Tag: Sports

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 121

BE GLAD!
Rejoice! Rejoice and be glad!
For you see,
being a nobody isn’t so bad.
We’ve all been lied to,
conditioned and misinformed;
told us that in order to be loved,
we must get and acquire and do.
So they put us all on a treadmill.
We became a horde of scrambling rats,
scurrying at break neck speed.
The rat race was where it was all supposed to be.
Then one day you stop,
realizing you were made for a higher purpose;
for in all your getting and acquiring,
you’ve become a bankrupt soul.
That’s when it all starts unraveling.
Suddenly you find yourself traveling-
down a long slippery slope.
You see what you’ve known all along:
that rat race you’ve been running,
takes you nowhere after all.
That’s when you meet The One,
He says to us all,
“ Come follow me.
Stop all your senseless activity.
I’ll make you an original,
just what you always dreamed you’d be.”

So Rejoice! Rejoice and be glad,
Rest assured and hear me say,
” Stay on course. Don’t deviate from the straight and narrow.”
If you do, you’ll only be a misguided arrow.
Trust Him, abide and stay put.
You’ve come this far,
you don’t want what others seek-
to be a fleeting shooting star.
All that He has is YOURS: The riches of His kingdom.

Eva Santiago © 2012

 

365 Snap Shots of Life : Day 111

The Invitation

Ever since I said yes to my cross, my life was revolutionized. My cross has taken me places I’ve never been; tight, narrow, difficult places that can only be attained through my cross. I have seen great heights and been to the lowest  abyss and came back to surprise my enemies. They jeered, they taunted,” Where is this God of yours? You say He loves you and yet He abandons you, giving you up for dead. HA! HA! HA! What a pitiful God who squashes the ones He supposedly loves…”

And yet through all the flaming arrows and accusations I am able to stand, though it is not I who stands. It is through no strength of my own that I’m able to bear the weight of my cross. ” Pick up YOUR cross and follow me” is not a command, rather it’s His invitation. Many are called,  few respond.

I did this painting when I first visited Tucson AZ. It was spring and I was astounded to see such a colorful landscape…I fell in love with the desert back then. I hope everyone has a fantastic week-end!!

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 106

SWEET SPIRIT

I drew this horse for my daughter a while ago. She wanted to know if I could draw her a horse and I took out some butcher paper I had lying around the house. I wasn’t going to color it because I didn’t think she’d like it. Once she saw my finished sketch she squealed in delight and begged me to finish it. So I used Prismacolor pencils and markers. It’s now framed hanging in her bedroom. When your child believes in you more than you believe in yourself, that’s the BEST feeling in the world! Happy Sunday to all!!!

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 64

THE HORSE THAT DAVE BUILT

When my kids were all at the age when they think you can do anything, they asked me to make them a horse. At that time they were all in love with Zorro and anything to do with horses. I am not at all handy with tools,but I did try to assemble a horse out of scrap wood their dad kept in the shed. Needless to say, it was a huge failure. When their dad came home that night, I turned the project over to him and he looked at me as if I had lost my mind. He laughed at my poor attempt but then he went to the shed and brought out more wood and he made a horse as our kids watched him. When he finished it a short while later, they all squealed in delight. That wood horse brought many smiles to my kids for a long time after that. Happy Sunday everyone

-Eva Santiago copyright 2012

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 43

In December of 2008 a wonderful thing happened…it snowed where I live. I am not a big fan of snow. However, given the fact that I live in the desert,  it made the rare weather occurance feel almost magical. Had this happened back in Atlanta where I lived 11 years ago, I wouldn’t have even taken picture. But snow in the desert… brought out the little kid in me. What a day that was! At one point late at night, I went outside and the whole neighborhood resembled something eerie almost like a scene right out of  Steven King‘s THE SHINING.

Looking back on this photo reminds me how glad I am to live where I do. Moments like these are few and far in between and that’s how I like snow to be for me.

Have a great Sunday everyone 🙂

-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 35

February 5,2012

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! Really?? I don’t care one bit about the game. I am however, a HUGE fan of hanging out with family and friends, enjoying the company and eating food I normally don’t indulge in. I also enjoy hearing my husband laugh his head off over the commercials. That’s what Super Bowl Sunday means to me. How about you?

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 17

January 17,2012

Sweet Spirit

Here is the horse I drew for Esther. At first her request intimidated me but I decided to try it. I found an image of a horse she liked online and I copied it. As I sat down to sketch out the horse, I kept running into some difficulty. Then I remember that I learned how to draw upside down when I was in the 8th grade. Mr. Atkins, my art instructor saw that some of us were having a hard time, so he suggested that we all turn the picture of the subject we were drawing upside down; in this way the left side of your brain won’t get in the way of what the right side is doing. I implemented it to draw this horse and I was glad I did. That night when her dad came home, Esther told him how I had drawn the horse up side down and he laughed in amazement. It’s mind blowing what we can remember from the past. I framed it  andnow it hangs in her bedroom.

IT’S A MAD,MAD,MAD WORLD!

A girl at school was just kicked off the soccer team because another class mate complained to the school officials that said girl would not be friends with her. Now the school officials are accusing the swimmer for being a bully. Who is the real bully here?

I just recently was kicked out of a church. Yes, you are reading correctly! My family and I are not allowed to come back to a certain church because I refused the pastoral counseling being offered to me. That was the main reason for our having been banned from this church. The other reasons are of no lesser significance: I was also told that the pastor did not like some of my views on this blog. Hello! The 1st Amendment guaranteeing my rights to freedom of speech were infringed upon. Lastly I was  told by this same man that my husband and I had to meet up with some key people he had already designated for us because we needed to learn from these people how to be “Godly parents”. Apparently this pastor is under the impression, that after  raising 4 great kids together for the past 22 years that we’ve been married, we haven’t a clue as to what we’re doing. 

Folks, when your kids were younger did you ever try to pick out their friends for them? That’s crazy right? So how can a school and a pastor even think that they have any say in whom a child or two adults choose to associate with? It’s a MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD and that madness has creeped into some churches.

Perhaps the best thing this pastor did by banning us from attending his church was to spare us any further hurt by him. Now THAT’S a silver lining on my cloud!

J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

August  5, 2005

Dear Diary,

 I’m starting this journal as a way to speak out for some of my peers who can’t speak for themselves. As a kid I see a lot of  my friends and class mates stuck doing things that they don’t want to do. Take for example my bf James; he has to play baseball because his dad was a ball champ all through his high school years and into college. The only reason he didn’t make it to the majors ( and he will tell EVERYBODY he meets about how close he came) was because he screwed up his shoulder pitching those 98 mph fast balls.

James’s dad Ron is a trip! He makes James get up at 4am and jog with him every morning and that’s during baseball season when it’s not baseball, James has to pick up another sport to keep him in the game ( that’s what Ron says anyways). James also has go to the gym everyday regardless of whether he’s playing sports or not.

James and I have stayed up late at night and texting back and forth about how much he hates all the sports he has to do. My dream is to be a fashion illustrator and as we text, I’m always sketching my ideas. James has even said that he envies me for the fact that I’m not being pushed to be the next great anything in my family. He says I’m lucky to have parents who let me be a kid and dream my own dream. I don’t know about any of that; what I do know is that I don’t envy Jame’s overly busy life style. More to come because I have to speak for a lot of kids I know at school who have to deal with this everyday of their lives.

Thanks for listening as usual… –Carla