25 Steps with Mary: from Nazareth to Bethlehem

Dear friends:

Last week, my friend Lourdes told me that she had not been receiving my blogs. She was afraid that she had been dropped from the mailing list. She wasn’t. The truth is that I have not written a single word in almost four months. I have not touched my personal journal nor my blog. I could call it writer’s block but the reality is that I have not felt the stirrings to write anything. I guess I have been experiencing a period of desolation, and my well has run dry.

I think it’s time to hit the restart button, add water to the well, and resume my spiritual journey through my blog. Ever since I went to the Holy Land last year, I have been thinking a lot about Mama Mary’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem with a side trip first to Ein Karem. I have been trying to see the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Nativity from her point of view. And even though I could never come close to feeling what Mary felt during those nine months, and I could never walk in her shoes, I have been attempting to walk beside her so I could catch just a passing glimpse of what her experience must have been like.

So this Advent, I would like to invite you to take a walk with Mary. We will start on Sunday, December 1st in Nazareth, when the angel appeared to Mary, and announced that she would be the mother of the Son of God. We will walk with her to Ein Karem to visit her cousin Elizabeth. We will be with her when she tells Joseph that she’s with child. We will walk with her to Bethlehem where we will witness the Nativity through her eyes.

This Advent, you are invited to take a peek at Mary’s Journal: 25 Steps with Mary, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. If you would like to receive the meditations by email, sign up directly on the blog’s web version (it doesn’t work on the phone view). Input your email address where it says “Receive New Posts by Email.” This will then take you to a form where you have to mark that you are not a robot, and hit “complete subscription request.” You will then receive an email from “Feedburner Email Subscriptions.” If you don’t receive it, look in your junk folder. You must follow the link in order to activate the email subscription. Once you see the message: “Email Subscription Confirmed,” you are signed up and you should start receiving the meditations on December 1st.

I wish it to be understood, that all I will write on this journey is a product of my imagination, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and with the help of the references that I mention below. My words are limited and my mind is too small to be able to fully comprehend what Mary experienced from Annunciation to Nativity. I am filled with dread because my thoughts and my words will never be enough to be able to reveal the mystery of the Incarnation. But I place myself in God’s hands “for nothing will be impossible with God” Luke 1:38.

May I be a pencil in His hands, and may He use me to reveal a small fragment of the mystery that took place over 2,000 years ago.

References for this Journey:

1. New American Standard Bible (NASB)
2. The Mystical City of God: A Popular Abridgement of the Divine History and Live of the Virgin 

3. Mother of God by Venerable Mary of Agreda
4. The World’s First Love: Mary, Mother of God by Fulton J. Sheen
5. Las Palabras Calladas: Diario de Maria de Nazaret by Pedro Miguel Lamet

Getting Rid of Nothingness

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” Matthew 6:19-21

As I sit in my old house, waiting for the Salvation Army truck to come and pick up the remaining of our belongings, I cannot help but reminisce about the past.

The house is mostly empty, it doesn’t feel like a home anymore. I just took a walk through the empty bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, the family room and now I am sitting in the living room which is the only place that still has a little bit of furniture left.

Over the past ten months, I have gotten rid of most of the emotional treasures that we accumulated over the past 35 years. I call them “emotional” because I get emotionally attached to things. My collection of Lladró figurines was passed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. I tried to pass them on to my daughter but the new generation is a whole lot more practical than we were. If it doesn’t fit inside their phone, they don’t want it. I’m trying to learn from them, with the help of Marie Kondo, to say good-bye to my treasures. However, I simply couldn’t part with all my Lladro’s. I kept the Virgin Mary that my grandmother had in her room, and three others simply because I liked them. I also gave the wedding couple that we got as a wedding gift 35 years ago to my son Rafi and his wife, Emily. When they got married eight months ago, I gave it to them and told them it was a heirloom. I figured we could start a tradition where they in turn can pass it on to their first child that gets married... That’s if they keep it that long.

