Karen

June 07, 2017  •  Leave a Comment

Meet Karen.

While in Chicago this past month, I was able to have 

some down time with my close cousin. We roamed around the city, 

went down to Foster Beach -where she spent 4 summers as a lifeguard- 

and also walked to her neighborhood park.

We talked about simplicity.

Simplicity:

"I like being in shape, having good relationships, eating good food.  

I like when there's no expectations when your hanging with a friend.

It's natural -and it doesn't have to be posted on social media.

Everything doesn't have to be you on your phone talking to other people, but fully

paying attention to the people that you are with at the moment. 

I think a lot of people have lost sight of that.

Even looking each other in the eyes when your having a conversation or

just being able to sit with your friend and eat popcorn and watch tv.

I love to do that with my mom. We swim together or we use to watch the show "Bones" together.

You know that growing up, I've always liked doing art.

I like doing anything where you can take out your energy and there is no expectations.

Art's like that. There's no judgment. There's no right or wrong."

Contentment & Relationships:

"Throughout the years, I've learned that it is important to be content

with what you have; you are thankful for the people around you,

and you don't take that for granted. My boyfriend, Alex, says it all of the time:

'Money comes and goes, but the relationships you have are what keep you grounded.'

And money, that's never going to make you happy.

It's never going to make you happy having that dress,

or those shoes, or a nice car, or even a really good pair of headphones.

 At the end of the day, it's just going to be like 'whatever', and it's not going to make your day. 

What's going to make your day, and what's going to make you happy is surrounding

yourself with people who care about you and who you care about. 

It's a give-and-take kind of thing and I feel that throughout the years,

I've come to be a lot more thankful for those people.

My family, my friends, and realizing that you can't take those things for granted

and I do feel like some people choose their phones over spending time with a friend.

I've learned that I would rather stay home and watch a show with my Mom or go on a bike ride with Alex,

rather than to be seen by a bunch of people looking good at a party

and having fun when in the end it's just empty and lame.

It's just for appearance when on the inside, it doesn't feel full.

A lot of times I take it for granted that I was raised in a household where God

was a really big part of it and with that I realized that everyone's 

looking for a purpose for their life and without it, you don't have any peace." 

Materialism & Void:

"You think, okay this will make me happy, at least for a little while,

then I'll get a new motorcycle or a new car, and then I'll go onto the next thing. 

It's like phases, but then you get tired of that.

Even when you're not in your spirit you start to get tired of people and tired of yourself

and you get annoyed and your like, 'I don't like myself'. You become unthankful and so bitter,

and that's just how we naturally are, but when I turn to my spirit and ask God"

'just help me' because I don't want to be this person. I would rather be transformed

into something beautiful.

That's why I got out of lifeguarding because of all of the materialistic things

and you start comparing yourself to people but you can't change who you are.

You can change your appearance and get in better shape,

but at the end of the day you have to be happy with who you are and thankful for what you have.

You aren't always going to be young and I feel that people take that for granted

and then they go smoke, drink, and party. They are slowly deteriorating and I'm not judging,

because I have done most of it. At the end of the day, you are just empty,

and you feel so alone because those are the friends that you hang out with

when you want to just kind of forget about everything

and be reckless and careless and not deal with what's been bothering you.

Purpose:

My mantra has always been that I always wanted to be utterly be myself and

if I feel there is a problem between me and someone else that I'm going to talk to them.

I'm going to clear the air. That's the problem.

People just avoid each other and they don't want to be uncomfortable

and don't want to be confrontational, and they don't care.

It's sad, because if you don't have a purpose then what are you going towards?

 What's your goal? What do you care about? Who do you care about?

It's sad, but most people just care about themselves and then they are unhappy.

When you're in a relationship you feed off of each other,

you fill each other with warmth and love and it feels good,

it's natural. But when you are all by yourself, of course you are going to be unhappy.

What the media tells us is that as long as your always gorgeous, have new clothes,

and money then your going to be happy, but it's not true, it's not.

Being Thankful:

Thankfully, I have always been really thankful for my family,

because I know some people who hate their family.

They don't want to spend time with them or are embarrassed of them,

so they search elsewhere for a family, you know. 

I learned a lot when I went to Tijuana last year and I was like, 'wow, I'm really spoiled.'

Things like, they would run out of car gasoline,

and they would run out of gas for hot water, 

also, the water isn't safe to drink, and so you have to drink out of jugs

and we ran out. I was thinking 'wow, I have never had this problem before', she laughs.

You don't think about it until then. It's kind of cliche to say;

but you don't think about something until you don't have it, you know, within arms reach.

It doesn't even cross your mind and I think that being reminded of that is very important. 

It was good to go to Mexico because I got kind of put in my place

because I didn't have a job and I was freaking out.

I had just gotten my associates degree and I didn't know what I'm going to do for school. 

So it was just me like, it's all about me, what should I do in my future? 

That's the thing though, I don't have to worry about that. I just have to pray and ask the Lord,

'what do YOU want me to do?', and it's hard, because you don't want to give up that control

and you want to believe that you can do everything by yourself, and you can't, it's not possible.

I think about it all of the time, too.

How do people make it through the day with out just being able to say,

'Lord Jesus, I just feel like crap. Can you give me some peace?

Supply me. I am not happy, I feel defeated, I have failed.'

Sometimes it takes that just to get back to the Lord and feel in tune

with what God wants, because you just want to do what you want,

even though you don't even know what you want..

you just want to do whatever you want to do,"

She laughs. 

"But anyway.."


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