Hello, dear reader. I hope this week is going well for you so far, and that you are safe and well in the days leading up to Easter Break.
I can’t help but get excited with what is happening with the weather.
Instead of having to navigate over slippery ice when you’re walking to class and seeing mounds of snow piled on sidewalk corners, grass is showing. There are clear walkways. It’s staying lighter later and getting darker later. Hooray!
Each day is a step toward the glory days of summer.
It would be nice if the wind went away soon though.
How much does the weather affect your feelings? When there is a ton of snow on the ground, the wind cuts right through you and it’s colder in Erie than it is in Alaska, do you feel like you have a chilly personality that day?
Is your heart frozen then? Or do you want to build a snowman?
On gloomy, rainy days, it can be pretty natural for us to feel annoyed at having to be cooped up inside, especially during a period of awesome, sunny weather.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m aching to get outside and enjoy myself again.
I think that we’re all a bit SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder – in the sense that we all feel an impact, consciously or unconsciously, from the weather going on outside.
How much is the external “weather” that you are facing controlling your mood and your faith?
It’s easy to get so caught up in the activities that we run around trying to accomplish, and the work for classes, clubs or sports doesn’t help either. How do we solve this problem?
How do we become someone who is at peace, not just when everything is sunshine and rainbows, but during the midst of the storm as well?
I think it comes down to how we monitor our spiritual life.
If there is no sense of being involved and/or at peace with a community of faith, God and yourself, then your house is built on sand.
A life rooted in prayer and healthy interaction with others is what allows us to construct our house on solid rock.
There are many fruits that can come if we are grateful for what we have and if we are centered in some sort of metaphorical spiritual place that gives us a sense of calm and hope at least once during the day. Wouldn’t you want to feel this sense of serenity more often?
Our lives are too fragile to not spend some time each day taking care of ourselves.
If you are busy from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, and haven’t taken the time during the day to count your blessings or think about God or how you can help your neighbor, then there can be very little spiritual growth.
I believe that true peace comes from appreciation.
My prayer for you this week is that you will find that moment, however fleeting, where you can feel grateful for what you have, and have the knowledge that you are appreciated. God bless!

NATHAN DEMAREST
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