It is difficult to let go of all these things because each one holds a special memory in my heart, but I keep reminding myself they are just things. Now I understand why the rich young man in the Bible grieved when Jesus asked him to sell all his possessions. “‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” Matthew 19:21-22. It is very difficult to get rid of our possessions because we become attached to them.

However, “no matter how good, beautiful, true, or exciting a thing or state of affairs is here below, it is destined to pass into nonbeing,” Bishop Robert Barron. “St. Augustine once said that since every creature is made ex nihilo, it carries with it the heritage of nonbeing. There is a kind of penumbra or shadow of nothingness that haunts every finite thing.” I remember once, my cleaning lady broke one of my Lladro’s. It disintegrated into a zillion little pieces. She felt worst than I did. I told her not to worry, that it was just a “thing.”

I keep reminding myself of that. They are just things, they don’t mean anything. I am getting rid of nothingness. At the end of the day, all these emotional treasures are just things. Yes, they may evoke a good memory, like the small ceramic figurines that we brought from a trip to Spain, but even if I get rid of those figurines, the memory will remain in my heart. Easier said than done. In the end, I kept not just the four Lladros, I also kept a lot of the souvenirs that I have acquired in our trips around the world. I kept most of our paintings, and I kept the small ceramic figures. I just could not part from all these possessions that bring me so many great memories. I guess I still have a lot of learning to do in order to fully detach from all this nothingness.

Seeing things with indifference “is meant to redirect our attention precisely to the treasures of heaven, to the eternity of God. Once we see everything in light of God, we can learn to love the things of this world without clinging to them and without expecting too much of them. Think of how much disappointment and heartache could be avoided if we only learned this truth,” Bishop Robert Barron.

As I walk through my empty old home, I realize how true those words are. What made this house a home was not the things it contained, it was us. Now that we are no longer here, it’s not home anymore. We will make new memories and we will make a new home because home is where your heart is. Everything else, it’s nothingness.

Traversing through the Barren Desert

“They did Him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” Luke 24:52

Lately, my spirituality has been very dry. I feel like if I’m walking through a barren desert. I began the

year, with every intention of finishing my book, but I have hardly touched it. Yes, I could blame it on the fact that I have been pretty overwhelmed with remodeling our new apartment, moving, and work, but the bottom line is that my holy inspiration has completely dried off.

Years ago, I read a book titled “When the Well Runs Dry” by Thomas H. Green. It is exactly how I feel. My spiritual well is dry. I am traversing through the barren desert of my inspiration. I have lost it. There is nothing in there. It has dried up.

But sometimes inspiration comes when I’m not even searching for it. I have been mostly fine with sitting back and not writing. I keep telling myself that I am so busy with other things that there is no time to write. At the end of a busy day, I am so exhausted that I just want to lay in bed with a good book, and don’t bother with trying to write. Today, however, inspiration came knocking during mass. We are spending the weekend in Hallandale Beach, so we went to mass at St. Matthew. The pastor, Father Robert Ayala, just returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He talked about it during mass. And being that today is the feast of the Ascension of our Lord to heaven, he tied the two experiences together.

As he was talking, I could not help but be transported to my Holy Land pilgrimage last year. When he mentioned their journey through the Via Dolorosa, I clearly saw myself carrying that cross through the streets of Jerusalem. I remember that as we were trying to meditate the Stations of the Cross, for many, it was just another regular day in Jerusalem. The locals were not paying any attention to us. They were going about their business of opening up their storefronts to sell to the tourists or they were buying groceries for their families or they were dressed in suits on their way to their jobs. Both Father Willie during our pilgrimage and Father Robert today in his homily, reminded me that it was the same when Jesus was carrying His cross on the way to His crucifixion. It was just another day in Jerusalem.

