Keepin It Real

Wazzup my fellow readers?!?! Thanks for making it back to my page, I know it’s been a little while! So today was the kickoff for Fortnight for Freedom, a religious freedom campaign being sponsored by the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) and it runs until the 4^th of July, conveniently the day America won its freedom from the bloody Brits (no offense)! 

WARNING: I am now taking my soapbox for the next few sentences, so get OVER it! When the constitution was written by the founding fathers, as I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong (but I expect crickets), they specifically had in mind a country that was free from the tyranny of the government they had just escaped and so wrote the constitution in a way that would limit the power and reach of the government into society. Although radical reformations occurring centuries earlier in the Church deeply damaged the practice of organized religion, and ultimately the view of the Church as the center and source of society, deep religious roots continued to dictate the behavior of these newly formed “Americans” leading to a unique society of individualists who still regarded God as the author of authority and morality. This rejection of the church, however, would prove to undermine the founding fathers’ efforts to limit the power of government. For you see God made the human person in a way that desires to be led, to be part of something bigger than itself, a.k.a. the CHURCH, but with this radical individualistic view on religion, it didn’t allow for the soul’s desires to be met. With the Church out of the picture and the vision of personal religion slowly taking over, society was left searching for and, to their own free-thinking demise, discovering a common judge of authority and “morality” rising from the ashes poured out of the incensors of the puritans who rejected the belief of the Church as the heraldry of all things moral: this judge being the American government. 

And so ensued a shift in American thought, rather than of limiting government, putting faith in the government to restore a cohesive sense of authority. The irony is that their precious freedom they won from Britian was sacrificed to this government “God” (strikingly like the Israelites who after seeing the other nations’ kings, began desiring a king of their own) to the point that we sadly find today the need for a “Fortnight for Freedom”, a reclaiming of God as the sole true source of freedom and morality that doesn’t lead to enslavement. So if you are reading this right now, know this: I’m spending the next two weeks fasting and going out of my way to act for religious freedom, especially with the intention for an end to abortion. Whether you’re Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Agnostic, or what have you, you should care about this movement! JOIN ME in this 2 week fast to pray for a change in America, a change that would take away authority given to the government by the government that it never deserved to have. A change to freely live out our faith in the public square. I’d love to hear your experiences at the end of all this!

Fresh Off the Reservation:

Comin’ at my fellow pharmacy friends for this one, it’s time to get real with ya! I love working in a pharmacy setting, I love using clinical knowledge every day to solve problems, I love the responsibility I have with a patient’s well-being, I love interacting with patients and forming relationships with them, but I have to admit, my maturity in why I should love being a pharmacist hasn’t quite blossomed yet. What do I mean? Well, why do most people say they decided to go into a medical profession? To help people.

 I don’t know about you, but for me being a pharmacy student there are PLENTY of things that distract me from having this reasoning behind my actions. Just to name a few; ambition of a successful career, accolades from my peers, being respected by patients as successful and intelligent (especially as a student all too often receiving the “Good for you” praise from a middle-age mom can get you on the pride train pretty easily), possessing vast amounts of knowledge. Not a one of these things are bad in and of themselves, but when they are a priority and the desire to care for that person you are giving a medication to fades away, you’re not being a very good pharmacist. I’m saying this because I’m all to guilty of looking at it from a perspective of “what’s in it for me” and working out here in Towaoc, Colorado, where honestly the patients here couldn’t give two shits, count ‘em, TWO, about your educational background and achievements, it’s showed me that the only thing that really matters to being a pharmacist is how well you care for each patient. A lot of the natives on the reservation I’m working with aren’t friendly and would rather not chat about life when they come to the counter and I’ve quickly realized if I don’t come to work with the pure intention and goal to care for people, I’m going to lose heart pretty quickly.

So for all of my peeps who are close to graduation or have recently graduated, I encourage you to think long and hard on what your motivation for being a pharmacist is. I know I need to if I’m ever going to be a good pharmacist. It’s so easy going through school to put ourselves in this sort-of bubble not in touch with reality and look at the patient as a project rather than as a person and if we continue to do that, we’re going to be burned out real quick when the applause from our peers stops. Two things to keep in mind: 1) Your reason for making it this far is not entirely your doing, so don’t act like it is. 2) You are, first and foremost, a person, then a pharmacist, don’t ignore the person-side (personal side) of you.

