All Hail!

I'm almost positive that I've never mentioned this before, but I am currently the Fraternity Education Officer (Feo for short- yes, that means "ugly" in spanish) for the Florida Epsilon colony of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at the Florida International University.

I mention this only to give a bit of context to the neat things that are going on there. Speaking of context, I should probably also mention that Sinfonia isn't like any fraternity you've ever heard of (your eyebrows can come down now). Forget everything you ever saw in Animal House (which you probably shouldn't be watching anyway). This organization was founded to build better men.

That being said, there are times when I forget how long I've been in college (oh, wait, now I remember. For about quarter of my life now). This past weekend we had a brotherhood retreat, where we basically spent a huge chunk of time together at school doing fraternal things and spent the night. The neat thing about all that were the ties that our group of guys - a gender typically a bit challenged when it comes to the whole "going deep below the surface" kind of thing - were able to establish. I think one of the neatest things for me that night was getting to observe these guys get a glimpse into each other's lives and realize that there's more to their own than they thought.
I'm not trying to be super-philosophical here; I just find it kind of neat that I'm helping to shape the lives of younger guys. And you should hear them sing, too. My word, I've never met a group that enjoys song rehearsals so much. If I ever figure out how to, I'll have to post a recording of our last rehearsal.

Rumors...

I found out yesterday that there are rumors flying around Homestead that Stephanie Sanchez is engaged. Steph and I talked about this and both agree that we need to get to the bottom of this and figure out who she's engaged to, because obviously, whoever that person is would probably be a little annoyed to discover that she has been in a courtship with me for the past nine months.
If anybody has any news about this, it would be very appreciated.

Sundays

Man, I love Sunday afternoons.

I usually try to make it a point to schedule some time during the week when I can take time out to just be, and do. It helps me to remember that my life does not consists of just doing.
It feels especially good coming off of a weekend like the one we just had at Flamingo. Now that I think about it, wow. We are far from perfect, but, man, God is using us. He's doing some great things, and for some reason we get to be a part of that.
I sometimes forget to allow myself to really marvel at the facts before my eyes on a weekly basis, but I really need to.
I tend to be very task-orientated in my approach to life, and sometimes I get so lost in my little saxophonic world of notes and lyricism when I'm on stage that I let important epiphanies glide right past me. People met Jesus this weekend. They passed from death to life. How cool is that?

I think if there's one thing I don't like about the pace of my life (and I could probably say the same thing about the work ethic of Western culture in general), it's the hurriedness that tends to drag me away from the now and tempts me to blow past moments like the ones I experienced this weekend. Case in point: there'll be time to train for my recital later (I'm in good shape for it, just do you know I'm not being a slacker or anything. Right now ,though, I want to live in the moment.

Finito!

Woohoo!!!
The Big Video of the weekend (I can't say it's real title or I will be severely punished) is finally finished! B roll, audio, all of it! I am so proud.

It's a good feeling to know that you finished something and did it well. I may buy myself some Coldstone ice cream later on.

I love this song

Tonight I got to check out Fellowship Church's Miami campus, and I was pretty impressed and encouraged at the thought that they were doing that kind of ministry down here. It also got me stoked, because video-wise, Brian and I could most definitely produce at the level these guys are kicking out. It's exciting because it tells me that what I'm learning is the real deal, that this an area that God's given us the ability to excell in for some reason. We just need to find more guys to do it with us (any volunteers?).

While I was there, I also discovered my new favorite song. This one is making it into my wedding. The lyrics alone don't do it justice, but I'll post them anyway. The song is Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol.
The topic of the evening was sex, specifically, how our culture, by and large, has taken such a beautiful concept and cheapened it to the point where it's little more than a scratch for an itch. Ed talked about how God's plan takes sex and makes is sacred again, makes it beautiful, and makes it worth waiting for. I mention it because the band performed the song over a video that featured pictures of married couples, starting with newlyweds, and moving on up to older couples married for over 40 years. To be honest, I found myself getting a little misty as the song went on, because the lyrics so perfectly expressed the hope that is in my heart when I'm around Stephanie.

To be in a courtship where purity is treasured out of deep love and not dead legalism is a blessing I can't even begin to describe, and one day I'll put down a proper post describing all the beautiful things I'm learning from waiting with Steph. For now, though, enjoy the lyrics.

We'll do it all / Everything / On our own
We don't need / Anything / Or anyone
If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know / How to say / How I feel
Those three words / Are said too much / They're not enough
If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told / Before we get too old / Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Let's waste time / Chasing cars / Around our heads
I need your grace / To remind me / To find my own
If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told / Before we get too old / Show me a garden that's bursting into life
All that I am / All that I ever was / Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see
I don't know where / Confused about how as well / Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Saturday Slice

You know, it amazes me how much living can be packed into a day. I feel like it's been a week since I last posted.
Thursday night was pretty sweet. Thanks to my Aunt, who seems to know just about everyone over at the Hard Rock Casino down the street, I scored some really great seats at the Gilberto Santa Rosa and El Gran Combo concert. Amazingly enough, the only person I was able to go with me was Ricky Garcia (who shares space with me in the stage left projector room over at FRC - also known as The Bat Cave to insiders), so we got dressed up nice, pinky swore each other that we wouldn't pick up too many girls (just kidding), and went to the show.


