My 26th Birthday

For those of you who don't know (shame on you! ;-) ), my birthday was on Wednesday and it was a great affair. We seminarians don't have classes on Wednesdays so we can do Apostolic Works like prison ministry, tutoring younger students, pro-life ministry, etc. But my own Apostolic Work is to work with the youth group of a nearby parish on Saturday nights. A pretty good number of the guys are in similar boats, so with the day off classes and AWs, we decided to play broomball in the morning after breakfast. If you haven't heard of broomball before, I like to describe it as "Poor Man's Hockey." You don't need pads or helmets or any such thing, just a small soccer ball, some "brooms" (like hockey sticks but with a rubber triangular head similar to the shape of a regular broom), 2 goals, and about 12 guys to play! You run around in regular shoes; it's also very slippery (cuz it's ice, you see…); ergo, it's a pretty even playing field for everyone. Great fun! The Lord continues to humble me through sports! [Side note: This was made evident to me once again last night, when I went cross country skiing with one of my brothers, Tim. There are some trails on the outside of the city that they light up so you can ski at night! Very fun…also, my first time doing it, sooo, yeahhh…I think you know where I'm going with this: humility. Ha! Such fun though! We skied around 5 miles and it's a good workout! It was a cool 9 degrees with wind chills well below 0, but man, if you're layered right and cross country skiing, you'll get a good sweat going!]

That evening (back to Wednesday), about 10 or 12 of my seminarian brothers went out for dinner and a beer to celebrate, and I was able to partake in one of my favorite beers on draft, Belhaven. This was most choice. All in all, it was a great day! Thank you for those who helped make it special! I heard from many friends and family (some of you, no doubt) and, praise the Lord (PTL), there has been no shortage of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the room of yours truly. Once again, I thank you for this most excellent blessing!!

Speaking of thankfulness….(see that segue?! OK, that was bad. I'll keep working on those…): I was reflecting this week on my life, and all that I have been given from the Lord, and this got me thinking about my list that I've been making since I came up to the seminary. The list is on a 2-foot by 3-foot whiteboard and I wrote, "Ryan, what are you thankful for?" at the top. I've been adding things since Day 1, and I thought maybe y'all would enjoy what's on the list, as well as a little inspiration for your own list. Yes, I encourage each of you to do this! I find that if we are not grateful for what we have (and we have so, so very much!), then we really can't love well. And I know that each of you reads every post I've written (and follow it meticulously…), so you know that love is what it's all about. Of course, this list doesn't even begin to do the giant "thankfulness" list justice, but it's a start.

If I'm unable to be grateful for what a person has done for me, how can I possibly love that person? How can I possibly serve that person? How can I possibly know what it means to have been loved in the first place if I fail to acknowledge, appreciate, and thank the person for the goodness of love?

Cheers y'all. Love ya.