A Prayer Journal

We're going to get a little personal today. For the November Blogathon, today's prompt is to talk about your prayer life, if you have one. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I am a Christian and while I'm a little more liberal with my beliefs about what the church should be doing in the world today, prayer is at the center of it.

When I was younger, growing up in the church, prayer to me was very much just a "Dear God, please keep my friends and family safe and don't let anything bad happen in the world. Amen." Pretty great, right? Since then, I have grown a lot and my relationship with God is completely different.

Until I was a teenager, God was just an idea, not a real person. To be honest, around the time I was fourteen, I remember being at a summer camp and having the most amazing day and then praying that night, like I always did but feeling like God didn't hear me. Like he didn't care about what I had to say and honestly, wasn't even there. That feeling scared me and followed me for the next four years. I didn't believe in God at all. I still went to church every Sunday, I still went to summer camps, but I just didn't feel it anymore.

However, when I went to college, I knew something was missing. Then, when I went to the summer camp I grew up at as a camp counselor, I realized what it was. But it was hard to get back into a relationship with someone I had tried to avoid for the past five years. That's when a fellow staff member introduced the idea of a prayer journal. I thought she was brilliant (I still do, actually). It made perfect sense to me though! As a writer, it was easy to just write everything I was feeling and thinking and hoping for and leaving it all on the page for God. Since then, that's mostly how my prayer life has been. Prayer journals have been filled and replaced over the years but the relationship with God has only grown because of them.

I also am a big fan of the "thought prayer" idea and practice that more often than not. I know that a lot of people don't consider this "active praying" and that it's not the proper way to come to God but this isn't their relationship to judge. God knows what's between me and Him and for now, the thoughts and the journal is how we do it. I recently bought a copy of A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Connor (one of my favorite writers) and it's made me realize how beautiful these little letters to God are. How our relationship is growing, how it has changed and how it is fine the way it is. I might miss a day or two, but God is like one of those friends you can just pick up with where you last left off without missing a beat. And when I miss a day, that's where the thought prayers pick up for the in-between times.

What's your prayer life like?

What do you think of a prayer journal?

Thank you, Maya.

Image Source

As I'm sure most of you have heard, Maya Angelou passed away yesterday. Normally, I'm not one to pause and really reflect on a celebrity death, though I did do a research paper in grad school about our societal obsession with them. It's a little weird for me to actually mourn someone I never met. That was until yesterday. 

Yes, I am normal and am sad to heard about anyone dying, but if it's a celebrity, it's hard to really grasp because these people are so easy to be in contact with, without really ever being in contact with them. Does that make sense? But Maya Angelou is different. She's not really a celebrity like we might normally define them. But she is an icon, a role model, a pillar of strength and a movement in herself. And her writing makes her so relatable even if her journey is really unimaginable to me. I really fell in love with her and her writing on my own during college and have been captivated by her strength and grace ever since. 

Surprisingly, with all of the writing classes I've had, none of her work was ever assigned reading, so discovering all of her work on my own and really enjoying it is really what makes me actually mourn her. What a life. If you don't know about her or know of anything beyond the few great quotes you can find online, I really suggest that you look into reading her work. My favorites of hers are Phenomenal Woman and Letter to My Daughter, but her most well-known is probably I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, which is also wonderful and really lets you peek into her soul and begin to grasp where she's been.

Today I'll be remembering her. Through the rest of my life though, I'm sure I'll remember her writing and continue to read and reread it. I cannot even describe the impact she's made on my life as a woman, a writer, an activist, and just a person in general. Such a great example of faith and perseverance.

April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014

Why I Blog

Blogging on my new Mac at McDonald's with a hot fudge sundae ... oh, yeah.

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now. Mostly because I think about this on a daily basis. Blogging has, maybe this is too obvious to mention, but it's become a bit more challenging now that I have moved an hour away from the city. Although I have kept up with posting and actually have been posting more since I graduated. Since I'm not there to experience different things everyday, it's become harder and harder to find things that are actually in this  blog's "genre." Which is Pittsburgh, if you haven't caught on to that yet.

I started this blog because when I first move into downtown Pittsburgh, I heard A LOT of negative feedback about my choice. Now, I'm not one to sway to other people's judgements of how I live my life, so this didn't bother me too much, but it did weigh on my mind. Living IN Pittsburgh, especially living downtown, was always a dream for me. I grew up an hour north of the city, went to college an hour south of it and really just knew it was fate when I was accepted to Duquesne and Point Park for grad school, because both are downtown in the city I adore. So when I made the move and then heard the not so positive feedback, I knew I had to do something.

That something first, was to live up every moment I was there, but quickly became this blog. Chels & the City was made to catalog my adventures of seeing new art, enjoying a city I have grown up loving, finding new places to eat and to really just show off all the good that comes with living in Pittsburgh. All the fun places to go, interesting people to meet, and just things in general to do. I really love this city.

Which (and I'm sure this goes without saying too) I miss it more than I ever thought possible. How could someone miss a place so much? But I do. I miss the daily wake up call of pigeons on my windowsill and traffic below my building. I miss my huge windows and space of my own. I miss the ability to walk out the door and have everything I need within a short walking distance. I miss stopping into a gallery opening or boutique on my way to a class or a restaurant I've never been to before. I miss working at tourist attractions and listening to people talk about the little things they are slowing learning about our great city. I miss the fountains, the rivers, the bridges and the buildings, new and old. I miss seeing fireworks reflecting off of those buildings out my window every time the Pirates score and the sound of "HEATHHHHHH" coming across the river when the Steelers' Heath Miller makes another impossible catch. I miss the starless sky and the way my heels sound when I walk on different kinds of cement all throughout downtown. Mostly, I just miss being there and knowing from morning to night, I made a dream come true.

And that is why I blog. Growing up being that kid who likes to write, I was always told if you're going to write about something, it should be something you love, something you know well and want to continue a "relationship" with. My "relationship" with Pittsburgh is something I love, something I know well and something I will continue to love and continue to get excited about. So if you start seeing a little more of the Chels side than you do the City for a little bit, just know that soon enough we'll be back together. Woof, this is starting to sound like a cheesy romance novel. Anyway, while I might not be there now, I plan to get back there soon and I plan to continue this blog. So if there is something you're planning and want me to review, let me know. If there is someone awesome in the city doing something you think is really great and deserves attention, send me an email. I'll try my best to get to any events around the 'burgh and certainly to interview people who are making the city an even greater place to be.

I really do love blogging and I love the community, in and out of Pittsburgh, that I've built so far, so let's keep this thing going! Let's continue to show why Pittsburgh is an amazing place to live and play! One of my goals for this year is to make this blog grow like mad, so if you've got an idea, an event, a friend, whatever, that you think needs a mention, let's talk about it. Sorry this post got on the lengthy side, but I'm proud of you if you made it to the end. Which is right here.