mountains, can bring hope to desolations dark, can bring joy to someone considering suicide, can bring meaning to a life devoid.

And He bore a cross, I can't even bear discomfort.

A bit of ketchup or is that fried tomato...

So this is stuff from last week...

Two weekends ago I was trying to head to Iowa for a visit with friends... but turns out I got snowed into Minneapolis/St. Paul... luckily a week prior to that, on my community's retreat in Connecticut, I had felt the prompting of the holy spirit tell me that I was going to get snowed into MSP... so I asked Fr. Joseph for his info. (Mind you I was pretty sure I was flying through Detroit and not MSP, and I also hadn't looked at weather reports since early January... and those were for Paris.) Fr. Joseph is the only priest in the US part of the community right now, and also happens to be living in MSP.



When I got to MSP I discovered I was in one of the worst blizzards in 5 years... Almost complete white out conditions at times.

But we enjoyed our time, and prayed/praised/adored God together so it was quite fantastic...

(Fr. Joseph)

(Fr. Jay)

Fr. Jay is Fr. Joseph's house mate (Each of them serve two separate parishes in the surrounding area. And they are both fantastic men.)

Marine, Michelle (Kafel) and Michelle (Thibodeau aka. the beautiful girl I'm dating.) This is on the subway after adoration/drinks... we were heading back to my place to cook a dinner with my roommate (this was around 10pm... and an hour away from my place... late night late night.)

And this would be me on the same train ride... go fig.

This is the Michelles and Brooks (my roomie) in our dining room eating the first meal I had in the house...

It was a pasta with sautéed veggies, and goat cheese... followed by yogurt with wine, sugar and fruit. Tastey!

so the world seems oh so right

I'm sitting listening to someone I once had lunch with in Alexandria,
LA sing to the catholic underground in nyc... While a saxaphonist who
toured with Hendrix across the world plays percussion in a franciscan
habit... And the world for the first time in months seems so amazing.
So beautiful. I've been incredibly blessed this past week and
month... I now have a place to eat cereal every morning when I wake
up, a bed that will always be mine and a room that is quiet and
peaceful where I can rest from the world and recjoice in God my
creator. And I have been blessed with an amazing gift, a holy,
beautiful, loving and giving woman of God who has entrusted me with
her heart... My life has been reenchanted... And all it took was hours
and hours of prayer from myself and from every soul I begged from and
a turn in my heart.

My life is amazing and as I told Michelle, it looks as if it is only
going to get so so much better!

--
God bless and keep you,
Edward
Are you a Catholic interested in going to India this summer? Tell me!

http://sirhair.blogspot.com/
http://faithorbust.blogspot.com/
Mortem tuam annuntiamus. Domine, et tuam resurrectionem confitemur,
donec venias.

Negative Model Space

So we had a model in class the other day, and these are the paintings I made (all on forms of paper)... they are from first to last painted...

ou es edward?

Je suis a Minneapolis/st. paul!

I got laid over until tomorrow afternoon (330pm, a delay of almost a day... 17 hours) But luckily I for some reason was inspired to ask a priest I know and saw last weekend for his number and etc. just in case I ended up stuck in MSP... so I'll see him tomorrow and we'll pray and hang out! Turns out that he's free tomorrow because of a cancelled wedding (due to paper work)... crazy... I wonder why God wanted me to see him and for him to see me this weekend?

Cause I really dont think I would have asked for his info unless it had been an inspired thing from the big H.S.

also because of the layover I got a hotel room and 18$ in food vouchers (currently waiting on a cheese pizza and a six pack of sprite to be delivered)... crazy... funny thing is that the gate person was shocked that we got rooms, since the delay was weather related and not mechanical... apparently they pretty close to never give free stuff away due to "acts of God"... but I tend to think them giving free stuff away was an "act of God"! Praise His Holy Name!

P.s., something really exciting might be happening to my paintings... we'll see what turns and I'll tell you when it's prudent!

paintings...

so here are the next four paintings... I did them last week :-) They all go together, and I think they actually look better when displayed together... and in person. My teacher really didn't like them.

free music...

if you want a free download, you can have it (first come first served):
go to: www.gotdownloads.com/sodexho
and use code: fCwzfdMwN

I checked out the music they have and i'm really not interested...

And I hope to post something more about my weekend soon... but it was FANTASTIC!

Pistachios and Pineapple soda

(aka, my dinner)

SO I just spent several hours, setting stretchers, stretching, preping and gessoing four canvases...



One thing I'm learning about painting, is that you can't just PAINT, you've got to have prepared canvases... which is a shame, but also a great lesson in patience... I've had an idea for a series of four paintings since saturday... I'm really really excited to start painting them... they've been running in my head for quite awhile... And I'm not gonna tell you what they are yet...

