January 16, 2016:

Held up my fast pretty well today. Treated myself a bit. Was going to buy some pieces of baklava. Returned them after. A bit too rich, even though it’s my birthday. I’m not going to say much today. I just want to reflect a bit. Went to church this morning and said the rosary. Went to the gym again today. I brought my pair of boxing gloves. Went there filled with negative energy. After a bit of time on the bag, I felt a lot better. Going to try to do that more often. I think it’s reasonable to expect that especially following a childhood with abuse in it, there’s bound to be a lot of anger. God never intended this. I was supposed to tell when I was a child. Anger is not a bad thing. But it deserves to be expressed righteously. Not necessarily towards anyone or anything. Especially this evening, following the time I spent on the punching bag, I kind of realized with deeper clarity than over the past few nights, how I have been behaving. I am going to keep trying. Processing my emotions through art and the gym. I know. I just want to reflect a bit. I saw a wonderful passage from Scripture today. Here: "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."(1 Peter 5:10). “He has seen that the presumption of their heart is evil, and he knows that their rebelliousness is wicked. Therefore, he has bestowed his forgiveness on them, and he has revealed to them the way of equity. The compassion of man is toward those closest to him. But the mercy of God is upon all flesh.” (Sir. 18:10-12).