Author: Trish

Tom Hiddleston Sings with Stephen Colbert

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I was going to post this in my Sunday Summary blog post, because that’s where it belongs. BUT there is nothing that is so exactly designed to suit my tastes as this video of Stephen Colbert gently coercing Tom Hiddleston to sing as a guest on his talk show, and I couldn’t wait to share it.

My dear friend Elizabeth, who knows me so well, messaged me about this video’s existence only hours after it was uploaded to YouTube.  She couldn’t watch it immediately because she was at “work,” but I convinced her to stop being productive and fangirl with me.

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This video is a gift to humanity, and although life can be bleak and confusing and traumatizing, there is also THIS:  Tom Hiddleston and Stephen Colbert singing old country gospel songs while grinning into each other’s faces.

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Colbert?  Hiddleston?  Are you listening??  PLEASE CATER TO MY WHIMS AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Self-Hatred, Legalism, and Grace, Grace, Grace

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I distinctly remember sitting on Lindsay T.’s couch on July 4, 2013, drinking from a cheap Strawberry Daquiri Seagram’s bottle.  “I don’t know if God loves me,” Lindsay admitted.  We had recently upgraded our acquaintanceship to friendship, and this conversation was a milestone.  “God loves me when I’m good,” I responded.  “But deep down I’m pretty sure He’s just waiting to give up on me if I screw up.”

Just two years later when I graduated from seminary, everything had changed.

I spent three years hearing my professors say things like, “God is not the god of karma, but the God of grace,” and “It is grace that justifies us, sanctifies us, AND glorifies us,” and “When I get to heaven and God asks why I deserve to be there, I’ll just shake my head and whisper, ‘Jesus.'”  I spent three years in a church that offered weekly Communion so that we never forgot where our strength comes from.  I spent three years in a small group where we argued about abortion and gay marriage and Islam and transsexuality and feminism in safety and love.  I spent three years befriending counselors who were delighted to discover my darkest secrets and shared their own with me.  I was spoiled with grace.

But then I moved home.  The problem with leaving your hometown and changing is that when you return…you revert to your old mental and emotional habits.  Or at least, I do.  Who was I before I learned to trust in God’s unconditional love?  I was the Good Girl.  I measured my worth in my modesty, I argued people into heaven, and I covered my possessions in simplistic Christian statements.  I was determined to earn people’s approval.  I was determined to earn God’s approval.  I knew how to work the system, and honestly, it was comforting.  Legalism is nothing if not controlling, and I am good at controlling things.   Continue reading →

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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18460392Wow.  Rarely has a book so enthralled and gutted me.  This is a HARD book to read, but so necessary, and (if you don’t care about that) so beautiful that it makes the hard things worthwhile.  This is a book about teen suicide, about mental illnesses, and the ways in which people react to “acceptable” mental illnesses versus those that make us uncomfortable.

Violet and Finch meet on top of the school clock tower, both of them considering jumping.   Violet’s sister died in a car accident for which Violet feels responsible, and Finch is climbing towards mania with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.  They find understanding, joy, and love with each other, and their romance is really unique and cute and all the things a fictional romance should be.  But that is not the point of this book.

The point is how the rest of the world treat Violet and Finch.  Violet gets passes from teachers, fellow students bend over backwards to regain her friendship, and her parents are willing to slowly love her back to health.  Her depression is understood and therefore “deserved.”  Finch, on the other hand, is tolerated by teachers, bullied by students, and beaten and/or neglected by his parents.  No one knows how to understand his mood swings (and neither does he), so they replace understanding with intolerance.

And even though this is the “theme” of the book and it’s so important, there are so many other beautiful things happening!  I’m from Illinois, and I had the same feelings of “this place is the most boring place on the planet” as Finch and Violet do about Indiana.  So it was so fun to read about them exploring their state and finding magical, silly, and beautiful places to visit and enjoy.

I also really loved all the Deep, Important conversations Finch and Violet have about life, growing up, and struggling.  This is one of the things I love most about YA books – they capture the overwhelming sensation of first realizing life is not fair and trying to find some kind of control over everything.  I loved the scene where Finch and Violet sit in a closet, writing words and phrases on post-it notes, ripping up the ugly words and sticking the good ones to the wall.

Although this is far from a feel-good book, I did finish it feeling hopeful and encouraged.  All the Bright Places went to some REALLY dark places, and I love it for that.  Life is full of darkness, and it is so important to have books like this one that are willing to shine a light on that darkness so that we can understand it better.  Because of that, hopefully, we can make the darkness a little more tolerable for those who are struggling to find the light.   Continue reading →

Friends, Food, and Spiritual Insight: A Christian Conference in Greece

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A few weeks ago, Anthi invited me to join her and some friends in going to Leutraki (near Corinth) for a weekend conference with the Free Evangelicals of Athens.  Apparently I have not been attending a Free Evangelical church, but when asked my opinion on free will vs. predestination (“I think they’re both right, but we don’t know how”) I was given clearance to come.

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I didn’t expect to learn anything, since the whole conference would be in Greek, but I was super into the location.  We stayed at a resort by the sea and paid only €105 for two nights and six buffet meals.  That would have been enough to satisfy me, but Anthi made sure to find translators for me during each presentation.