A Voice Crying Out In the Desert:

St. JoseMaría Escrivá continues to blow my mind with his writings in “The Way” and has been a huge help to me while out here in Colorado on my own. He doesn’t mince words, but cuts straight to the heart of what it means to be a man and I encourage anyone who’s like me and searching for a starting place in how to build your character to read this book. This week two excerpts hit me pretty hard and I’d like to share them with you:

                #17. Don’t succumb to that disease of character whose symptoms are a general lack of                 seriousness, unsteadiness in action and speech, foolishness- in a word, frivolity. And that                 frivolity, mind you, which makes your plans so void- “so filled with emptiness”- will make                 of you a lifeless and useless dummy, unless you react in time-not tomorrow, but now!

                #18. You go on being worldly, frivolous and gitty because you are a coward. What is it, if                     not cowardice, to refuse to face yourself.

When I think about this character of “frivolity” that Escrivá talks about, I think of a person with little self-confidence, flightiness, fearing vulnerability, a character lacking manliness. Man was created for great love, commitment, the power to impact his surroundings and inspire change, and to defend the weak and that requires being constant in one’s actions and beliefs. Someone who lacks the courage to be a man also lacks the courage to see their flaws. 

I think about 2 carpenters hired to fix a wall filled with holes and cracks. One carpenter starts by slapping putty over the holes for an easy fix but it never dries and the putty just sinks into the hole making the wall look worse. The other carpenter takes the time to fit the hole with a sheet rock patch supported by a wood backing and finishes the job with putty to seamlessly integrate the patchwork. It takes more time and effort but by the end of the job, it’s unnoticeable and the wall is sturdy enough to hang pictures. Men, we have to be like the second carpenter, when we see flaws in our character, we can’t ignore it because it would be uncomfortable to face like the first carpenter who proposes a quick fix to the holes in the wall. We have to get in there, build up our character where it’s lacking, then move on to the next hole to fill it with virtue. The final result is a man who can bear much more of life just like a wall that can hold more pictures. Don’t “refuse to face yourself”. Don’t be afraid of the work, although it’s not glamorous and requires the sting of humility at times, in the end you will have built yourself up for a great purpose. The man who ignores his flaws will eventually crumble because of all the holes in his wall and will be, “a lifeless and useless dummy” and if we are like that, what good are we to God, men?! Esto Vir (be a man)!!!

God bless.

Sadly, I'm pro-choice...

Welcome back, y’all. Sorry for pooping out on you last week, I was traveling all over the “Land of Enchantment” (New Mexico) for my job and didn’t have time to post anything. This week was filled with traveling to 17 different Indian reservations, all with a different pharmacy setup. The amazing thing I learned was that all of the reservations had their own language. Even different Pueblo Indian reservations had their own distinct native tongue, making it possible for hundreds of languages to exist all in the confines of one American state. At each site we performed a controlled substance inventory and review on policies and procedures, so a LOT of administrative work, but it was really helpful. Thanks to my experiences this week, God blessed me with some great reflections on something that’s been on my heart since I’ve moved out here. Get your thinking caps and waders on, people, it’s about to get deep.

I have a question for everyone reading this: Do you love God?....... 

No, I mean, do. You. love. GOD? 

Exhibit 1:

Do you think of him often and want to be around him constantly? Do you arrange your day so that you can catch up? And I don't mean monologue-ing, but dialoguing. Do you go to him for counsel with life problems? Do people get annoyed listening to you go on and on about "You won't believe what God did the other day" or sometimes question, because of the realness you speak of him with, if you are really talking about a person and they just misunderstood you? Do you frequently make little gestures throughout the day that you know only He would see and smile about? Is God that person you can't wait to introduce your friends to at a party?  

Exhibit 2:

Or is God a name-dropper for you, a big wig you’ve maybe shaken the hand of but know nothing about? Is He that “friend” who asks to meet your other friends and you, being embarrassed of Him, say you'll get back to Him on that but with no real intention to? Is God your tagline you use as a reminder to everyone that you're "Christian"? In short, do you love God, the person, or the idea of God?

Why am I asking, you ask? Because I want to know of you, and of myself, do we at all times view God as a person, who has feelings, desires, and the capability to live and interact with us; in other words, does God have our full permission to live through us as a being capable of dynamic relationship? Or do we prohibit God from becoming too personal for fear of unpredictability and pain that comes with change?

“Well who says they can tell me how I view God? Maybe to me God IS an idea or an indifferent deity who wants nothing to do with his creation anymore, who can tell me I’m wrong?” mmmmm, God can, you relativist! Just ask the second person of the trinity who became the physical presence of God, purposefully sent to Earth to hold us by the hand and teach us how to be in RELATIONSHIP with God. Are you gonna deny that he was a person?

