I didn’t want to leave school in any way and so decided to stay an extra week. It helped me get accustomed to the summer a lot more because i was able to say goodbye to everyone and those extra days help me come to terms that it was indeed time to say goodbye, for now.
Its not that i didn’t want to come home because i love my family but Leo is where i feel i belong right now. There isn’t a whole lot for me to do at home but as the days drew to a close i did become a bit more excited for summer. I would be able to spend some time with my family which i hadn’t done in forever, i knew i didn’t want to look back and regret the opportunities i could have had to be with them.
In the last week Sr. Mary called and asked me about the group i wanted to work with at camp! She was so upbeat and kept saying how she couldn’t wait until camp started and how much she was looking forward to it that i began to get really excited too.
Summer wouldn’t be too bad and although i miss a bunch of my sisters incredibly i am grateful we still have a way to communicate. God gave me this time to de-stress and grow for a reason so i am soaking it up. This week i have literally sat around the house, next week i will be able to visit my nun sisters at Villa and hang out with my high school friends. In six weeks i will be back up in Jersey which is a life-saver because i have a lot of things to work on in my prayer life and the sisters always help me out with that. Hopefully i can carry it on to carry to college; that is the real challenge.
I have really been slacking in the past semester and rarely took any quiet time; it was a lot of GO, GO, GO!! So of course, even between the sprained ankle and getting sick so often i still didn’t take the hint that i needed to chill. Now however, i have no choice. There is really nothing i can do other than flyers and forms for the play and clubs next semester. I am in bed by midnight and get ten hours plus of sleep. Soon my foot should completely healed which will be awesome because i can run again and since i’ve been home my stomach has been a ton better. My mom keeps joking that i can live with her instead of go back to college but i am going to figure out a way to deal with stress without becoming sick.
Now that i am home i am actually happy to be here, it has been really nice to be with my family again. The first weekend back we went to Mass at my home parish which was so uplifting, i have really missed it. The priest we had was subbing but he was fantastic.
In his homily he explained that after Jesus rose from the tomb, Peter and John found it empty except for the linen clothes. The one covering his body was thrown on the floor while the one for his face was folded neatly and put on the shelf. In Jewish custom, during a meal, the head of the house will either crumple up his napkin and throw it on his plate to signify he is done and will not be returning or he will fold it neatly and put it on his plate to signify he will be back.
For Jesus to fold up the cloth covering his face was a real physical sign that he will be back that he is not leaving.
The priest reminded us to loosen up and have faith, to hope in the Lord because he is coming back and we have not been abandoned.
Crazy, in all my years of hearing homilies i have never learned that, i love it. I wish we had more priests like him who spoke so directly to us and helped us learn and grow. Jesus isn’t just a heavenly figure out of reach, he was a real walking, breathing, eating human! It makes faith in Him so much more relate-able.
That is what i learned in the first weekend… i have four months. Bring it on my Friend i’m ready!
