For Granny

I took these pictures quite awhile ago for my Granny Yates who now lives in the nursing home in my hometown. Rockhurst's campus was absolutely beautiful after the first warm week of weather.

I spent a lot of time at Granny and Grandpa Yates' house growing up. They loved their flower gardens. When they gave Grandpa six months to live, Granny made sure he had a garden outside his window so he was still able to see how beautiful the flowers were. She also picked a fresh flower for him each day to have in his room. As I walked across campus and saw these flower, I couldn't help but be reminded of those times. I especially love the St. Ignatius of Loyola statue that sits in the middle of our campus. So here you go Granny :)

The Title of My Blog

I've had a few people ask me why my blog is called "Rejoicing in this Divine Romance." I was inspired by this song, Divine Romance by Phil Wickham. The lyrics are beautiful. You can listen to the song here, and I have the lyrics posted below.




The fullness of Your grace is here with me
The richness of Your beauty's all I see
The brightness of Your glory has arrived
In Your presence God, I'm completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love

A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You
Of deep deep love, yeah it's filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life
In Your presence God I'm completely satisfied

Do It Anyway

I haven't blogged in awhile. OT school has consumed most of my time. Yesterday was a very rough day for one of my friends as she was struggling with not only the stresses of it being finals week, but also having to deal with some outside issues that no one should have to deal with. So as I often do when I have no words of my own to share, I shared with her some words from someone much wiser than me - Mother Teresa. This morning I woke up to a beautiful note on Facebook. Thank you for your kind words, Palmer.

I was given these words by a kind and great friend, Celie, today. I am so thankful to have people in my life who really put things in perspective for me on such a tough day as today was for me. I have to remember I am here for one purpose; to bring glory to God. We are all here for this purpose and sometimes we need tough days to remind us of that.

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight: Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God: it was never between you and them anyway." Mother Teresa