Tuesday, March 31, 2009

My Happiness includes Food















Spring Break 2009:
  • First Greyhound bus ride to visit C and her cooking. Worth it
  • Successfully made crispy crust pizza w/ JJ. Woot! ..made me nostalgic for NYC
  • Musashi. Trophy Cupcakes. Laughing it up with SY
  • My favorite chewy rye bread @ Cheesecake Factory with high school buds
  • Talking about God with little J while celebrating big J's bday
  • Brother treating me to Cafe Ori :)
  • Listening to the quiet crackley crust of a baguette @ Pike Place, with HCC.
  • Hanging out w/ YH for the first time. A brief hike & making ice-cream sandwiches

A Season to Read

Spring Quarter started yesterday, but I am not taking any classes. I finally have a butt load of time on my hands to do whatever I please, which is mainly to stuff my mind with books that I actually want to read.

SY gave me the book The Complete Human Body over Christmas. The basal or bottommost layer of skin has the Melanocyte skin cells. These cells produce Melanin: the pigment that absorbs UV and determines skin/hair color. Melanin gets packaged into structures called Melanosomes which travel to the epithelial or uppermost layer (visible to the naked eye) and settle in comfortably. The more Melanosomes & Melanin you have, the darker your skin.

However, if you're fair skinned, you may, evolutionarily speaking have adapted to protect yourself from repeated sun exposure by FRECKLING!

Severely burned patients are threatened by dehydration -> kidney failure, I believe because the lack of skin allows water to evaporate? Scientists take 3cm or less of a patient's healthy tissue and grow it on a sheet of fabric, that'll dissolve when placed over the wound. In T minus 3o days, enough "new" skin is grown to cover the whole body. This is a Cultured epithelial autograft (CEA).

In HCC, PJ brought up a profound point. Evolution is a purposeless set of actions over a long period of time. It has no sense of good or evil. It has selected species based on their genetic predisposition. But where does our sense of purpose...our conscience come from? These things cannot have come from nothing. These things come from our Creator.

PJ is also pushing the limits of our philosophical thinking by engaging us in The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. I found my copy in the used book-store Magus, on the Ave...almost had a sneezing fit from the musty smells. Climbed on a small stool to reach the uppermost bookshelf, and did not see it. Said a brief prayer, and saw, hidden from direct view, stacked on top of the other books the one I coveted. God is good. :)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Living an Authentic Faith

"When God's cooking, you do not need to stir the pot."

"Honor God and He'll honor you."

Am I reading the Bible for myself? Am I willing to commit, and have a genuine relationship with God, to provide me the strength to withstand all opposition, distress and temptation?

These are the things PL asked us to ponder on this snowy Sunday morning.

I have many distractions in my life. I want to de-clutter, and wean off: People.com, blog surfing and facebook. I want to consistently do Daily Devotions, talk to my family members more, and start walking...because Spring is almost here!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Trust & Obey

I worry, I struggle and I fret about my future. Such are the woes of a college senior.

At the end of the day, getting down and sincerely praying is the only thing that's important, because He rules. Monday morning, as usual, I was doing all of the unneccessary things listed above...I love it when the Daily Bread addresses exactly what's on my mind. "Consecration is not the giving over of the calling in life to God, but the separation from all other callings and giving over of ourselves to God, letting his providence place us where He will." Instead of praying about grad school, I prayed that He would use me as he saw fit.

God is humorous.

I got a call within the hour, telling me I'd been accepted to grad school. Here I was in the clinic, crying tears of joy, scolding myself for crying at the clinic of all places, and I forgot to thank God first...He was third or fourth on the list. I have much to learn, and much to prioritize. However, I am grateful and humbled, and look forward to three more years of school...especially the cadaver's...I have been waiting so long to appreciate the human body in its fullness.