Friends and Friendships

July 10, 2013 / mcalcagno / 2 Comments

I read a quote on a P.S I Love You poster hanging on the wall, it states:

“Friends are like a beautiful garden. They require regular care.”

How true that is. Friends are very much like a garden.

You could also add that you only get out of it what you put in to it! A garden can be a beautiful thing to look at and bring joy to you and others. If you spend time working on them every day. You start by making sure they have a good foundation or growing environment. You provide soil that is full of good nutrients and holds the moisture. When you put in the flowers you need to give them space to grow. Then there is the routine of watering and most importantly pulling out those stubborn weeds. With regular care your garden can grow and prosper.

When I consider my friends and my friendships I would say that the ones I give the most “care” or time too are definitely the relationships that are doing the best and have grown the most. In my best friendships I am aware that they have a good growing environment and are given space to change and grow. I often attend to them with phone calls, emails or a text message. Most importantly, I try to always be available when the “weeds” of life are becoming too difficult to deal with by themselves.

I have also learned that sometimes God brings friends into your life at just the right time to be messengers. Some friends are only in your life briefly; they serve a purpose in God’s plan and move on while others are with you much longer. God himself also wants to be one of your lifelong friends…all you would need to do for that to happen is give your friendship/relationship with God some regular care.

Meet with him every day in a quiet and peaceful place or room…there are no rules regarding how long to do it and no right ways or wrong ways to meet with him…just find a place that feels right to you and talk to him…as I stated at the beginning…you will only get out of it what you put into it! Talk to him, he is waiting to hear from you.

Peace be with you.

A Moment When I Followed My Faith

July 8, 2013 / mcalcagno / 2 Comments

I have spent many years focusing on where I work and what I am doing in my career. The whole time God has been working his plan for me even though I was doing a poor job paying attention to him. I had my first experience of really looking to hear God in a situation related to my work in 2004.

I had spent the prior 12 years working in different restaurants and coffee companies and had acquired knowledge and many skills needed to run a business. I had my dream of owning and operating my own business. My job at the time was as a new store opening GM for a company we will call restaurant B. When I had started with restaurant B I had also interviewed for an HR position with a different restaurant company we will call restaurant A. I had worked for restaurant B for 6 months and was getting frustrated with personnel that were causing stress and frustration. I was turning in my notice because I had found an opportunity to complete a purchase of my own coffee cafe. I was very excited for this opportunity. I had already deposited $1,000 in earnest money towards this purchase. There was risk of course, by this time my wife and I had two kids. A 7 year old and a 3 year old and we had a mortgage and a car payment as well. Nevertheless, I felt confident in my abilities that all would go well. As the end of my employment at restaurant B arrived I was setting up meetings with a broker and the sellers of the cafe to begin completing my purchase.

Then one day…the phone rings…restaurant A, which I last had contact with 6 months ago was calling because they had a new opening in their HR-payroll department and they wanted to meet with me again. It turns out that they ended up offering me a full-time position with salary and benefits and M-F 9-5, etc. At this time, I felt it was necessary to try and listen to God first and my own worldly desires second. I spent time discussing the options with my wife and I prayed…..

God I have before me 2 opportunities and I am not sure which way to turn…one would be fulfilling a dream and following my passion…the other offers security and stability for my young family…please guide me to what you have in your plan.

Wouldn’t it be nice if in these moments you could just hear God’s voice from a burning bush or something? Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I continued to discuss with my wife and after sleeping on it and searching my feelings the next morning I knew what I had to do. I would take the job and put the dream on hold. I called the broker and gave him the news and after I hung up the phone…I cried and not just a tear running down my face I was bawling my head off which I hadn’t done since I was a child. I felt it must have been the right thing to do because it was definitely the hardest thing to do.

Looking back it was the right thing to do at that time as proceeding with the cafe would have been selfish and would have left no regard for my wife and kids or my responsibilities as a husband and father. Plus the 5 years I ended up working at the corporate office of restaurant company A turned out to be a time that I learned many valuable things about myself and about some abilities I never knew I possessed.

Of course, when I made the decision I didn’t know how it would turn out but isn’t that faith? We don’t have all the answers and we need to admit that and then trust God. The trust God part also means we need to keep our hearts and mind focused on him by meeting with him daily so when he sends a message through our conscience or through other people we will get the message because we are listening.

How or when do believe God has been or was working in your life?

Prayer and Speaking to God

July 2, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

My next experience of faith was in college. One of my best friends lost his brother in a plane crash. I didn’t know what to do or where to go…something told me to go to the Catholic Church some of us had started attending occasionally in our third year of college. It was at night and the door was locked…I went over to the living quarters and knocked and asked if I could get into the church to pray because I figured that is where I needed to be. The pastor looked me up and down, probably thinking a college kid asking to get into the church at night in a college town…he declined my request. Well now what. Feeling rejected I walked over to my car in the parking lot and looked back towards the church. The moon was shining with some clouds passing by right behind the steeple…I looked with wonder and then I started to speak…

God, I don’t know what to do or what to say but please help my friend and his family during this sad time and this tragic event…help them anyway you can. I don’t know what I can do but I know you can help them.

It’s my opinion that this was my first real prayer because it had an attitude of belief behind it that wasn’t there when I would “recite” a prayer during church when I was younger.

What was it like the first time you truly spoke to God?

Who Am I?

June 28, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome,

My name is Marty Calcagno. I have started this blog based on my faith. I have been married for just over 18 years and I am a father of two kids. I believe that faith is a journey…a personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus his son guided by the Holy Spirit. There is so much to learn and experience when you decide that faith is important to you and you are going to try and put it first in your life. My journey to this point has been slow at the start and picking up speed in the last 5 years. Now I am at the point where I want to share it with others and I hope that it may make a difference in their lives some day. Let the journey continue…..