Thanks to that little gift we call “free will”, however, God will not impose himself on our lives any more than we allow him to. Just as the fate of an infant’s life in today’s culture of death (the abortion era) rests in the hands of its parents, we can start to view allowing God to LIVE, or to act as a person, within our lives in the pro-life/pro-choice framework.

Let’s first define a term… to “live”. For my purposes here, to “live” is to have interests, the ability to make choices, and to freely act on those interests causing an impact on one’s surroundings, including the way others react and make decisions. For example, if I am to live, I have the freedom to make choices that may influence the lives of those around me and, down the road, influence their own choices. I argue that God should have that same ability to work freely through us and impact our own choices. 

Now let’s apply the fundamentals of the pro-life/pro-choice struggle to decide if we are pro-life for God (i.e. complete allowance for him to live as a person among us) or pro-choice treating Him as something with no life to begin with (e.g. an idea). The pro-choice agenda illustrates this idea of prohibiting God from existing as a person in our lives beautifully because the pro-choice movement is nothing more than a refusal to relinquish power and allow unpredictability into our lives. As Christians, I think we naturally tend to classify ourselves as “pro-life” in this sense. 

But should we?

Supporters of the pro-choice movement recently claimed that infanticide, or they would prefer it be called “after-birth abortion",

is not truly taking a life because, “the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus, rather than that of a child.” (Giubilini & Minerva) However, prolifers argue that even a fetus has moral status, and deserves the same respect as a child. Well, the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy defines one having moral status, and therefore being worthy of life, “If and only if it or its interests morally matter to some degree for the entity’s own sake.” To summarize this hoopla, to be “pro-life” about God (a.k.a. allowing God’s personhood to live in us) hinges on whether the claim of viewing God as a person can be defined as having moral status, thus being able to say “Oh, that’s immoral to say that God isn’t a person”. If we cannot prove that it does have moral impact, then how we view God truly does not matter and all the relativists win. Let us proceed…

 

One more clarification…

Person ≠ Human

Person = Being

Well, how am I using the word “moral” here and who is the entity being spoken of? God is the entity in this example. Using “moral” I mean the difference of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and untruth. Well, In reference to what? In what the right way to view God is (i.e. a person, not an idea). Some would say that this argument has nothing moral about it, that it’s just a subjective matter of opinion, that no one can tell you how to view God (a theoretical pro-choice relativism). 

But I say, and you can take it or leave it (but please take it), it does matter morally to God to rightly, goodly, and truthfully view Him as a person and not as an idea. It’s not simply because his feelings will get hurt if we don’t accept him (the subjective view). Remember, God doesn’t need us, but God’s very being prohibits him from simply remaining an abstract, high-in-the-sky idea that we can sit around the campfire singing kumbaya about. He is “being” himself, the source of life that our fallen souls need for survival into eternity and to act in a pro-choice manner and keep God as an abstract idea denies others around us the life-giving relationship that they deserve since God’s “person” resides and acts through us, his body, but only, remember, by our permission. We were created in a very specific manner that requires intimate relationship for salvation, so only allowing God to exist as an idea and not a person in and among us would be immoral (thus constituting moral status).

So a “pro-choicer” in this example would be someone who only allows God into his life as an idea, or ideal, because they see no moral implication as to how God is viewed (therefore, not allowing God’s gift of life to be born). A “pro-lifer” would allow God in their lives as a person because they recognize this as being the only way for salvation to be born to others and not doing so denies a moral good to others around them (thus having moral status and being immoral to “deny life” to the person of God). 

So now the question that begs to be asked of you is this: Are you pro-life or pro-choice?

Now is the point where all the self-proclaimed choir members of the church that I’ve been preaching to for the last page and a half stand and shout…

The greasy, slimy, disgusting connotation that “pro-choice” has among Christians and those of like-mindedness is almost enough to make someone reading this laugh out loud when they read what I’m about to suggest: I bet you are pro-choice without even knowing it. Seriously! Because if you aren’t a saint yet, you are pro-choice about God and don’t fully love God the person, the reality of God, but rather still love the idea of God. In some ways, you are exhibit 2 (see above). Go ahead, throw the rotten tomatoes at me, but that’s not going to help the repulsive feeling you have about justly being called pro-choice. Remember what I’m meaning here…

 

If you are Pro-life (a.k.a. a saint) = You welcome a permanent residence of God, the person, in your life for the good of others.

