"I will be brave. I will not let anything take away. What's standing in front of me."

***Song lyrics (in title of blog) taken from "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

*Thursday, Jan. 26th, 2012: Today I am going to cheat and be grateful for last night. My co-workers and I volunteered for the Point in Time survey in which we walked around DC from 9pm-2am, looking for homeless people living on the streets to ask them to take a survey with us. Although my partner and I (shoutout to Therese) only found one man, it was a really good experience. We were cold (but bundled up) and tired (but were walking after a full night's sleep) so it was good to think about our feelings and compare them to how a homeless person feels at night. PLUS it was a wonderful opportunity to talk with Therese about life and chat her up for a bit. I'm so blessed to have incredible people and experiences throughout my life.

*Friday, Jan. 27th, 2012: Each day at work I have to pinch myself because of the amazing-ness that surrounds me. Guests can be difficult and unruly at times but even in that unruliness, I am challenged to see Jesus in them. I remind myself that although I am frustrated because it is the 6th man in a row to get angry at me because of fill-in-the-blank, each person has a story and a reason to be edgy and even in that edginess, there is an opportunity to love them anyway. So that's where the title of this blog kind of comes in: "I will be brave. I will not let anything take away. What's standing in front of me." Although they are difficult at times, I need to remember that nothing can take away from the person that is standing in front of me. I am thankful for that strength today.

*Saturday, Jan. 28th, 2012: Today I am grateful for chick flicks. Tonight I watched "The Wedding Date" with Cara as our one-on-one date and it was really fun. It's my guilty pleasure movie for sure because it is such a mindless movie, but it tears at my heart and makes me laugh in certain places. Plus, I got to watch it with my roommate, so that was a nice time for us to bond over the silliness of this movie.

*Sunday, Jan. 29th, 2012: Today I am grateful for Mass at St. Augustine's. It's Catholic Schools week so they had a children's choir kick off the week by singing at Mass. It was really beautiful and touching and I enjoyed the pour joy and silliness they exhibited when they thought no one was watching them. Kids are funny and I certainly do miss working with them, but God has a funny way of dropping them in my life from time to time and I am grateful for that today.

*Monday, Jan. 30th, 2012: Today I am grateful to have my fellow JV co-worker back at work (and not just because she gave me a ride to work this morning). I enjoy her company and friendship so much and am so pleased to have her back at work after not working with her since Wednesday. She just makes me feel a little more confident when I go to work with a guest on something I'm not sure about so to have her back today was wonderful.

*Tuesday, Jan. 31st, 2012: Today I am thankful for that same guest who I had been helping at Miriam's who came in today with a huge grin on his face as he showed me his DC non-driver's ID he had just gotten...after three weeks, many difficulties and a lot of paperwork, my illiterate, kind-hearted friend had gotten his DC ID. I was like a proud mama...props to him today.

*Wednesday, Feb. 1st, 2012: Today I got to go to Christ House, a shelter for homeless men who are just recently out of surgery or have been just released from the hospital, to visit with a man I have never met. The man had been a long-term Miriam's guest and is known as a crotchety, old, mean and slightly racist man. All I saw, when his thin, boney arm held the door open for me, was a kind, scared and tired old man. He is dying of lung cancer. As I looked around his bedroom, which resembled a hospital room, he had five dress shirts, one basket with pants, socks and underwear, a lint brush, towel, toothbrush and a giant painting of the Mona Lisa in his room. That was all...I was struck by many things with this man, but the most important one, besides his lack of possessions, was his kind sunken in eyes as he looked at me and asked me questions. I am thankful for him today.