And the Oscar goes to…

And the Oscar for best picture goes to…Twelve Years A Slave! Ellen DeGeneres was hilarious as host and crashed Twitter with her star studded selfie, Gravity cleaned up house, Leo lost best actor to Matthew McConaughey, and Jennifer Lawrence looked spectacular, as always. So if you didn’t sit through the three and a half hours that was the Oscars, there are the highlights—you’re welcome J

There actually were some very wise words throughout the show though. Early in Ellen’s monologue she talked about the theme of this year’s Oscars, “Tonight’s theme is heroes in Hollywood, and we need heroes now more than ever. People around the world are having hard times, and movies offer us an escape. Movies inspire us.” And she’s right; we do need heroes, now more than ever.

In the craziness of everyday life, it’s nice to be able to escape to a different world. You can just put up your feet at the end of a long day, turn on a movie or show and bam– you’re instantly transported to a land far far away where your everyday problems no longer exist. You can go on a journey with a hero who battles against all odds towards victory: Frodo and Sam miraculously make it to the Crack of Doom and destroy the Ring, Luke Skywalker makes the perfect shot to destroy the Deathstar, Harry Potter defeats Voldemort–I could go on and on. These stories are inspiring. They make me want to put on a cape, learn how fly, and save the world (yes Superman was my childhood favorite superhero, still is!).

While I will probably never learn to fly in my lifetime or take down Lex Luthor, this world still needs heroes. Movies and TV are a nice escape, but we aren’t meant to get lost in that escape, because it’s imaginary. Our problems and issues are still there after that movie and that three day marathon of that ten season show ends. We need to be real life heroes and not just watch imaginary heroes on our TV screens. And by hero, I don’t necessarily mean saving the world. I mean standing up for what is right even though you know you will be mocked and ridiculed, going the extra mile for a friend, making time in your ridiculously packed schedule for the people that matter, and just showing this broken world a little more love.

And you know what? It’s not easy. But I think Matthew McConaughey offered some wise words from his acceptance speech for best actor. He said:

There’s a few things, about three things to my count, that I need each day. One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase. Now first off, I want to thank God, because that’s who I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand.  To my family, that’s who and what I look forward to. And to my hero, that’s who I chase. It’s me in ten years. So you see, every day, every week, every month, and every year of my life, my hero’s always ten years away. I’m never going to be my hero. I’m not going to attain that. I know I’m not. And that’s just fine with me, because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.

For me, those things in my life would be 1) God is who I look up to. That’s where I find strength, in my relationship with Christ, because I can’t do it myself. He gives me strength to get up off the floor for the millionth time. 2) To my faith, my family and my friends, that is what I look forward to. And 3) instead of someone to chase, I’d like to phrase it as someone who I can look to as an example of how to live my life, how to be a hero, the ultimate Hero, Jesus Christ.

I liked what McConaughey said about chasing the future version of himself because he’ll never achieve it, he’ll always be pushing himself to be better. I think it’s important to constantly be pushing yourself, because you’ll never know it all, there’ll always be room for growth. I’ll never be able to live my life perfectly like Christ, and that’s just fine with me. Because through the ups and downs, He’ll be shaping me to be more like Him.

Who woulda guessed the Oscars were going to be so deep this year? So let’s be the heroes to the people in our lives, to our family, friends, even strangers. Forget about who won the Oscar for best picture, and be a hero to the people in the movie of your life.

“Like” this, PLEASE

I’ve noticed for me when I post a particularly witty status on Facebook or a food masterpiece on Instagram and it gets a lot of “likes”, I feel pretttty good. And that’s starting to really bother me.

Take for example one of my profile pictures on Facebook. It got over 100 likes and a bunch of comments. Now for me, that many “likes” is unheard of. Not gonna lie, I felt really good about it. Like seriously good about it. Good for me right, alllll those people “liked” my picture, that’s definitely something to feel proud of isn’t it??

And that’s just one example. There’ve been instances where I’ve spent wayyyy too long structuring a Facebook status trying to phrase things in such the perfect way that people will just have to “like” it because it really is that awesome. I’m a serious foodie, so I take pictures of food on a regular basis and post it to Instagram. It’s like I get a high when that piece of art that is food gets a bunch of “likes”, or I see that red notification flag on Facebook telling me that I just got 10 “likes” on that picture I posted from that concert within the last 10 minutes. I mean guys, I only posted it 10 minutes ago and it already got 10 “likes”, I kinda rock don’t I?

