just laura...

in this world…

Yesterday my heart was broken - almost beyond repair. Maybe I’m just innocent, naive and think the best of people but I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to hurt so badly for people I don’t know.

Here’s how my day started: I walked into Denny’s and grabbed a newspaper, sat down at my regular table, got a cup of coffee and then scanned the front page for an article of interest. It started out just like any other day…until I saw what was making headlines. An article with a warning, “Warning this story contains graphic material that might disturb some viewers”. The article was titled “Man brutally tortured by his wife and her boyfriend in Toronto apartment”. If you’ve read the article you understand how disturbing it is. In all my years watching crime dramas and murder mysteries I have never in my life seen something as gruesome as the words I read off that page. I was shaken up. My head was lost in this state of disappointment at humanity while my body had to get up, go to work and carry on with my day.

My office is relatively busy so I was able to keep working without my mind wandering off…until lunch time that is. I logged onto my facebook only to see a disturbing wall post come up…3 times by three different friends of mine. A little girl in Cambodia with cerebal palsy needs a new home. Her mom had used her to beg since she was born to make money for the family. The last sentence alone breaks my heart - it’s just an all too common practice that happens all around the world and I also got to witness it while in Cambodia. But, the story doesn’t end there with this poor little girl. No, her mom had decided she no longer wants her. Again, it’s a sentence that alone break my heart. I know what it’s like to have a parent choose something or someone else over you. It breaks you. To know that another person has to feel that pain makes me cringe. But, yet again the story doesn’t end there. The mother wanted to sell her daughter so they could harvest her body parts. My eyes began to tear up and I knew then I needed to actually leave on my lunch break.

This innocent little girl - who I have never met and never will luckily had her life spared by a great organization who was able to find her a place to call home. A place where she can be safe and loved. But that doesn’t make the hurt go away and it doesn’t make the beginning of the story any better. By this point in my day I felt like somebody had ripped my heart out and left me for dead.

Later on in the evening, over a birthday dinner celebration for my older brother, I had the great misfortune of hearing another story that almost had every member of my family in tears. A crime so horrendous committed towards an animal that I was left shocked and speechless. A crime so disturbing I refuse to even type the words out.

It was then I began to get angry. I started to hate people. How are people capable of so much evil? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t even begin to fathom how twisted a person’s mind must be to think it’s okay to hurt another living thing. If I had thought my heart was broken at lunch time, by dinner there was no words to describe where my heart was at.

But the worst part of the whole day, was that even after that, it still got worse. I saw a member of my family (whom I love more than words could ever express) be so hurt and broken emotionally by someone who claims to love her that I just began to weep. I didn’t think the tears would ever come to an end. 

It all happened here, in this world…the place you call home. The place where movies teach us that love always wins. The place where the Bible teaches us that good will triumph over evil. The place where your parents teach you right from wrong. 

In this world…there will be tears

In this world…there will be pain

In this world…there will be fear

but there will be a day when the burdens of this place will be no more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8gkDiTvloc (Jeremy Camp “There will be a day”

What fads teach us about beauty…

Heard on the radio this morning about a new fad happening in China/ Japan. Girls are getting some dental surgery done to make their teeth crooked !

I decided to look this article up for those of you that want to read more about it. So check out this link,

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/fashion/in-japan-a-trend-to-make-straight-teeth-crooked-noticed.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=japan%20teeth&st=cse

My take on this one-it’s CRAZY. Who the heck does that? Really…but, wait. Hold up, I had braces, headgear and a retainer and now they’ve shoved a metal bar along my bottom teeth so they can’t revert to their old “ugly” ways.

I mean, it’s just as crazy that we will spend a couple thousand bucks ‘perfecting’ our smiles, right? How is it really any different?

And that’s exactly it, it’s not different. It’s the same. The version of ‘perfect’ that we connect with only shows us what we aren’t, but what we can aspire to become. Why do we feel the need to change how we look when everyone has a different perception of beautiful? Why can’t we all just begin to see the beauty in ourselves? The true beauty in others?

The task or challenge of the week, stop complimenting people on things they’ve done to make themselves look better and compliment them on something that’s strictly, naturally them and more beautiful because of it! Get it?

The Hour

So when The Hour got cut to a half hour show I stopped watching it. Thankfully, it’s now an hour long show again but renamed to George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.

Well, last night, I am pleased to say that George had something very wise to say about Halloween costrumes. Yes, he agreed with alll my theories on children’s costumes.

Still trying to find a clip from the show but once I do, I’ll post ‘our’ opinions for you all to see!

So if you really want to see it while I still have no idea how to post a clip of it, check out this site (http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/videos.html?ID=2161036817) and watch from 7minutes 30seconds until 10minutes 20seconds.

Chapter 2: Actions

I’m a people watcher,the person who sits on a bench downtown Toronto and just watches people as they go about their day. I love it. I feel like you can learn a lot about a person just by watching them; how they act, speak, use their hands, walk, etc. I like watching people and then trying to fit them into a category, analyzing the version of them I get to see. 

I feel like I don’t spend much time listening to people. Maybe I’m a skeptic, maybe I’ve been hurt, maybe I have trust issues but I think words are really good at lying. Actions on the other hand, they can’t lie. They can try, they can hide things for periods of time but actions always reveal the truth. Actions always reveal the heart.