The day of the Ascension, though, was not just another day. In the first century, people were used to seeing crucifixions, but nobody had seen anyone ascend to heaven. This day, changed the apostles. They were witnesses to a miracle. And as today’s reading points out: “They did Him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” Luke 24:52. Even though we were not physically present on that event during the first century, we are also witnesses like the apostles were. One of the sites that impressed me the most during my pilgrimage was precisely the footprint that Jesus left on earth right before He ascended into heaven. I remember that all of us were looking down at the footprint that was imprinted on the rock, and the thought that stroke me was that all of us had the job to be Jesus’ footprint on this earth. The apostles were the first witnesses and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy because they knew that one day, they would follow Jesus into heaven. But in the meantime, they did not stay in their homes sitting back and relaxing waiting for that moment. No, they became Jesus’ hands and feet on earth. They kept moving and they spread His message to all the corners of the world.

It was thanks to the apostles that we have heard about Jesus. If they had stayed inside their homes simply attending to their daily duties, we would not have the gospels today and we would not have received the message of love and hope. Yes, one day, we will also follow Jesus into heaven, but in the meantime, we cannot sit back, relax and do nothing. We are the descendants of the apostles. We are the new witnesses. It is our job to spread His Word on the 21st century just like it was the apostles’ job on the first century.

Therefore, it is time for me to get out of the barren desert, allow the rain of inspiration to refill my well and pick up where I left off. My fixer upper is finished, we have finally moved, and even though I still have a lot to do, that is no excuse to allow the arid bottom of the well to consume me. Next Sunday, we celebrate Pentecost, so I will lift this prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come Holy Spirit and kindle in my mind the fire of holy inspiration. Allow my mind to be renewed by the fire of your love. Instruct my heart to be able to hear the fire of your Word. And give me the wisdom to spread your message to those that are open to receive it. Amen.”

Dumbfounded by the Smartness

After nine months, we finally moved into our fixer-upper this week. Since we had been in our previous home for 25 years, we decided it was time to join the 21st century, and thus we acquired some of the latest technology. But after spending our first night in our smart apartment, we realized that either the apartment is too smart or we are really dumb.

Our first splurge was on the smart toilet. In order to transition from a four-bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment, there were some things that we had to give up because obviously, there was no room to accommodate everything. One of those items was the bidet. Rafael could not care less about the bidet, but I was not ready to part from it. Therefore, when we visited Ferguson last fall, we were sucker-punched into acquiring a smart toilet. The sales lady told us that we would love this toilet, and we dumbly believed her. As a great sales person, she told us that the smart toilet could pretty much do anything, including serve as a bidet. That was sufficient to convince me. However, she failed to tell us that learning to operate this fancy toilet would require a degree from Harvard School of Smart Toilets. I must confess that I don’t have such degree, and thus, I was very intimidated by Flushing Flora (FF). The first day, I kept using the regular toilet in the other bathroom. When I finally found the courage to approach FF, I could not get it to flush. Oh no... first test and I already got an F. I literally had to find a bucket to flush FF the old fashioned way. No matter how hard I pressed the manual button, FF refused to flush. It took me an hour to figure out that somehow our smart toilet that needs electricity in order to work, was not getting electricity. The outlet just wasn’t working. I checked the breaker, and it was on. Then I realized that none of the outlets in the master bathroom were working, so I called our general contractor. When Rafael got home, he also inspected everything, including the breaker, and we still could not get anything to work. Therefore, the electrician paid us a visit the next morning only to realize that instead of turning on the breaker, we had actually turned it off. Needless to say, we felt really dumb.

After three days in the apartment, I still have a love-hate relationship with FF. I have managed to learn most of its idiosyncrasies, but I can’t say that I love them all. The seat warms up when you sit down... this should be a great feature if you live in Alaska, but in my case, I’m a bit terrified that it will burn me. While I’m trying to concentrate on doing number two, it squirts some odor control crap that hopefully won’t give me the hives. Smart FF flushes by itself. However, this can be very annoying, especially when FF kept flushing itself every six seconds whether we used it or not, thus the reason why I baptized it FF. But we finally figured out how to program it so that now it only flushes itself when we use it... most of the time. And then, there’s the love portion of our relationship, the reason why I convinced Rafael to invest in FF in the first place... the bidet. I can set the spray strength, the width, the temperature and the direction. Heavens, I can practically take a bath in FF. I may just need to set myself a timer or I may end up spending too much time with FF.

