So Proud

Today I celebrate my little cousin Tony and my little cousin Marisa! By no means are they "little," however in my eyes they always will be. I am amazed, humbled and so grateful for the gifts God has bestowed upon them. They are both talented in many ways but today I had the pleasure of visiting both their websites and was moved to tears with pride!

Visit Tony's MySpace page by clicking here. Enjoy his original music, his sweet and gentle voice and his beautiful heart poured into the words of his songs. Indeed, it is "Something to Remember!"

Visit Marisa's photography website by clicking here. Ever the artist she has added this medium to her repertoire of talents. Her photographs are deeply personal and uniquely connected with her subject.

I love you both and am so proud of the work you are doing. Neither of you have allowed challenges to divert your path. You inspire me! Keep doing what you are doing with a full heart and you will be blessed in ways you can not even imagine.

Letter to John

Saturday afternoon I was crabby! (In retrospect I feel horrible admitting that because Saturday night was really quite glorious.) Mom pointed out the crabbiness and said, "You need to blog again and get happy!" I took her (not so gentle) suggestion and reflected on why I began to blog in the first place. As I have mentioned numerous times....this blog was a means to an end. It was a tough time. It would have been infinitely easier to spend each day in said "crabby state" (while wallowing in self pity and lingering in a stagnant place of anger). I resolved to find the "good goodness" in each day and chronicle daily celebrations. It was a commitment to myself and if others visited the blog....well, even better!

Allow me to go off on a tangent. (Imagine that, Patty Vela on a tangent.) I have recently become a fan of gospel music. I like the hymns in The Hymnal (Catholics don't sing from it...I don't think). Each Monday evening at BSF we would sing three hymns relevant to the message from the Book of John. Already missing the hymns I visited iTunes and entered in a few names of the songs I became familiar with over the last nine months. I was led to an album called Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash (one of my favorite gals of all time) and saw a song called Letter to John. Emmylou Harris (another one of my favorite gals of all time) covers the song on the album. I purchased the song without hearing it. I figured it was in the gospel genre so it must be a letter to John...as in the author of "the book of...." I listened to it several times before I realized it was a "letter" to Johnny Cash.

The song is a tender poem to her husband. However, through the song it is clear that their marriage (though scandalous as it was at the time) had God at it's foundation. The sentiment is compelling, real and honest. The entire song is a testament to ALL forms of love we, as human beings, are allowed to experience. (How blessed they were to know all forms of love within their one relationship.) A few lines, in particular, stand out to me and I have not been able to get these lines off my mind since Sunday. June wrote:

And even if you've been wrong and I've known it; you've always been right because that's God's order.

The reason I started blogging is because I was wrong and someone else was wrong and we both knew it; but we were both right because it was God's order. And this has been the happiest year of my life....

A Computer and a Cup of Coffee

My half-drunk, luke warm cup of coffee collided with my computer and things got ugly. As of today I was able to recover all files on the hard drive (YAY) and am now the proud, if not ridiculously "after the fact" owner of an external hard drive. My computer is on a journey to Kentucky...where it will no doubt beat me to a tour of Bourbon distilleries...and get itself repaired, recovered and rehabilitated so it can come home to mama like new. Perhaps it will always carry with it the faint smell of coffee which will undoubtedly make me smile.

So for the next few weeks there will be nothing in the way of blogging. (I am blogging at work...on a break...and hoping not to get caught!) A break from Facebook is also a welcome respite.

Sweet Monday, dear friends! Oh...to all my "peeps"...mi gente...out there...check out a movie called La Mission. Benjamin Bratt in prison tats...not too bad to look at! Plus...there actually is a lovely story underneath all the tatoos, Virgen's, rosarys, matachines, frijoles, etc.....Oh and of course all songs sounding faintly of "Crystal Blue Persuasion."