The Next Year of My Life

Its Tuesday morning. I woke up at six this morning and ran eight miles. First time in my life I ran that much. Funny thing is, yesterday I swam a mile then ran four. Hmm kind of funny behavior.

Well! Sunday my most excellent roommate Brian Bauer competed in the Coure d'alaine Ironman! And well the bug kind of bit me. So I'm currently signed up for next years race! I really don't think the reality of this commitment has hit me. Which is a good thing, because I don't think I would have made the decision to do it, if it had. I am really excited though. Now I have a reason to get into shape, and tap that inner strength. I mean what better time than your 20's right? Well the whole thing cost around 600$ so I better pony up and do this right.

In the meantime I just signed up for an Olympic Race at the end of July! So that is on my plate right now (hence I ran eight miles this morning). Kind of a big decision in life, and I know it will be a great one!

Here's to a year of swimming, biking and running!

Family - An expression of Jesus

Our house just threw a Barbecue for all of our families. In all there was roughly 40-50 people in our house. It was absolutely wonderful. The event gave me an opportunity to edit together a video which I've posted on my facebook. Feel free to partake in some viewing. All-in-all it was a splendid day and I found myself in my room listening to Mr. Heath relaxing after the party.

In walks Philip Herron and we sit for a few minutes, both having the same thing on our mind. The silence (or lack there of, of our verbal speech) was broken by a simple yet profound "that was amazing"

We both felt a deep joy for the day and what it meant. So much more than an opportunity to eat well cooked food, but one to impart back into the people who raised and loved us, who continue to love us! The reality was all too clear that our families were very appreciative of the event and were thrilled at how great sons they had. I ventured to ask how many other sons in their mid-twenties may have done the same thing. The answer was all too fast "not too many".

I couldn't help but think of the joy we had brought to our parents how proud they were of us. Luckily Phil was there to correct me.

That day, the planning, the mere idea of sharing what we do and have with our parents would not have come to fruition in the manner it did, without the presence of Christ in our lives.

What I take away from that day is a testament to how great a Savior I have, that he laid upon my heart the things that truely matter.

Porch Family BBQ - 2009 from Alec Cattarin on Vimeo.

A week overseas

I just returned from China - for the second time

I was over there for the company I work for. Our new product was in first production and I oversaw the QA (quality assessment) for the line. Needless to say everything was paid for. I just wanted to throw out some amazing highlights of what happend on the trip and what the time away did for my life.

First:

1. I watched the movie Bolt on the plane ride over and back from China. SUCH a sweet movie, totally recommend it
2. I had a Chinese foot massage the first night there. Definitely a highlight of the country.
3. I stayed up 30 hours to avoid jet lag when I got home, as a result I had some amazing conversations in the San Fran airport while I was in layover.
4. Lastly and most importantly I finished the book The Shack on a taxi ride from Hong Kong International airport to ShenZhen proper.

The taxi ride was so great! First off the book is unbelievable. One of the better books I have ever read. As macho as I am, I couldn't help tear up throughout the book. [clarification: tearing up isn't crying. Its like manly tears, or something like that]. But regardless, I was in a van full of Chinese businessmen, none of which spoke english. So when I tried to explain why I was enjoying a book that brought me tears, well it just didn't work out. I think they believe Americans, or at least young tall, odd looking americans, enjoy self-inflicted agony or something.

Ahh but I am getting off point. If you haven't read the book, I strongly encourage you to. It has helped define my relationship to the Trinity, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It gives a much more personable approach to it. It couldn't have come at a better time to. I've been going through a rough tiff with some stuff in life and loved that God gave me what He did through this book.

I got alot of perspective on situations and relationships back here in the states from my time in China. I'm excited to move forward now because I'm no longer living in anxiety and confusion over certain things. But I've found freedom and contentness within them.

And to think I was nervous to go back to China. Praise be to God

Closing the door on Boston

For the past few weeks I've had to deliberate and struggle through one of the more difficult decisions in my life. I have been given the unique chance to pursue a PhD program in Engineering at the University of Northeastern in Boston. Not only given the chance - but to actually be paid to do it, ultimately leaving Boston in six years with no loans and a PhD in structural engineering under my belt.

Struggling with this decision might be an understatement.

I consulted friends, family, mentors, myself, and God. For the longest time I really had no idea what choice I would make. I knew God would provide and take care of me either way. I couldn't feel his hand guiding me in particular direction. So I take this decision as a matter of faith.

Faith in my future, in my career, more importantly to the character Christ is developing within me.