Sitting in church one morning I was trying to figure out why I have so much respect for our current pastor. I thought and thought and thought (probably not paying nearly enough attention to his sermon) and finally figured it out. His actions line up with his words. His words don’t lie, his actions show his heart. 

My pastor is the kind of person who asks you how your doing and actually cares about the answer. He’s the kind of person that’s never to busy to stop and say hi, and always does. He’s constantly mentioning that you’re in his prayers, and when he says it he means it. BUT, that’s just Sunday morning. That’s what pastors are supposed to be like, it’s kind of part of their job.

I think the most revealing thing about this pastors’ actions is how he lives his life the rest of the week. Behind closed doors, when no one is watching. I can’t see those things. Nobody can. But what I can see is how he’s raised his daughters. How his girls live their lives shows that he’s the same person at home as he is on Sunday mornings. ACTIONS. 

I know people who have lived life two-faced. Heck, I’ve even been one of those people. I strive everyday to be real, to live my life in a way that shows what I value and what I’m all about. I strive for my actions to consistently line up with my words and I know it’s not easy. 

We’ve all had people in our lives who say something and do something entirely different. But, I hope we’ve all been able to know someone whose actions speak just as loud as their words.

Thankful and inspired by people like that. 

So the moral of chapter 2, speak less and act more. May your actions cause people to see your heart and may your words say the same thing!

(side note, reason #1 why I like writing is because I never know where it’s going to take me. This is NOT what I planned on writing about for this topic but I’m happy with it)

Chapter 1: Trying to Break Up

One weekend while chatting with a friend I hadn’t seen in a couple years he mentioned that he was “trying to break-up” with his girlfriend. I don’t even think I can count the number of times people have said that before and every time I hear it, I laugh!

There’s no such thing as “trying” to break-up. If you don’t want to be with someone anymore you BREAK-UP with them. You don’t try, failing isn’t an option.You break-up, it’s done, over, complete, finished. 

Here’s the thing girls, do you want to be with someone who isn’t into the relationship anymore? Why bother wasting time and effort on the wrong guy? You deserve better, you’re worth more. Your value far exceeds that.

Now guys, apparently you’re reason for the “try” is that you don’t want to hurt the girl. But what you’re actually doing is hurting the girl MULTIPLE times. It’s not going to help her to deal with it because she’s expecting it, it’s like a cruel joke (like those mean people who pretend to throw a dogs’ toy and send him running and then laugh because the toy is behind you).

And, on top of all that you’re going to kill this girls self-esteem so every other future relationship she has is going to be affected because of a dumb choice YOU made. Which just screws up an already messed up society. What goes around comes around.

I get that dating requires work, sacrifice and commitment. But, it’s dating. It’s not marriage if you need to get out do it before it gets any more serious. And, on that note…just don’t date until you know who you are and what you’re looking for and then, DON’T SETTLE for anything less.

So the moral of this chapter, don’t be a pansy, if you don’t want to be in the relationship BREAK-UP. 

Laura’s Take on Real Life-tidbits of wisdom and a whole lot’a truth!

I miss writing. I miss the creativity of starting a sentence and having no idea where it’s going to take you. I miss having opinions that I feel so strongly about that I want to share them with others…that’s what brought me to yesterday. That and how many times I’ve had people tell me I’ve got a ‘good head on my shoulders’ and jokingly say “you should write a book”.

Well, I’m going to start taking those people seriously and I’m going to start taking my passions seriously. So, I’m writing a book. Whether it ever gets read or published doesn’t matter, it’s the thought that counts, right?

So, ‘Laura’s Take on Real Life-tidbits of wisdom and a whole lot’a truth’ has been born.

This book will be based on my life, so if you’re (un)lucky you may just wind up with a chapter or two referencing you! (p.s., I promise this book won’t have unintentional [or intentional] rhymes like that one)!

Twenty-4?

I woke up this morning feeling GREAT…after a 23+24 minute workout last night (yep, 47 minutes from 11:37 till 12:24) my body doesn’t think it’s getting older it thinks it’s getting healthier!

I spent the better part of my morning washing cars and spreading love with a GREAT group of people and then came home to try my hand at Cambodian Beef Lok Lak (made with Canadian beef of course) for my birthday tonight.

And now it’s just some time to sit and relax before the busyness begins!

So looking forward to celebrating me all day (that sounds very selfish-but, oh well)!

And excited to see what this new year holds!!!!! Happy Birthday to me!

Confessional

It’s 9:30 on a Thursday night and I should be packing to go to a friends cottage as soon as I get home from work today but all I can think about is how much I miss blogging (am I really the same laura?)!

So I’ve decided to start a new series of blogs-I’m going to be blogging about my new journey; trying to figure out what God has in store for me for the future and all the little life lessons I learn along the way.

So here’s how we’re starting off…I have absolutely, positively no clue at all as to what September is going to look like for me…all I know is that I really hope I figure that out soon!

What’s my master plan you may ask to figuring this all out?

Step 1: Be intentional about spending time with God all day through…not just in the mornings (and not just “I’m too tired”)

Step 2: Read a lot

Step 3: Make a big list of all my skills, talents, hobbies, abilities, likes, passions and anything that puts a smile on my face (mint chocolate chip ice-cream included) and hope I can see some parallels in there!

So all you followers that thought you had heard the end of me…be forewarned, I’m not going anywhere!