365 Days Of.......

I loved the movie Julie and Julia, the comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron. It's based on two true stories.  In case you haven't seen it, it's the story of the adventures of the famous chef, Julia Child, while she lived in France with her husband. It shows her culinary experiences there. It also shows the modern life of a writer/blogger, Julie Powell from Queens who decides to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook in one year and blog about it. She does it in a small kitchen apartment in Queens and gets it done (with a few temper tantrums). Julie Powell becomes famous from the blog and gets a book deal. 

Julia Child, in her own day, also became a very famous chef, cookbook author and a TV personality. 

In any event, I started thinking about the movie, when I saw a recent article in the NY Times titled, A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days-Just for fun. The article tells about Nina Sankovitch's idea to read a book everyday for a year and review them on her blog, www.readallday.org.  Ms. Sankovitch reads fast (no doubt) but does not speed read. "Aside from the pleasure of it, Ms. Sankovitch had other goals-inspiring a love of books in others and finding her way through a period of sorrow and soul-searching brought on by the death of her sister in 2005...I've always thought great literature is all one needs to read to understand human psychology, emotions, even history...."

So I started to think about it, is there anything I do everyday-365 days a year? Besides the necessary chores which I'm compelled to do each day, there aren't too many things that I do every single day.  Call it a habit, a virtue or a necessary part of my life- the thing I do each day-365 days a year, is pray. Couldn't live without it. I also drink tea every day and read the newspapers. But prayer is for me a great comfort and I'm very grateful for Magnificat, the daily missal, which is a great prayer aid. So what do I have to show for so much prayer, over so many years? I have a lot to show for it.  Many blessings, many graces and a deep trust in God and God's word. Of course, there are times, like everyone else experiences, when I can't understand certain aspects of my spiritual journey. However,  I do know that God walks with me and my prayers are heard and bear fruit in time, in God's time. Daily prayer gives me that inner strength and courage and helps me to view life and situations with "eyes of faith." 

I have no desire to cook a new recipe every day of the year, or read an entire book each day for a year, but I do have a desire and need to pray every day and connect with God. And having found this great treasure of prayer, I would recommend it to everyone-365 days a year. 

NJA