There is one member in our household, though, that will never love FF. It took less than a day for Penny, my dog, to learn to hate FF. She was sniffing the new apartment, and when she approached FF, it scared her out of her wits sending her running out of the bathroom. The good news is that she will never bother me when I’m sitting on FF like she used to do in our old house. You see, FF is so sensitive that as soon as she senses movement near her, she opens up to welcome you. If I approach the sink to wash my hands or brush my teeth, FF opens up. She’s like an evil temptress trying to lure you in. And she has outsmarted me for sure, but not my Penny, she ran out and will never get near her again.

Our second splurge was the Nest thermostat. This time, it was my hubby the one that convinced me to invest on this very smart gadget that can learn your temperature habits and program itself without you needing to do it. However, as we soon learned, in order for the Nest to learn your habits, you first have to program it, and Dumb and Dumber missed the memo on when the Nest learning seminar would take place. Therefore, on our first night in the apartment, we froze to death. And that’s a lot to say for my hubby, who is never cold. I am always cold so you can imagine. I woke up at least ten times shivering during the night. The next morning, my hubby decided that this would never happen again. We are both “smart” after all, so it could not be that difficult to program the Nest. He grabbed his smart phone, he downloaded the Nest app, and he figured out how to control the temperature. After just five minutes, we started feeling too warm. I walked into the closet, and noticed that the air blowing out through the vents was very hot. Somehow, while programming the Nest, he switched it from air conditioning mode to heater mode. As much as we both tried to figure out how to switch it back, we simply failed miserably. And the worst part is that we just could not turn off the heater. When we began to sweat bullets, we turned off the breaker... yes, this time we made sure we had turned it in the right direction. We had to learn how to operate the Nest the old fashioned way... by reading the manual. And yes, the Nest can be programmed manually. There is no need to allow it to control our habits and thus make us feel really dumb.

And last but not least, we decided to really splurge and we got ourselves an smart bed. After all, we are getting old, we told each other, and sleep is very important when we are about to spend one third of our remaining life sleeping. We did a lot of research this time around, and we decided to invest, yes, because it is truly an investment, on the Sleep Number bed (SNB). We spent two hours at the store, laying down on one of their magnificent models. It was so comfortable that I almost felt asleep while I listened to Maria, the sales lady, explain to us all the wonderful qualities of this bed and how it would change our lives. She convinced us and we ordered the SNB. She gave us a booklet that explained that on the day of delivery, it would take the technicians two hours to put our bed together and give us a personalized demonstration on how to operate the bed. On delivery day, the guys put together the bed not in two hours, but in just 45 minutes. Great, I thought, we have 75 minutes for the lesson, and dumb me will need every one of those minutes. I was ready with pen and paper to take notes on everything they said. I told the delivery guys, I’m ready for my lesson. They looked at me, dumbfounded... “It’s not that difficult,” they said. My 75-minute lesson took just 5 minutes. All they showed me was how to operate the remote control. One button switches the control from head to foot, another one changes it from the left to the right side of the bed, and the third button controls the up and down movement. “Any questions?” It seemed simple enough, except for all the other buttons in the remote control that they did not teach me. As they were leaving, I remembered... “Wait, how about the nightlight?” Yes, the bed even comes with its own nightlight, a very important feature for me that needs to get up at least once in the middle of the night to pay a visit to FF. He showed me how to operate the nightlight, which I could not see on the daylight but he pointed it out, “see, it’s on,” and since I did not want to look any dumber than I already felt, I trusted him.