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Can we pause a second and talk about how humbling it is to not know a language?  There’s the everyday “everyone is talking about something, and I have no idea what it is!” and the similar “oh no, they are asking me to perform and all I can think of is ‘Μιλἀω ελληνικἀ λἰγα αλλἀ νομἰζω οτἰ ξεχνἀω πολὐ’ and I said that last time.”  But there’s also the next level up: being translated to while 130 people sit around you.  This is maybe an introvert-specific humiliation, since my highest aim in life is to blend in.  There’s something so humbling about letting everyone know that you’re alone in your confusion and that you need help.  This is a good thing, I think, learning to accept help….I just don’t like the process of learning it.   Continue reading →

Workout Week #13

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THIS WEEK’S GOAL:
Workout 20 minutes at least 4 times this week.

GOAL MET!!

Workout Note

I did it!  Mostly because I now have real workout shoes (aka sneakers aka an item I haven’t bought in at least five years)!  And because I found Ashley Horner’s Full-Body Circuit Workout on Pinterest.  As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, the thing most likely to kill my workout drive is BOREDOM so finding new combinations of exercises is key to keeping me interested.  I’ve been combining one day (around 10 minutes) with a 10-minute cardio workout on my Sworkit app, and by the end I am SWEATING.  More than other weeks, so I think this is a good combination.

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I made sure to get my four workouts in early this week because I spent the weekend at a conference…and unexpectedly walked over 10,000 steps both Friday and Saturday!

Food Notes

That conference I mentioned?  Had € 18 buffets for every meal, free with our room, and I was NOT ABOUT TO WASTE THAT OPPORTUNITY.  What I mean is, I ate a lot.  But before that, I was really good all week about keeping track of calories…and therefore eating a meal of one apple + two pieces of chocolate cake.  I blame PMS and also this article about how it doesn’t really matter what you eat so long as you restrict calories.  I don’t super believe that, but for one glorious night I went along with the idea.

Tomorrow it’s back to healthier habits.

 

NEXT WEEK’S GOAL:
Workout 20 minutes at least 5 times this week.

Sunday Summary #22: What’s on the Internet

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Happy Easter to those in the States!  Happy regular Sunday to those in Greece!  Happy Whatever Today Is to everyone else!

Articles

1|  These 11 Cocktails for Crazy Cat Ladies would be perfect for a cat-themed party!

2|  A list of things book lovers think on the regular.

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Videos

It’s Easter in the States, so what better time to watch this old video of Stephen Colbert dancing and singing to “King of Glory” during, I assume, his time as a Sunday School teacher.

A Week in Greece #11: Shopping, HD Scheduling, and Computer Games

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This week was super weird.  I was either hard-core working or hard-core lazing around, which is, actually, my two favorite modes of existing.

On Sunday, I skipped church because my birthday weekend had depleted all of my Social Batteries.  Olga stopped by my room after her service, and we wound up talking for a couple hours about singleness and past romances and future hopes (thus proving that although five minutes of chatting puts me in a coma, I can have deep conversations for days).  She was hugely encouraging to me, especially when she said, “I’m not really interested in marriage unless I am around someone I want to marry.”  And I thought – YEAH.  Why am I letting myself get distracted by Wishes and Maybes and Daydreams?  Why am I wasting time swiping left on Tinder?  There’s no one around that I want to marry, so until there is, I’m going to focus on being awesome and working hard and creating meaningful experiences.

On Monday, I went to the mall for the first time!  It would take 13 minutes to drive there, but it took me an hour by public transportation.  I took the prostiakos for the first time (the metro, but for the suburbs), and it was very rewarding to figure out a new facet of the Athens public transit system.  The mall is like, super fancy and huge, and I was once more ashamed to realize I have very low standards for Greece.  It’s a European city!  It’s awesome!  How did I get so lucky as to stumble into a life here?   Continue reading →

Good Friday – Remembering

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Today is Good Friday in the States.  The Easter season has only just begun here in Greece – we won’t commemorate Big Friday (as it’s known here, which I like better than calling the day Jesus died “good”).  I’m in a strange place of feeling like it’s definitely NOT a Christian holiday today, but also not wanting to let the day go unacknowledged for those in the States.  So I’m cheating a little bit and reposting my thoughts from last year’s Good Friday service at my Dallas church, Trinity Fellowship.  This is one of my all-time favorite things I’ve ever written.  It was an emotional and thoughtful experience, and one that is good for me to remember.

Tonight is Good Friday.  I asked to get off work early so I could go to church, where everyone wore black in anticipation of our mourning.  Our service was somber, lights dimmed, people hushed.  People read the story of Jesus’s arrest, trial, and murder, not as a skit, but as something more than a recitation.  The story was interspersed with music, sometimes performed by a choir, by the congregation, by a soloist.

I’ve been learning about the value of walking through Holy Week one day at a time.  Too often we jump to Easter, because it is easier to focus on good news and hope and life than to let ourselves sit with disappointment, rejection, fear, and death.  But I think it is valuable to walk with Jesus and put ourselves in the shoes of those who knew him, listened to him, trusted in him, and watched him die.   Continue reading →

Letters Between Friends: HOW A DAYDREAMER LEARNS GREEK

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LettersBtwnFriends

Head over to Wild Ginger Blog to read my letter to Lindsay about the super fancy resort I’m visiting this weekend!

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Funny Moments with Greek Friends

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*discussing And Then There Were None, BBC’s newish mini-series*

Anthi:  Maybe you could stay after our meeting and we will watch that show.
Me:  Yeah!  It’s three episodes right?  Are they each one hour?
Anthi:  I think so.
Me:  Okay, so we could totally just watch them all, right?
Anthi:  *laughs loudly*  Oh Tricia, you are so funny!
Me:  …   Continue reading →