Category Archives: faith

Reaching Out This Holiday Season

Posted in faith, festive, volunteer by
If you do one thing for someone this Christmas, buy one present or spend your time doing anything festive, I suggest that you take the time/ few dollars/ thoughts to do something for someone else. I suggest you spend a half of a day volunteering at a homeless shelter, buying Tom’s Shoes  for yourself and all of your friends or dropping off some  home made goodies at your local soup kitchen. I’ve spent a lot of time already the past few weeks trying to think of what I can and what I should do for someone this holiday.
 

Last week I was reading Notes From The Frugal Trenches  in my Google Reader and came upon this  post. The post is about an organization called China Kidz  that helps “provide specialist children’s palliative care services for abandoned children and a community care service to families, aiming to support them and avoid the pressure to abandon their sick baby/child.” You can post a comment on the blog posts if you’re interested in helping out. Frugal Trenches will send out an email later this week to anyone interest in participating and Frugal Trenches will pair you with a child. Each child is in deperate need of sweaters and leggings to keep him or her warm and also maybe a toy or two.

I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to start off this season. Sure it may feel a little too early for Christmas, but it’ll be here quicker than you can imagine!

Please let me know if you are going to help out! 

This is not the last time you’ve heard from me about doing something for someone else. But it’s definitely one of the first times that I feel like I’m starting to really be active in doing something. Sure, I own TOMS, I took THE WALK  with Hanson a few times and I spent a week volunteering in Washington, DC during my freshman year of college. But of all the time I spend at my house, all the money I spend on things I do not need I know that I can do more for someone else.

<3.Melanie.Kristy

Ganesha

Posted in faith, love by

(credit)

“When I was in Mexico I started praying to Ganesha and all these good things began happening to me.” – Olga Montenegro

Last Wednesday at yoga Olga asked they hold a charm of a peculiar looking elephant for her to pick up on Saturday. I was fascinated by this charm, as I believe elephants are beautiful creatures, but I did not know any more about it than that. Friday night, while watching Eat Pray Love (review comng soon) Elizabeth was in a sort of market in one scene in India where a small Ganesha statue was presented to her. My mouth dropped open as I realized that this statue was the same beautiful elephant that Olga wanted to purchase, and it stayed open even longer as the movie explained that Ganesha is a “remover of obstacles”.

“I need one of those,” I whispered to no one in particular. And I still believe I do. I’m still fascinated and ready to search out more information on this Hindu god. I already know which place in Plymouth I plan on looking, maybe once I have another paycheck (Incantations , if anyone is wondering) I’ll pick one up. I plan on using Ganesha in some sort of spiritual practice. As a once Athiest, I’ve come a long way. But I’m so incredibly agnostic that I’m open to believing in (almost) anything.

Have you heard of Ganesha before? So you pray to any “unconventional” gods?

<3. Melanie. Kristy

Taking the Negative as it Comes.

Posted in aspirations, faith, goals, self improvement by

A reflection on what I’ve become. You know, I want this blog to be all about positivity–in my life and in yours. But how do you always remain positive, or at least only show that side of yourself without feeling like a phony? I guess some people can do that. They can only show one side and just purely forget about the rest.
 
So, since I refuse to turn this blog into something negative, or allow the negativeness to creep though, I am still going to keep it real. I am also going to make sure to maintain a balance or something. But here’s the deal, I keep on forgetting to write, my mind is blank and I can not help but feel overwhelmed by every single aspect of my life right now. A month ago I read an old journal entry I wrote one night when I was down and depressed and I felt sick to my stomach by the fact  that I used to feel so down like that. I remembered all those feelings, those nights when the darkness felt like it was going to swallow me whole. I don’t want my days to turn into that now. But I’m not letting them. I’m spending a lot of time watching movies and trying to be by myself so that I don’t feel like something else, something bigger than I am, is going to take over me.
 