On our first night, we got into the smart bed, pushed all the buttons just as they taught me and it’s a miracle, everything works fine and it’s not so difficult. Finally we got a smart gadget made for dummies... or so we thought. I tried to turn on the nightlight... it didn’t work. And wait, how am I supposed to inflate and deflate the mattress? They didn’t teach me that very important feature. Then we remembered... there’s an app. So instead of going to sleep like we would have by this time on a regular mattress, here we are at 11 o’clock at night, figuring out how to work the stup..., sorry, the smart bed. We finally figured out how to inflate it and deflate it. In the store they had given us our numbers but we just couldn’t remember them, was it 40 or 60? We decided to try it out at 55 and see what happens. The nightlight... did not turn on. Oh well, we guessed it was better off than on. We went to sleep and woke up, at least ten times during the night... however, we were cold so we decided not to blame the SNB just yet. The app is supposed to show you how you slept. According to my app, I was only in bed for one hour and twenty minutes, and in that time, I only slept nine minutes. I guess my app is not so smart after all because I was definitely in bed for longer than that... but maybe it did get the nine minutes of sleep correct.

After just three days in our new apartment, I feel exhausted, overwhelmed and dumber than I have ever felt. Thank God, the Brandsmart salesman did not caboodled us into buying a smart refrigerator. We got a regular one and I am so happy for that decision. I think I can figure out if I need to buy milk without the fridge telling me. Right now, I’m at the Poconos for a wedding, and I am looking forward to spending a normal weekend away from FF, the Nest, and the SNB. Maybe here I can feel smart once again.

It’s Lent again... Oh No!!!

”Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God.” Joel 2:12-13

Even though this year Lent began later than usual, it just creeped up on me. I must confess that I do not like Lent. Can you blame me? Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice...

I went to mass last night for Ash Wednesday. As I knelt on the pew, I felt totally unprepared for this Lenten journey. I have not gone to confession in a year. I usually try to go right before Advent and right before Lent. I missed Advent, and I did not go before Lent. Sometimes, I do a retreat, but not this year. I have also not signed up to do any special online Lenten preparations.

On Tuesday night, when I realized that Lent was upon me, I began to think about what to give up this Lent. Most years, I know way in advance what I’m going to give up. This year... I had no clue. Should I give up Facebook? No, I did that last year and I’m not addicted to Facebook anymore. Should I give up chocolate? I could, but it did not seem enough of a sacrifice. Should I give up Madeline’s? I am definitely addicted to them. My day starts with a cortadito and a Madeline. Should I give up desserts? That would definitely be a good thing to give up for my waistline. In the end, I decided to give up all sweets. Boy, I am surely going to miss my Madeline’s, my Dove chocolates and my desserts, because I do have a sweet tooth.

Even after deciding on my sacrifice, I still felt completely unprepared for this Lenten season. I arrived to church, and I had a hard time tuning out all the noise and distractions around me. It was the CCD mass, so half the church was packed with children who would not stop talking. I also sat next to a couple who clearly suffered from FOMO. Both of them were on their phones texting and surfing. Finally, I closed my eyes and prayed to Jesus to allow me to tune out the distractions so I could hear His message.

I figured I would hear His message in the homily. The priest compared the ashes to the seal you get on your passport when you travel. He said that Lent is a journey, and the ashes are the seal you receive to welcome you on the journey. It made a lot of sense, but I still missed Jesus’ message to me.

I went through the motions during the entire mass. I got my ashes, together with over a thousand people. What is it about the ashes that bring so many people to church? Even the FOMO couple sitting next to me was obviously there just for the ashes, since they left as soon as they received the ashes. I obviously did not hear Jesus’ message in the ashes since I was being critical of everything that was happening all around me.

And then, it came time to receive Communion. By this time, half the people had already left. I thought to myself, “They are missing the better part. They just don’t get it. They came for the ashes, and they don’t realize that Jesus is alive in the Eucharist.” I went up to receive the Body of Christ, and I noticed the hands of the Eucharistic minister. They were the hands of a humble, working man. His nails were filled with black sod and he had callused fingers. I thought to myself, “he’s probably a gardener who landscapes for a living.”