If you are Pro-Choice (a.k.a. 99.99999999999999999999% of all Christians) = you do NOT permit His permanent residence in your life as a person.

I love this comparison of how we view God because it works to dramatize a point that for Christians is seldom realized but so desperately needs to be if we are going to see what a life with God on this Earth truly looks like! That point being that how we view God is a matter of life and death to our own spiritual life. As always, my rambling at the beginning of every blog serves a purpose, and the purpose of this one, surprisingly, is not just to give everyone a headache. It’s to shamefully but humbly declare this: I am a pro-choice lover of God.

Well let’s think about what it means to be pro-life for God. Permanent residence, free reign to impact his surroundings with his actions, not caged in like an animal or compartmentalized like a business plan, treated as though and interacted with as another one of us. This must be true for God because he has given us earthly human relationships and his son to help us come to understand His nature. Just as he gave each of us an earthly family to understand the dynamics of the divine family of the trinity. I’m not trying to make God into a human like us, I’m trying to express he wants us to be as intimate and real with Him as we are with our brother, or our best friend, because if we don’t, then we are pro-choice, meaning we don’t recognize God as a person and don’t interact with him as such.

Now you’re probably wondering, “Why are you being so dramatic about this point, Ethan? Haven’t you taken it a little too far this time to call us pro-choicers?” Perhaps, but I don’t think so. If you ask yourself if you truly desire the fullness of God all the time and find that there are times when you hesitate, you set aside God, then my suggestion of you being pro-choice is true. Until we get over our hesitations, God cannot remain in us because we don’t truly desire life, hence the “pro-choice” label.

Le’me explain what parts of me remain pro-choice, and maybe help illumine some part of your own life that is similar…

 Fresh Off the Reservation:

Since moving out to Colorado and far removed from my normal daily life, at times I find myself craving my regular mass, regular friends, regular conversations despite all of the opportunities to open myself to a vastness of new experiences. I admit part of it may be a little home-sickness, but I think it’s deeper than that. Being home-sick happens most often for children who have no concept of the world’s vastness and see their home as their only safe-haven. And let’s face it, as adults, especially ones that believe in an ever-present God, we’re mature enough to know that home-sickness isn’t reality, but rather a delusional perception of our present situation. But if these cravings aren’t a result of home-sickness, what are they?

I think it’s a misunderstanding of who God is in our lives. How often do we fall into a routine of who we hang out with, what prayers we pray, how we approach the topic of God, how we make new friends? None of this is bad, but I have to ask, when we experience “growth” from that, are we growing more in love with God or the comfort that those familiarities offer us? And if it’s the comfort, how does this affect our ability to perceive the fullness of who God is? I would argue that if it’s the comfort we are growing to love rather than God, then we are reducing God to something less than he is, we are trying to compartmentalize him, trap him into this cookie-cutter idea that we think God should be. We struggle to understand God’s presence in things that don’t fit our model of God and at times reject Him because of that. That temptation to reject the unknown, I think, is the feeling I get when faced with a different setting for mass, or new people to get to know, or just new approaches to my own prayer life. There’s something internal saying that “This isn’t what you know God to be, return to what you know.” In essence, we become pro-choice, not treating God as a dynamic person who changes, interacts, or impacts His surroundings but rather as an ideal that we selfishly desire to remain as we perceive Him. This is also the work of Satan. He doesn’t want us to perceive the vastness of God because he knows that such a realization would take away his ability to isolate us. If he succeeds, our souls will die because they fail to be fed spiritually from the idol of comfort.

It will be impossible for us to fully love God as the person that He is until we cut ties with our attachments. COMPLETELY cut ties! He can’t reside in our hearts if it already holds a lie about God that we accept above His true self. That is why a saint is pro-life; everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (material and spiritual) they have is loss, the only thing they cling to is the fullness of God. God isn’t limited to the feeling you get after the choir sings your favorite hymn during communion, He’s not just that good buddy you share conversation with at Charlie Hooper’s after mass on a Wednesday night, and He’s not confined to the corner of your bedroom set up for morning prayer, So stop ignoring Him in every other place that He can be found!! Stop being pro-choice for God, be pro-LIFE (I am, of course, telling myself this as much as I am you, so please don’t take offense)! After all, God cannot change who he is, which in reality, is a person. We can only accept or reject it, and if we ignorantly reject it by trying to confine God to items or situations, we’re no better than the ignorant pro-choice advocate in the abortion arena who campaigns against a “war on women” whilst spitting on the soldiers fighting for her own protection, a proverbial Jane Fonda of the pro-choice world!