And that ladies and gentleman, that mentality, is something I want to change. So what if 106 people “liked” my profile picture. Yeah, they clicked that thumbs up button and “liked” my photo, but who cares? If I get 106 “likes” or 1 “like”, does that mean I’m a cooler person? If I post something that I’m expecting a lot of “likes” and don’t get as many as I wanted, it actually bothers me. But if my profile pictures are racking in 50+ “likes” on a daily basis, obviously I’m better at life than the average person, right? And I mean, that’s what Facebook is really good at isn’t it? I can make the perfect life on Facebook. I’ll only post the best possible profile pictures, writes statuses about my incredible weekend and manipulate the way I come across. I’ll only show the highlights of my life.

I think it’s funny that we’re so connected we even document the foods we eat and showcase our lives to people, but are we actually that connected? Sure we share our best moments, but what about the stuff that we’re really going through? It’s so easy to go through your Facebook newsfeed and see everyone’s “perfect life”, because for the most part, that’s pretty much what you’ll see. And it can be depressing seeing how somehow everyone has that perfect life except you. But in reality, you don’t know what’s really going on in those people’s lives and it is most definitely not perfect.

Maybe we need to start stop showing our friends a very one sided picture of our “perfect life” and start being a little more real with one another, opening up and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. If we start being a little more real with people, that we don’t need to keep up the façade of having everything together and feeding off those “likes” to feel good about ourselves.

So don’t get the wrong impression, I’m not saying that I’m going to post bad pictures of myself on Facebook to show the real me, or broadcast all my issues over Facebook and be completely vulnerable to the world, that’s just not smart. I think its fine to post those great pictures, but its just being careful not to place your value, your identity in those pictures and the perception people have of you. And in terms of broadcasting the real me and being real with people, Facebook isn’t the right platform to open up to the world. A good phone call, grabbing coffee with a close friend, that’s where fleshing out the real issues of life should happen. Or even sending a message or email that the whole world can’t read where you can actually open up about what is really going on in your life. That’s more important than a witty status update or a new perfect picture.

I guess what I’m saying is, I want to be more real, make more of an effort to establish deeper relationships with people that actually are in my life and stop looking to Facebook and 500+ Facebook friends (most of whom I don’t even know that well), for a quick high. Who cares how many “likes” I get? That shouldn’t build any part into my self worth or how I feel about myself. I’m working on not really caring the way people perceive me on Facebook, or about racking up those “likes”. Besides, ultimately, my audience is an audience of One, and that is where I find my identity and self worth. By breaking that façade of having everything together, those “likes” become a lot less important. Being real with people and actually letting them know what is going on in my life means that I don’t have to deal with the ups and downs of alone, I’ve got backup, people I can talk to. I’ll take that any day over any amount of  “likes” on Facebook or Instagram or any other social media site out there.

 

 

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

When you are young, you think you have all the time left in the world. You don’t really think about the end. It’s something you know will happen eventually, but it’s just not a fun thought to think about…so you don’t. But you are reminded of that thought when someone in your life passes away.

My Grandpa passed away yesterday. He was 86 and lived a long and full life. For the last six or seven years, he has had Parkinson’s disease. He went into a nursing home last year and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about two weeks ago. After the diagnosis, he quickly declined, and for the last week, we were expecting the end.

Even though we all were expecting it, there’s still that feeling of shock and emptiness when that person is gone. I think back to those fond memories of the man who taught me how to play chess and backgammon when I was just a little five-year-old, that time where we slept over while Grandpa was trying to catch a raccoon in the backyard, all those Easters, Thanksgivings, and Christmases with the whole extended family, and those many years visiting Grandma and Grandpa every Saturday for lunch. There are so many memories and now that he’s gone, he will be greatly missed.