When I returned to my pew, I could not stop thinking about the Eucharistic minister. Here was a humble gardener handing out the Body of Christ. And I thought, that is what is all about. Jesus chose the most humble of men to spread His message. Who were the disciples? Twelve simple men, most of them fishermen, with dirty nails and callused hands. And here I was, two thousand years later, receiving the Body of Christ and His message from a simple man with dirty nails and callused hands. While I was in my pew casting judgment on the FOMO couple next to me, this humble man, who had probably worked all day, was here witnessing to Christ. By sharing the Eucharist with this sinful servant, He had opened my eyes to Jesus’ message to me.

It is Lent again... Oh Yes!!! I have 40 days to remember what Jesus did for me. I have 40 days to remember that He sacrificed His life for me. While He gave it all, all I’m giving up is sweets. And I’m complaining about it. Boy, do I need this Lent.

Jesus, help me to walk this Lenten journey with You. Help me to remember those that are carrying a heavy cross. Help me to realize that my little sacrifice can never measure up to the huge sacrifice You did for me. Help me to criticize less and praise more. Help me to open my heart so that You can resurrect within me. Help me to grow closer to You during the next 40 days. Help me to return to You with my whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Help me to rend my heart, not my garments. Help me to return to You, my LORD, my God.

I love You, Jesus!!!

Do you suffer from FOMO?

Last night, we went out to dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend. She was telling us about this young intern on her job who spends all the time on his phone. She knew that they needed to have a conversation with him. If he was constantly on his phone, obviously he was not doing his job. When they talked to him, he agreed that his phone was definitely a problem. But he had a great excuse. He suffered from FOMO. My daughter’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me? You suffer from what?” “FOMO,” he said. “You know, fear of missing out.” If my daughter’s jaw dropped, mine hit the floor. “What do you mean? Fear of missing out? Missing out from what?”

Thirty-six hours ago, I had no idea what FOMO meant. I had never heard the term. But once my daughter explained it to me, I realized that in some way or another, we all suffer from FOMO. This is the virus of the 21st century, and the reason why most of us cannot put down our phones.

The way she explained it to me was that this kid could not put down his phone because he was afraid to miss a text message or an Instagram picture or a Facebook post. He was fearful that if he disconnected from his phone for longer than five minutes, he would miss out on the ultimate plan for the weekend or on the greatest gossip of the day. Sound familiar?

Social media has become a virus and most of us are not immune to it. Many of us have been attacked by the FOMO virus. The first symptom crops up in the morning. If the first thing we do when we wake up is grab our phone, chances are that we have been infected. In that first hour of the morning we go through a frenzy stage. We check our emails, our text messages, our Facebook accounts, our Instagram.... What did we miss out while we were sleeping? Yes, we are definitely suffering from FOMO.

I recently read an article titled “Ten Morning Habits to Start your Day Off Right.” (https://chopra.com/articles/10-morning-habits-to-start-your-day-off-right). The very first habit was: “Stay unplugged from tech.” It said that “If the first thing you do when you wake up is check your smartphone for messages or work email, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are immediately cultivating a reactive mindset, instead of a proactive one, which will cause you to start your day in a defensive state, rather than a place of inner peace and control. Instead, try remaining detached from technology for the first hour of your day so you can begin your day with present-moment awareness and a positive focus.” Easier said than done.

Last year, during Lent, I decided to give up Facebook. The reason I chose this was because I realized that I was becoming addicted. I did not know that my addiction had a name, but now in retrospect, I know that I was definitely suffering from a bad case of FOMO. The first thing I did when I woke up was scroll through my news feed. I would crave knowing what people where up to, where they went on the weekend, who’s kid had gotten married, where they went on vacation, what restaurants were popular, etc. I tried to cover my addiction by claiming that I used social media to keep up with friends and for my spirituality. Even though that is true to a certain degree, the bottom line is that more than anything I was using it for fear of missing out. What I did not realize at the time was that due to this FOMO virus, I was truly missing out. I was spending more time checking people through Facebook than truly connecting with them on a personal level. Giving up Facebook for Lent was the best decision that I ever made. At first it was difficult. I guess I had withdrawal symptoms. But after a while, I stopped missing it and I felt liberated. Even though I did go back to it after Lent, I don’t feel addicted to it anymore. Sometimes more than a week goes by, and I haven’t even logged into my Facebook account. Am I missing out? Probably. Does it matter? Definitely not. I am not missing out from the important things. And who cares what anyone did on the weekend, where they went on vacation or what restaurant they frequent. It is more important to spend time with friends in person than through a screen.

