So why try again, you might ask? Believe me, I wasn't planning on it, but ideas have a way of coming to you and sticking around. I've been mulling this over for awhile, hemming and hawing, and trying to decide if it was worth trying the blog thing, yet again. After all I am busy (more of that probably in later posts...) and organization is not currently my strongest gift. This idea though...it sticks around...and being a person of faith, I have come to know that the ideas that stick around the hardest are often not the ones that come from me, but are put into me by something bigger than myself.
I, like everyone else, am a product of a combination of different things, all of which influence who I am and how I view the world. I am, among other things, a 30-something single person, a devout and practicing Catholic, a Latina, a healthcare worker, a rabid soccer fan, a knitter...and I have lived my whole life in the slice of the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascade mountain range locally known as Cascadia. I was intentional in my description in talking about faithful living in Cascadia, and not the Pacific Northwest. When people think of life in the PNW, they often think about Seattle and Portland, nature-loving hippies, politically liberal, drink a lot of over-priced coffee...but as the locals will tell you, not all parts of the PNW are accurately portrayed by these stereotypes -notably places in Idaho and Eastern Washington and Oregon. Washington and Oregon (and in reality Cascadia) also hold the distinction of being two of the most unchurched states in the nation. So how does a person of faith, because there are plenty of us - trust me-, live out that faith here? I'm a product of this region, and I love this region. I live my faith within it, and I'm not something set apart - I'm a Subaru driver who recycles everything, never uses an umbrella, and drinks out of more red cups than I care to admit!
My vision for this blog is for it to be a place to share how I am intentionally trying to live out my faith in our world today. It is not about proselytizing, nor is it about hot-button issues and apologetics...there are already plenty of blogs devoted to those things, so please seek them elsewhere. Instead, I'm hopeful that this blog will be about the little things, the intentional things, that make a life of faith a lived reality. It's perhaps not a coincidence that the date that I am finally getting around to publishing this post is the First Sunday of Advent. The beginning of a new Church year. So maybe a resolution of sorts? No, let's not call it that- my track record at actually keeping New Year's Resolutions is pretty pitiful. So cheers then to New Beginnings, let's hope this one sticks around for awhile.
First candle lit on this year's Advent wreath