But it makes me think, just because I’m only in my twenties, doesn’t mean I have my whole life ahead of me.  I don’t know when I’m going to go, but I do know that I want to make every minute count. I love the Mumford and Sons line: “In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die, and where you invest you love, you invest your life”. I notice that sometimes, even in my own life, I invest too much time into things that really don’t matter or aren’t important. How many times have I gone to my room to watch TV for several hours rather than spending quality time with my family? Or when I’m tired and don’t help around the house just because I’m feeling lazy. I’m a Christian, what that means to me is that Jesus loved me so much, that he died on a cross in my place, for my sin, so I could accept him as my Saviour, live for him, and have a relationship with him for all of eternity. Yet when life gets busy and things get crazy, I can barely acknowledge Him, aside from a two minute devotion in the morning and a rushed through prayer before a meal. On my last day, am I really going to be concerned about how much money I have in my bank account, or wish that I had put more hours in at the office, or that I had a bigger house? No, I’m not

My grandpa invested everything into his family. He was born in Greece, moved to Brazil, and then to Canada to forge a better future. He had strong desire to further my mom and uncles’ education, so much that he even took piano lessons as an adult so he could help them learn to play. My grandpa was a devoted friend, father, husband, and grandfather. I miss him but the love he gave to his family will always be remembered.

For me, on my last day, I want to know that I didn’t waste my life and that I lived my all for Jesus Christ, gave my family the time and love they deserve, put the effort and time into friendships with people that are important in my life, and did something I love. I want to impact people with that contagious joy. I think living with the perspective that today could be your last day and remembering that the life after this one is eternal really helps you see what is important in this life, at least it does for me. I want to make this life count.

GOLDEN

Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to start off this blog with what happened today. Odds are, if you live in Canada or the US, you were glued to your television screen this afternoon. If you had work, you called in sick today to be glued to your television screen. If you couldn’t call in sick for work and ended up having to be at work, you spent you afternoon pretending to be sick in the bathroom glued to your smartphone or tablet. And rightly so, because a gold medal game between Canada and the US women’s hockey teams just can’t be missed.

Not gonna lie, I’m a sucker for comeback stories, where the hero defeats the adversary against all odds and prevails after an epic battle. And thanks to an amazingly played game by the Americans, I, along with every other Canadian, got to experience a crazy intense nail biter, down 2-0 with 5 minutes left, which paved the way for a legend…wait for it…DAIRY comeback.

But let me just rewind back a few hours earlier to women’s curling, the gold medal game between Canada and Sweden.

(Side note, I really don’t understand curling, but really enjoy watching it when Canada is involved) So we played an amazing game and led by Jennifer Jones, captured GOLD…pretty sure it’s my new favorite colour. Good day for Canada eh:) One of the commentators mentioned when Jones was asked what she loved most about curling,  her response was “the pressure to be your best in the biggest moments”. That really resonated with me, but more on that later.

Back to the last 5 minutes of the Canada/US game. Down 2-0 and with the Americans smothering us, things were looking bad. I really was praying that the US would pull a Toronto Maple Leafs (Referring back to when we gave up a 4-1 lead with 10 minutes left in game 7 against Boston last year, losing the game in OT 5-4. Disclaimer, I am a die hard Leafs fan; I bleed blue and white, and we will win the Stanley Cup this year). Our girls didn’t give up. That’s what I love about Canadian heart, it just never gives up. Don Cherry has it right (who am I kidding, he’s always right!). And sure enough, with 3 minutes and 26 seconds left, we score!! Just over 2 minutes later, I’m pretty sure you could hear Canada’s celebration from space when we tied up the game with 55 seconds to spare. Shout out to our goal post who earlier made an amazing save on that empty net.

I love inspiring comebacks because they are a great reminder for everyday life. Those moments when everything seems so bleak and you just want to give up. To see those girls not give up, despite being knocked down 2-0, they got up and fought back. And you know how the story ended, GOLD BABY!

You can’t be awesome without something to overcome, some kind of pressure or adversary. Like would Lord of the Rings really be that epic if Frodo had just hopped on an eagle, flown into Mordor and just dropped the ring into the crack of doom? Um, nooooo. Pressure can crush or make diamonds (in today’s case gold), it’s all about dealing with it properly. That’s why I really liked Jones’ comment about pressure, because it pushes you to be your best. It was a great reminder for me to push myself and not be satisfied with average, but to aim for the awesome.

Today, what our Canadian girls did was inspiring. They didn’t crack under pressure; they fought back to be their best, and their best was…GOLDEN. I’m seriously proud to be Canadian.