As we walked to our seats to find our section, I started wondering if maybe my Aunt knew someone in the Mafia, as the seats were right up front near the stage in the level just above the floor (I could have probably thrown my shoe and pegged Gilberto in the side of the head. That's how close we were). Anyway, I think security got the raw end of the deal that night. The room was packed with a ton of Puerto Ricans. The band did the typical latin thing and did a country roll call, which Hispanics just love (We're a very nationalistic people, you know). By round of applause, I would say that I was one of pretty small group of Colombians in the arena, although we beat out the Nicaraguans and the Panamanians (take that!). Of course, the Puerto Ricans were out in full force, complete with flags. Anyway, the bad part about all that for security was that they spent a big chunk of their time trying to get people to stop dancing in the aisles and in general causing fire hazards all over the place, to which I was laughing at because, honestly, how are you going to keep a crowd of people who came out to see a dance band from dancing. I mean, once El Gran Combo started playing Brujeria, it was all over.
So yeah, it was a fun show overall. I think the neatest thing, though, was the range of ages I saw as I looked around the room. I don't know many bands that are still playing that can pack out an arena with songs they have been playing for over thiry years. I watched people my age singing and dancing to this music that people from their parents' generation just down the row were dancing to, too.
Ricky and I were talking about it afterwards, and we realized what a special thing that is. In an age where our culture is obsessed with the newest thing, it's nice to see something traditional that crosses generational boundaries that way. This is one of the things I love the most about my heritage.
¡Que siguen los latinos!

Graduation

Happy Thursday, kids!

Another day came and went. Beautiful.
One of the great things about the passage of time is that it does pass. I'm another 24-hours closer to graduation and the close of the current chapter of life that I'm in. Not to say that I'm not enjoying the ride (I think we established that I am going to resist whining on my blog a few posts back), but I am very very very eager finally to be free to directly leverage everything I've got in one direction, and to explore this adulthood a lot of guys in my generation seem to have missed, or at least postponed.
(speaking of which, one day soon I will take a nice leisurely stroll down tangent lane with some speculation as to why it is so many of us are living in these weird adultescent time warps - complete with nifty examples - but that's a topic for another post.)

So yeah, time passes.

Sweet!

Ha! I found these pictures from my birthday two years ago. Hat tip to Eric Mesa for the great memories. Much love, my brotha!

After all's said and done

It's quiet now. Everyone's been gone for a few hours, and it's just me and my thoughts now, with 100 portraits and waterdeep as the soundtrack for the moment.

Words don't really do justice to the night I've had, to the joy and the wonder at the quality of people I am privileged to have around me. It's a beautiful thing.

I saved Stephanie's card for last, of course. I'm glad that I did; the last thing on my mind before I close my eyes tonight will be gratitude for the abundant grace of God that allowed such a person to be a part of my life. She reminded me of words that I spoke once, whose weight I'm feeling especially in this moment. I'm going to be 24 one time only. These 365 days are vintage, the only one of their kind. There's a certain kind of man that I want to be, and it's going to require living this year like I mean to get there. I'll only live once, after all. May as well do it right the first time.
Praise God for a woman who points me towards the cross, who reminds me of what (and Who) it's all for. These are beautiful days.

my eyes are small, but they have seen the beauty of enormous things
which leads me to believe, there's light enough to see that
You make everything glorious
and I am yours
What does that make me?

PS :This is my shocked face (my familie(s) bought me a flat screen moniter! Holy cow!)

Friday

As of today, I am no longer the 23-year-old kid you knew before. I am now a 24-year-old man, complete with my own shiny new tax bracket on my IRS forms. Go me!

Monetary gifts are appeciated and accepted. Checks can be made out to the "Mauricio's Food/Rent/Gas/Saxophone Supplies Fund."

And thanks for all the phone calls. You all rock. I'll see most of you tonight at the chocolate fountain, I'm sure.

Godspeed!

-M

Tiredness...

Well, it's barely October, and I'm already feeling the squeeze of trying to carve out a meaningful life in the midst of the seemingly unending list of things there are for me to do before December. I think the hardest part is that it all seems so necessary sometimes; not in the eternal sense, but in the weight of its urgency.

School is most definitely the thing I could do without most of the time. It's not that I hate the place (although at this point, I'm beyond frustrated with the hoops I've had to jump through to get a degree from these people), it's just that I find it incredible that of all the things I could be doing with my life right now, I am there, getting a degree so that other people can look at a piece of paper on my wall and esteem my worth more favorably than they would've if they thought I'd dropped out. Wonderful.

I'm telling myself that it will be worth it, and Lord knows there's more than likely a good measure of faithfulness being built into my character by the waiting I'm having to do. I know that God doesn't waste a hurt, and I'll never be able to look back and find time he couldn't use for a greater purpose than this, but dangit, I tire of it sometimes.

So I find in myself a conflict.
I want to whine. I really want to. But there are a few things I need to consider. For instance, I know that:
a) God can redeem all the moments I live in, even when I want to be living somewhere else instead.
b) There are no other Flamingo Road Church staff members who are in the school of music, therefore, I have a measure of influence in a place where the friends I work with don't.
c) I am graduating in two flippin' months, for crying out loud!

So really, the smart thing to do would be to shut up and keep pressing towards December, and stop pretending like life isn't happening for me until then.

Yeah, I'm a big fat whiner when I'm tired, I know.
Anywho, I'm off to sleep. Be encouraged, because if God puts up with me, he'll certainly put up with you.

Bendiciones.