life.

Life is such a journey that sometimes we go down certain paths and don't realize how we got there.

I wouldn't have imagined myself in Italy at this moment, it has been such a blessing that sometimes I forget to be thankful for the opportunities I have been given.

On the train ride from Rome to Florence, I was reading a book on Gandhi...and one quote really stuck out.

Here it is,

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world outside us-that is the myth of the "atomic age"-as in being able to remake ourselves."

I guess that's why in Italy ....to continue to grow in this journey we call "life."
to understand and to discover my purpose in this world....because to live with a purpose gives meaning to the journey, without a purpose....there's not really a reason to live.

These words gotta be put into action or else they are nothing more than just letters put together.
so let's live in this way to never stop "remaking ourselves" to reach greatness.

But anyhow.....an update on what's been going on.

I live with 50 girls in one house from around the world.
its always LOUD and always full of such JOY.

I wake up at 6:30am to go for a run,
and man is it soo beautiful when its slightly chilly as I run overlooking endless mountains. (I'll take more pics)
We enjoy the same breakfast everyday (cereal and bread)- and no peanut butter, and barely any nutella :(. just jam.

Then we have to clean for 30 mins, then head downstairs to the auditorium to have some "reflection time"
An example of this, we saw a video of Chiara answering the question " If God is love, then why is there so much suffering, wars, and disasters that exist?"

Here was her answer, "In every suffering, God always has a greater plan that sometimes we can't comprehend in the midst of the suffering. God understands how we feel in all our sufferings because he sacrificed his only Son to die for us, and He suffered every imaginable suffering a person can face. In this suffering, God had a plan because his Son was to resurrect and to save us from our sins that we may have eternal life."

So after this reflection, we go to WORK...actually it's like factory work for 3 hours. We fold Christmas cards, stuff them into envelopes, and then package them into boxes, and another job we have is to place soaps into nice boxes, and package them. The soaps actually get shipped to stores in the U.S. and Canada such as TJ max, and Home Sense.

We work to pay for our accomodations, food and trips to cities in Italy we take every month. This month we are going to ROME.

After work, we have lunch break from 1-3pm...where we can sleep, or do anything. Then we work again from 3-6pm. Come home..then go to mass at 6:30pm. Dinner time later at like 8pm. Then we have our group meetings at night twice a week. Also we don't always work in the morning as Mon, Wed, Fri we have italian classes in the morning. that's the schedule. simple but exciting even though its sorta repetitive.

On the weekends, some of the gen from different countries cook their food, this weekend I got to experience Brazilian, Columbian, and Jordanian food :).

Anyways bye for now!
God Bless!

Donata