I’ve been not hanging out as much as normal, I’ve been not going out of my way to make plans or keep in touch. I feel like my mind is void of things to say, void of topics to blog about, but at the same time I feel like slowly I am figuring out how to do this all.
 
Positive things I’ve been doing lately:
& Taking walks, even though sometimes they’re in the dark
& Going to yoga. or thinking about going to yoga
& I plan to get back into SLR photography old-school style with film and all
& Wishing I was in Portugal with a certain person who will remained unnamed
& Reading slowly
& Sleeping better than I can ever remember sleeping (and that, folks, is due to the CPAP Machine that has been perscribed to me for CPAP therapy. That’s another post for another day, though)
& Acting snobby about the products I put on my skin and into my hair. I deserve the best. (Also reminding myself of this when I’m eating. Because it never works out the same way, though the philosophy should be the same)
& Listening to Gala Darling’s Love & Sequins podcasts and Sarah Von’s Wanderlust Workbook
& Trying to wean myself off my addiction to Spider Solitaire. It’s become a sickness.
 
What do you do when you feel like the entire world is going to collapse in on you?

xoxo. Melanie.Kristy

Sometimes Faith Sneaks Up On You

Posted in faith by
I’m writing this for Olga, who is having a bit of a crisis of faith lately. I don’t talk much about religion. I was raised Catholic and I never liked being told that I was a sinner or that I was not allowed to believe in ghosts. I need to go over my background a little before I talk more about what I want to write about.

Since then I’ve been to religious retreats, we changed to a Protestant church and attended for a while where I had to go to Vacation Bible Study. I used to try to oversleep on Sunday mornings but it never worked out. I slowly stopped believing and by 8th grade I deemed myself an Athiest. I couldn’t be bothered to think about religion, it confused me and aggrevated me and I hated being preached to. Within the past couple of years I’ve been more interesting in opening up my spirituality. Since then I’ve realized that I am very agnostic, but I really don’t know where to go from there.

I’ve always celebrated Christian holidays. That’s how I was raised, and I cannot shed those traditions. I know some Bible stories and I believe that Jesus existed. Do I worship him? I’m not so sure. But at the moment I am happy to spend time seeking out religion and spirituality and I am content in exploring it in my own way.

I also need to make note that I am not a lucky person. My brother is lucky, he won a lap top in a raffle one time, he wins random scratch tickets and other odd things. I mostly stop trying to be lucky. It prevents me from setting myself up for disappointment.

A couple months ago I had a thing going on with this guy who stopped responding to me after one night we had hung out together. I was agitated and crushed because I really liked him, and I’m not used to really liking guys. All I wanted was some sort of answer as to why. Not knowing, in my opinion, is worse than knowing and being hurt. It’s worse to question and wonder and think about the possibilities. It’s worse when you have no control over the situation to even find out the truth.

Two days after this night with this night with this guy I went to a church for the first time in years. It wasn’t for a service but for a charity breakfast at the church my friend goes to. There were all sorts of raffles lining the tables. You could buy raffle tickets and pick what gifts you might be able to win. I didn’t think about buying any tickets. I didn’t have extra cash that week, and I don’t normally win anyway. Juli, however, had a few extra dollars. She bought tickets and distributed them between myself, herself and her cousin.

I picked two things to drop raffle tickets into. I only had four tickets so I put two in each. Wouldn’t you believe that I WON one of those packages? I put tickets in a package that included a couple gift cards for stores and restaurants around Plymouth and one for a relaxation package that included a gift certificate for a massage, a bamboo wind chime, lavender candles and some lavender scented Paul Mitchell products. I won the relaxation package and my immediate thought was; God is telling me to calm the fuck down.
Who cares about this guy, really? I mean, I did. But I knew it was going to be okay. I felt like I was being watched over at that moment while I ate my pancakes.

A few days ago on Olga’s post I told her that maybe God isn’t showing himself to her because he wants her to find him. I feel like maybe, by going to that breakfast on that day, that’s exactly what I had done.

<3 Melanie. Kristy