Two saints I would like to quote in closing that I think will bring my point home are JoseMaría Escrivá and Augustine of Hippo:

“Don’t have a ‘small town’ outlook. Enlarge your heart until it becomes universal-‘catholic’. Don’t fly like a barnyard hen when you can soar like an eagle.” – Escrivá

“Since, then, you fill the heaven and earth, do they contain you? Or, do you fill and overflow them, because they cannot contain you? and where do you pour out what remains of you after heaven and earth are full? Or, indeed, is there no need that you, who contain all things, should be contained by any, since those things which you do fill you fill by containing them? For the vessels which you do fill do not confine you. since even if they were broken, you would not be poured out.” – Augustine

God bless!

What You Do for the Least of My Brothers...

Ever had a moment when you are trying to make someone's day better but in the midst of it all you begin to realize that you are the one truly benefiting? It's like a boomerang effect, throwin' out something nice and it returns to you with the same momentum it left you with. Whether the effect is to sure up some weakness or doubt in your own life or the fact that their joy is so great that, realizing you couldn't possibly be the sole source of it, you are knocked out of some "prideful, self-righteous, bringer of joy" mentality. But why does this happen?

desired response to the "Bringer-of-Joy" mentality

We inherently know that the ultimate way to experience joy is to share it with others, otherwise: Why else would an expecting couple burn anxiously with a desire to share the good news of a baby with family? Why would a man who was offered an executive position at work make special dinner plans to share the news with his wife? Why would God have created man to share in his goodness if not because he knew that having someone to share it with would make it that much more meaningful? Keeping such things to ourselves devalues the joy attached to them because it serves no purpose and dies. It must be shared to thrive. The purpose for our joy as humans is to lift others' eyes to the giver of joy, but it's when we intend to capitalize on this joy by seeking praise that our motives become selfish, hence the "bringer of joy" mentality. Then we only do things to feed our own ego, not to truly give glory where glory is due.

Now y'all may be saying by now that I'm just blowing out a lot of hot air, and you're probably right, but it helps to set up the story I have from the reservation this week. One last note: I think that this is somewhat related to Christ's teaching that if we want to find ourselves, then we must lose ourselves completely in service to others. If we want to be happy, we have to be willing to invite others to claim full ownership of that happiness.

Fresh Off the Reservation:
On Wednesday of this past week I had the opportunity to travel around the indian reservation with the home-health nurse who takes care of all the elders of the Ute Mountain Tribe. We spent the afternoon at the senior center monitoring blood pressure, O2 sats, blood sugar, and other basic vitals. There were only a few individuals there so we had a lot of time to just sit and chat with the folks and get to know them. One woman, who I'll call Jane, made a particular impression on me that afternoon. Jane is probably in her mid-40's, is completely blind, and can play a mean piano (I knew when I found this out that this gal and I were gonna get along juuuust fine)!!! Jane has the disposition of a child, I'm not sure if it may be due to developmental disability or some past medical condition, but it is in no way a vice. It's that very disposition that opened my eyes to see that her lack of sight did not mean a lack of life, quite the opposite!

Jane took every opportunity to joke around with another man at the center, calling him Spongebob or Patrick every time he started acting ornery (btw, Jane loves Spongebob, another clue that we would be like two peas in a pod). We got Jane over to the piano and one of the nurses brought a list of about 30 songs that she had learned to play by ear for us to request from. Looking through it I spotted "Imagine" by John Lennon and asked if I could sing along. 

She started out and I came in too early, stomping all over her intro, and she wasn't having it! So with a little sass ;) she started again and we made it through that time. For about 30 minutes we jammed out to The Beatles, when I would go for the high notes and miss them, she'd giggle to herself and when I hit them she would let out a little squeal and squirm in her seat with excitement, lol. Seeing her so excited because of something as simple as someone to jam with gave me pause. It's not the great things done in life that bring great joy (the lie believed by Mr. bringer-of-joy, see above), but instead the little things done with great self-gift. To experience her happiness in that moment left me far more grateful than I could have imagined that day starting out. 

After we finished, I jokingly suggested to Jane that she and I should take our jam sessions on the road for a concert tour. She disagreed, she preferred we try out for "The Voice". I need to learn to dream bigger, obviously! Thanks, Jane!

