Salt and Light

Recently, my boyfriend's pastor passed. He was a good man above all else and I only went to two of his sermons. I watched everyone at his celebration of life, I saw the people he impacted and it wasn't because he was a pastor. Everyone loved him because he was a good person. I want to be someone like him. Through the event, my throat burned as I tried to hold back tears and all I remember thinking is This isn't fair. Today, I saw his daughter walking with a friend smiling and laughing... I am just in awe of her and her families strength.The other pastor of the community was up on stage speaking and something he said that stood out to me was: Salt and light "which is a Jewish idiom for rebuild the world".

This saying or scripture is in the bible. The spectrum has this simplified: Salt is used to enhance flavor, and as a preservative. To 'be salt' means to deliberately seek to influence the people in one's life by showing them the unconditional love of Christ through good deeds. Light is a symbol used to mean awareness, knowledge, and understanding.

You don't have to be religious or even spiritual to look at this saying as something special.  The way i look at it is be someone's pick me up, make someone's day, just be kind for no reason. Influence one another's lives by showing them unconditional kindness and understand that we don't know what someone else is going through.

If this man that I never got the chance to really know left anything for me and the people's lives he would've impacted:

Be Salt and Light

All About What You Give

During the holidays, Christmas especially, people worry about gifts. What am I going to give, what am I going to get. There are alot of ungrateful people who are unhappy with what they get. For my AVID class we were asked to donate neccessities to the domestic violence shelter. I was so disappointed  that I was the only one to donate. I understand that times are hard, but the things they asked to donate were DOLLAR STORE ITEMS. You mean to tell me, you don't have a dollar? Imagine YOU didnt have a home, a bed to sleep in, or food on your plate. During the holidays, remember the people who dint have what you have, take a moment to put yourself in their shoes... This Christmas, I want to re-establish what being grateful is. Be grateful for what you have and what you get, give what you can to the people that don't have what you have and that won't get anything this year. I don't care if its cliche, It's not about  what you get, It's about what you give.

Appreciation to an Appreciation Post

I do a lot for my friends, because when I'm close to someone, they become more like family to me. Family is not always blood, they say you can't choose your family, but I know that I've chosen mine. I will always be here for anyone that needs me, sometimes I feel like I don't do enough for those who I love, but there are always the far and few friends that let me know that I'm more than enough. I Love my friends with all my heart, and Lesley I know you're going to see this so just remember that you mean the world to me. Thank you for telling me something I really needed to hear.

Hear are some songs I dedicate to you:

1. Bruno Mars: Just the way you are
2. Cassadee Pope: I'm Invincible
3. Natasha Bedingfield: Angel
4. Rascal Flatts: Stand
5. Ross Lynch: Superhero
6. Alessia Cara: Scars to your Beautiful

Santa Maria > San Luis Obispo

I am from Santa Maria; born and raised. I personally think we have a beautiful city. Yesterday, I had a doctor appointment in slo and I got to kind of hang out after the appointment. We drove around San Luis and I just thought wow, Its beautiful here. All the trees, and the shade, the cute little buildings and shops lining the streets. I was sad, I want our city to look really beautiful. Here's one thing I thought was SUPER cool. You know the metal things sticking up all over town?; They're like electric, water, gas, heat, whatever boxes. Well in slo they have theirs painted. I just thought it was really creative and thought we could do that too. How could we do that? What do you think?

Today I'm a good human

   I know this is supposed to be about me being a good human, but recognizing someone else for their greatness is good isn't it?
    My Dad: He says he hates animals. He says he cant stand cats, dogs, fish, birds, nada. BUT every cat I've ever had was rescued and named by my dad. I had a shit load of rabbits last year, wanna know why? My dad decided to save two from the rain and name them. All of a sudden we have a backyard full of bunnies.... My dad texted me " hey do you and your brother want a bird?". What!?!? Tell me he doesn't have a bird. Sure enough, my dad has a little blue parakeet in his beanie. But he hates animals, SUUUUURRRE.

Here's the pretty bird:

Starbucks Ephiany (9/16/16)

So yesterday I went to the Starbucks in the Foodsco shopping center, the one by the school (SMHS). I was with my mom and grandma, and we saw some friends, Sky and Dee, we walked in and we saw this guy sitting at the table in the corner. I remembered this guy, he used to stand over by JCPenny because he's homeless. Turns out my mom and our friends know this guy pretty well, his name is Mike. He is a veteran with PTSD (shell shock), but when I sat down to talk to him I found out that he is super smart. When I first sat down I was talking about this lady Becky (she's kind of a spas case, lots of unnecessary drama, just trouble)  and how she reminds me of the bird Becky from Finding Dory and Mike, along with everyone else that knows her, started laughing. He started to explain that he didn't like her because she added extra anxiety to his PTSD. When he said PTSD I remembered the George Carlin  YouTube video and started talking to him about how at first it was shell shock, battle fatigue, operational exhaustion, and finally PTSD. He then says that in the military they only teach and train you to kill, and they want the young 18, 19, 20 year olds to risks their lives....I have no idea how we got on the topic of Friday the 13th, but we did, and he told me that the 13th number is not actually bad , even though everyone might think so, it's actually the day the majority of the Knights Templar were arrested in about the 1300 or 1400 (he couldn't remember which).... I was just like wow I didn't know that. Then he says this: I also bet you didn't know that all the pictures in this room are slightly off. I looked at him like " Alright, now your crazy." But he said I know what you're thinking, you're thinking I'm crazy like everyone else I've told does, but I can prove it. He pulls out his phone and says he downloaded a balance app, every picture in the room was off by 0.98-1.03. Mike said I have OCD that's why I was able to notice. Now at the end of all of this I thought: Wow this man is a veteran yet he's homeless, damn really...and he agrees with me the military isn't for young kids just coming out of high school that don't really know what they're going into no matter how good they make it sound. And even though he has PTSD and OCD he's every smart, In fact he just proved to me that the hanging pictures that look straight to everyone else is actually slightly off. What if the people that have "issues" "disorders", the type of people that society shuns are smart, good people. Why is it that no one ever sees that?