If just like me this is the first time you hear the term FOMO, don’t think that this is a virus that only affects the millennials. It may have started with them but it has certainly propagated to all the generations. While we were at the restaurant last night, I looked around me, and while in some tables some people were actually deep in conversation, there were many others that were spending more time on the phone than interacting. I have seen young couples who are obviously on a date, paying more attention to their phones than to each other. I have also seen senior citizens hooked to their smart phones. Some restaurants have implemented the idea of tech-free dinners. They have placed a box on the tables with creative signs that say something like “Disconnect to Re-Connect” or something as simple as “We’d like to invite you to unplug during your meal.” In Singapore, McDonald’s launched a campaign titled “Phone Off, Fun On.” They have set up mobile phone lockers at their restaurants so customers can stow away their devices during mealtime.

Now that I know that this tech addiction has a name, I think I’m going to copy the restaurants initiative and place a phone drop-off box in my home. I will call this box JOMO... the joy of missing out.

Copyright © 2019 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.  

Back on Track

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” ~Thomas A. Edison

I started the New Year with a cold. I was feeling better yesterday, but last night I was very congested and did not sleep very well. By 5 am, I realized going back to sleep was not going to happen. I got up, grabbed my iPad, and opened my blog. I have been reading some of my old posts for the past two hours. While reading them, I realized that I got out of the path that God had set for me a year ago. I had started writing a book back in 2008, but I never finished it. At the beginning of 2018, I felt God pushing me to finish the book. My goal for 2018 was to finish writing the book. I did pretty good for the first nine months. I finished the first fourteen chapters, which was a pretty big accomplishment considering that in the previous decade I had never made it past chapter six. But then I got off the writing path. Yes, I had good excuses. My son’s wedding in October, Thanksgiving, Christmas, preparing to move into a new home, and the list could go on and on. But the bottom line is, that I just lost the zest or the inspiration to keep writing.

While I was in bed, congested and upset because I wanted to go back to sleep and couldn’t, I started thinking that maybe I could just put the book aside for another decade, and write about something completely different. I was trying to convince myself that God had changed His plan for me. After all, He changes everyone’s plans all the time. Today, we celebrate the feast of the Three Kings. God completely changed the three Kings’ plans. I am sure that when they woke up on that cold Christmas morning, 2,000 years ago, the furthest thing from their mind was that on that day they were going to follow a star. I am sure that when Gaspar looked up to the Indian sky with a cup of coffee in his hand, and he saw the bright star, he probably thought to himself, “I better go back to bed.” But God did not allow Him to go back to sleep. So he packed up his bags, and began to follow the star. Somewhere along the way, while crossing the Persian territory, he caught up with Melchior who had also seen the star, and was wondering whether to return to his science books or listen to God’s voice. And further down the road, as they crossed into the Arabian countryside, they encountered a confused Balthasar who was looking towards the sky trying to decide what to do. God changed their plans, but because they obeyed Him and followed the star, they received the greatest gift when they met Jesus Christ.

After praying, reading and meditating, I have come to the realization that in my case, the only one that wants to change the plan is me. The one that got off track is me. God clearly set the path for me a year ago, but somewhere along the way, I lost sight of the star. I put my unfinished project aside, and went in a completely different direction. And God is asking me once again to get back on track and finish the project. He even dropped a book into my hands about the subject of “virtues” which is where I left off. I have yet to read the book, but I think is time to open it and read it. Hopefully it will give me the inspiration that I have been lacking. Now I know why God did not allow me to go back to sleep. He pushed me out of bed to get me back on track. He wants me to finish the project, no matter how long it takes me to do so.