A Voice Crying Out in the Desert:
Trying to stick to my challenge last week of reading the life of Christ more regularly, I have realized something... I suck at reading the bible. Plain and simple. I get antsy, nervous, and intimidated that I'm not going to procure some new insight into what I read and probably because I'm setting expectations for myself that are unrealistic (and that's probably a prideful approach to scripture anyway). I don't know if you experience the same as me, but unlike a lot of Christians, very seldom is the experience of reading the bible comforting for me.

But I'm not gonna leave it there. If scripture was easy to understand, the holy spirit might be out of a job and we might be out of a relationship. After all, people don't pursue a relationship because they know everything about the other person, they do it to be drawn in closer to the most interior parts of that person's being and to work to understand that person. Actually, reading the bible is a lot like dating: It's unpredictable, not because you don't know what words are coming next, but because you don't know how it will change your life next (you can call me the Love Doctor, now). Kind of scary, but thrilling. We have to keep coming back to it and allow ourselves to be conformed to its words until our identity is intertwined with its truth! Sound like a teenage romance story, anyone??!?!? That's all I got for now, God's blessings to all of y'all!

P.S.- Just want to say thank you to all of the service men and women who have died to fight for the freedoms we share in as Americans. May God bless all of you and may the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. I pray especially for my grandpa, Jim.
St. Martin of Tours...   †

 1 of the many waterfalls in Telluride, CO.

In the Beginning...

Howdy, friends! Welcome to my first blog! In case you were wondering, bilagáana is Navajo for "white man". You're probably wondering why I've gone all native on ya (heehee); well I'm sitting in my room in Cortez, Colorado writing this blog because I am just in the beginning of a summer internship with Indian Health Services and I'm stationed at the Ute Mountain Ute Health Clinic, where we treat Indians of both the Ute and Navajo tribes. I'll be working both in and outside the pharmacy providing drug education to patients, public health services to natives in the remote parts of the reservation, and collaborating with the doctors, pharmacists, and nurses at the clinic to possibly start some new clinics to improve adherence for patients.

Through the course of my pharmacy schooling, I think I've said that I would like to be about 20 different types of pharmacists, the most recent of which (and hopefully last) a public health pharmacist with an emphasis in ambulatory care. This is why I'm out here; the clinic I work in serves as a medical home for our patients with 3 physicians, nurses, 2 part-time dentists, 2 optometrists, a lab, pharmacy, psychiatrist and psychologist, as well as home-health and public health nurses. In the pharmacy, we have access to all the medical records and the doctors are right down the hall to consult whenever we need.

So, my reason for writing this blog is two-fold: I know there are several pharmacy students interested in this kind of work and I hope that by sharing some of my clinical experiences on the reservation, it might help someone else decide what kind of career they want to pursue after graduation, but also because moving somewhere with no contacts, place to live, or any idea of the region can make a man shake in his boots a little, but is a great opportunity too to draw closer to our creator and I wanted an avenue to share with my bros and sisses in Christo the reflections and insight that the Lord blesses me with out here in the desert! Thanks for stoppin' by!

Fresh Off the Reservation:
- The Ute Mountain Reservation is located at the foothills of the "Sleeping Ute Mountain" mountain range. Legend goes, in the early days the Great Warrior God came to help the natives in a battle against the evil ones. As they stepped hard on the land, the ground was pushed to the side forming the mountains and canyons of the region. During the battle, the Warrior God was badly wounded so he lay down to rest and fell into a never-ending sleep. It is said that the blood of his wound became the living water for the animals and land around. He is believed to awaken one day to help his people fight off their enemies. See his silhouette of his folded arms across his chest, his head-dress still on top of his head, and his toes pointing towards the heavens.

A Voice Crying Out in the Desert:
I began reading St. Josemaría Escrivá's The Way on my hike up Sand Canyon yesterday. Msgr. Escrivá was a priest in the 1900's who had the desire to transform mundane ordinary work into God's work (Opus Dei) and thus founded an order of both clerics and laity whom he fathered to become stewards of God's love through their daily lives and work. The Way was a book of reflections, whispers, if you will, of the Msgr. speaking little phrases of encouragement in the ear of his sheep that were meant to impart the way to living a life after Christ's life.

The reflection that has stuck with me most potently is this, "May your behavior and your conversations be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ." What is implied, of course, is that we do in fact read the life of Christ often or else how can we be perceived as being versed in Jesus' ways, by chance? Not likely! I challenge myself and you to increase your time spent with the gospels this week and allow yourself to fall in love again! After all, when we fall in love with someone, we want to be like them, amiright?! God's blessings!