Also I worked on my other painting a bit... and it might be done... not sure... but I think so.

:-)

This weekend was amazing, my friends and I went on this Ignatian spirituality retreat, which was OUTSTANDING... I was a bit "well okay might as well" when I decided to go, but it was perhaps the single best seminar/retreat I've ever been to.

After the seminar on Saturday, several of us went to dinner, then to drinks at Grand central (we were waiting on a few more friends to catch up), and then to a party...

It was a fantastic night. :-) And I got to hangout more with Michelle.

(Grand central view from the bar)

Surgery

So Yes I KNOW I haven't finished posting from my trip... I'll get to it soon... but school has started and I'm running... though I expect soon to be hitting my stride.

Today, I got the screwdriver set I ordered the other day when I discovered the cost of replacing my cell phone (425$)... so. With my surgical instruments on hand and the internet giving me vague instructions on my cell phone's internal workings, I operated...




The first operation was a grand success allowing me to now use the P, backspace and enter Keys that had been so annoying to work without. But I was unable to get the second menu button (on my screen) to work... And during the first operation, I accidentally caused a slight internal injury that I had to fix...

While the surgeons were debating "going back in," they went to painting class and worked on their first painting... (36x30 inches) which as of yet is unfinished, but here is the progress (the photo colours are a bit off)...


After clearing their heads, the second operation was debated more and finally agreed amongst the surgeons as the best path.

Dinner was ordered in (and delivered to the computer room in the backyard of the hostel)


And surgery quickly followed...

So the second operation has just been completed... the internal injury was fixed, though the Screen button still does not work... I guess I'll have to break it to my cell phone that she's a cripple for life. :-\

Uhm well...

So I've changed my page back to what its supposed to look like (finally) but I've got a few things I need to fix (colour issues). and The Friends list is still old... so I've lost alot of those I used to have before this thing crashed... sorry guys! Send me your addy again. :-)

But I did add my other blogs on the side, my friends blogs on the side, and changed the background images and colours..

:-)

YAY!

my cell phone which has been fastly dying over the last few days and which apparently would cost 425$ to replace took a turn today.

starting two days ago the screen has been going wack... the touch screen stopped working two days ago along with most of the colour...

But today I was listening to music and noticed that the screen was different... so i touched it... and the touch screen worked... and the colour was back... so i have hopes that it's getting better... I ordered a screw driver set to clean it out the other day so I should get that soon and the begin surgery... hoping to fix it, and not make it worse by cleaning out the mud. Though it is possible that the mud is what is holding it together...

Ooh and I love the entertainment book... I've saved so much money on food by using coupons... SOO Much... and today when I bought a double bacon cheeseburger from Burgerking (and getting another free) the guys made a mistake making an extra drink, and they gave it to me... right when I was wondering where I could pick up a cheap soda. SCORE!

Photos: Day 23: Snowballs and Snails

Soo lets do a survey...
One French, one cigarette

Another French, another cigarette.

Yet another French, and yet another cigarette.
That's right folks, Three French, Three cigarettes.

After their extended smoke break, a snowball fight broke out...

And Pauline is the obvious loser (well only obvious by the fact she's on the ground but still obvious!)

One american... no cigarette...

A brief intermission of beauty after seeing my mug.

Yummy... Escargot! And the Loser of the bet!

They're pretty aren't they!


The winners of the bet. The bet was that the local small mountain town grocer would have escargot... we bet they would... (It's a rich french mountain getaway, why wouldn't they!)


MMMMmmm Cookin!

Dinner is served!

The first one...

An amused French girl... I swear she's amused... she was really excited... but it's just like the French to never be caught in photos without the "I'm French, why are you looking at me" face.


So beautiful!

Photos: Day 22: In Megeve

Morning in a beautiful alps town.

Our hike up the mountain begins!

Can you tell someone is out of breath?? Silly french smokers :-)



Oh... the beauty I've seen.




Megeve at night.
So I picked up two habits while in France (well at least two)... one I now eat chips... Pringles to be exact. Two. I now crave appertif... it's a snack prior to dinner... composed of chips or something like that, and a sweet cocktail... eg... Apple liquor and apple juice, Kir (white wine and a fruit liquor), a sweet appertif wine, martinii, or other. I think the first one is the most impressive (I already like good wines and cocktails), as I've throughout my life never taken an interest in chips... shows you that France is amazing huh.

Apparently, if there's a cake in the house Pauline's family holds a birthday for someone... It was Marie's turn.

Who has more joy Pauline or Charles?


After dinner, (ragoule or something like that, with heated cheese, potatoes, and other stuff) it was Pauline's turn to have a birthday... we added fruit, some smelly cheese, apple skins and other tastey delights. :-)