Carpe Annum

It's 2013!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my housemate Caroline and I were just speaking about this little coffee shop here that has become far and away my favorite spot in all of Scranton.  It's called Northern Light Cafe & Espresso Bar and it's essentially a hipster's paradise: comfy chairs, fancy coffee-flavored drinks, chess boards, local artwork, the whole nine yards (If you know my brother Paul, he would absolutely love this place...).  Anyway, it's that last category, the local artwork, that we were discussing as they have just recently switched out all the art on the walls to feature a new artist.  I'm not sure who that artist is, but the work is amazing.  These are the type of paintings you cannot simply walk by, they force you to stop whatever you were doing and stare like a gawky-eyed tourist on a first trip to Times Square in Manhattan.  Although this artwork is phenomenal, I can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for the art that was used to hang there, the pieces I had become so comfortable with, the "regular" if you will.  I think that's a fairly common human experience, as the old adage goes "you don't know what you have until it's gone" and all too often we don't appreciate the artwork that is all around us until we realize it's gone and we no longer can.  In particular, I was a big fan of two pieces that used to hang in my favorite coffee shop, one read simply "Carpe Diem" and the other "Carpe Noctum".  Two short latin phrases - so oft used in our English speaking dialect - and seemingly at odds with one another.  Still, they caused me to think a lot about the meaning of those two phrases: "seize the day" and "seize the night", perhaps less at odds than I first imagined.  In fact, when combined together they encompass our entire day, thereby encouraging us to seize "life".  All of life, the good, the bad, the day, the night, the easy parts, those that are more challenging, everything.  And that's when we realized, this JVC year for us has been a "Carpe Diem" kind of year, a "Carpe Annum" of sorts.  The perfect opportunity to seize every moment in front of us for an entire year, a chance to really live the way these phrases encourage us to live, seizing each second of the day or night to make our lives more holistically fulfilling.  So it's with this newfound perspective that I'll be approaching 2013, as my "Carpe Annum" - attempting to make the most of every situation, every encounter with others, every opportunity I have.  If you have some time this year, think about ways in which we can all become better at seizing each day, each night, each year.  After all, none of us knows when the old artwork will be taken down for the next new set.

Sorry for that long intro, it was just a thought I had that I wanted to get down before I forgot!  A quick update on 2013 thus far here in Scranton: 

•        We celebrated the New Year with the Harlem JV house!  Counting down to the new year on a rooftop in NYC overlooking Yankee Stadium, it was fantastic.
•        January seemed to fly by with a long-weekend spent at our Re-Orientation Retreat, a chance for all of the JVs serving in the Northeast to gather and focus on the work we've each been doing at our respective placements, what's going well and what we need to continue to improve upon.  The weekend was incredibly refreshing and - unsurprisingly - I was in extrovert heaven getting to see so many friendly faces, some of whom I had not seen since Orientation in August!  
•        Now we're into February already, and the colder months have been quite rough here in Scranton, especially where the running/fitness aspects of our lives are concerned.  We do a lot more trips to the indoor gym rather than the outdoor runs that we were able to do in the Fall.  Still, it hasn't stopped my housemate Abbie and I from signing up for a 1/2 marathon this coming May!!!!! We'll be running the Cleveland 1/2 marathon on May 19th (if any of you are in there area, come on out and cheer us on! ...Funny signs are encouraged).  More on that as the date gets closer.  
•        We're looking forward to a great month of March, though!  it seems like I'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day for the whole month (surprise, surprise, right?) with the first weekend featuring the local parade back home in good 'ole East Islip, the second weekend hosting our very own parade here in Scranton (known as one of the largest in the US!), and finally the third weekend being actual St. Paddy's Day! It promises to keep us very busy.  

So that's about all of my update for now, the only other update going on here is the start of the lenten season and how that's been affecting our spiritual lives here in Scranton...but that conversation is still developing, and would most likely make this posting intolerably long...so we'll save it for another post.  For now, peace to you and yours.

**PS: If you would, please keep my Aunt Chrissy in your prayers as she's having some surgery in the near future and - especially as I speak about the need to appreciate everything we have while we have it - there is perhaps nothing we need cherish more than the health and happiness of our loved ones.  Thank you.

God Bless, 

Tom