The lord has given me a gift with science, I know this. I've been given a degree in physics, the chance to work for NASA, and now a full ride for a PhD in engineering. All paths that would lead to a stable and prosperous future. Financially life would be alright.

But I have grown up with my mother. A teacher. She has been and done so much for me, and I have turned out alright. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't want that security. I want my life to be about faith. Trust. Choice. Love. Freedom. I want to live for Christ without anything else in the way.

Looking through this lens. I realized engineering was only on the table because I needed to stabilize my future, to prepare myself for it. No. I want to live in the moment, in faith and trust. I will look to the future, but never with my priorities before the lords.

This weekend gave me so much about why I am happy in Seattle. Why I love it here. Why I am not ready to leave, not just yet. In the very least I would be drawn away from it for anything less than what God has given me through passion. Engineering was not it.

I am in love with Jesus, and look forward to this moment, the next, and the one in which he reveals the next step, the next choice, the next path, the next part - to my amazing journey of faith and trust.

I will be enacting that journey here in Seattle. Or until God moves my passion for Him in another direction -

thank you :)

Graduate school finally showed up

So the course of the past six months have been pretty entertaining when it came to my future. I applied to graduate schools in December for Structural Engineering. I'm really excited about the possibility of going to school again, the subject really interests me. Yet in the midst of the last two months - alot has happened. Nothing to deter me from graduate school, but just other stuff. I guess I got more and more dis-couraged that I'd get into a school - being a physics undergrad NOT an engineering undergrad.


Low and behold I am excepted into a great school and am getting flown out there to visit it. All in the course of a week. It's really exciting how God throws stuff at ya. I'm super pumped for this weekend and can't wait to check out this school.


I am seriously wayyyy tooo blessssed

An account of

It really is a task living day to day. I'm not naive, I don't believe a fairy tale ending at all.

Sleep, work, play, sleep, work, play. Lately the hum has been ringing through my life. Am I to complain? Not at all, how blessed I am. Yet where does living fit in with this hum? Is it rather the tone of the hum? Or am I simply characterizing the life I want to live as something which deviates from what grand master plan the Lord has for me? If so why do I, or better yet, how can I love one so much, yet not desire the hum to press against the inside of my head? A hum spoken by the creator of the universe.

Living, for me, is a subjective experience quantified by the wants and desires of my heart. Yet my soul, my heart, isn't always a book open to read, even to me - the author. To have such an experience as living, one where living can only be defined by the measures of my heart ----

I have to reconcile, not just my desires, my wants, and even my fears, but I have to reconcile my will to God. I have to choose to believe, to follow, to hand over, to submit, to be under authority, to love, to lean on. It is a choice birthed by decision, but lived through by a truth.

A truth which defines who I am, why I desire and want, why I fear, what I struggle with, where I am going, how I am to live. Daily I die, daily I choose truth. What is truth?



Jesus Christ is God
He loves me
He died for me
He will never forsake me

Moving to Yakima

Now I know some people. These people are pretty sweet, the fact that they are from Yakima has nothing to do with how sweet they are. In fact I really don't have a problem with Yakima. It's this whole moving part that bothers me.

I've talked to alot of people, wise and dumb, I get the general sense that its not a big deal to move. Life moves on, it's like a river flowing downstream....or at least someone told me that.

I disagree, life needs to be a pool, a stagnant pool. One where my family doesn't sell the house I've grown up in all my life. I for one am not looking forward to my last trip to Bellingham, to my home, to my room, to my backyard. I don't want to walk up the steps of my porch one last time. I'm not ready to move on from my home, its just too much to me...

Home isn't just a place for me, its the things that shaped my life, the ones that remind me where I come from.

Home is the rain on the windows, as I fall asleep.
Home is the swing on the porch, the one I sat on when I wanted to get away.
Home is the front yard where I played ninja fighter with nothing but a rope.
Home is the roof, where I first fell in love with the stars.
Home is the pictures, the painting, that have hung in the same place all my life.
Home is the wedge on top of the couch where Chelsea sleeps all through the day.
Home is the sports court, where I never learned to play basketball. I tried tho.
Home is the late night hot tub conversations with God.
Home is the creak of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th step of the stairs as I sneak in for the night.
Home is the lighthouse mural that I left unfinished in my room.
Home is the cowboy doors to the library.
Home is mowing Dot's grass.
Home is the art room, with all the family's contributions.
Home is the Christmas tree in the corner by the window, the only one I've ever known.
Home is the apple trees that we used as soccer goals.
Home is the "house on the right after the pink house"
Home is the kitchen hangout, sitting on the counters.

Home is the place I'll never get to show my wife.

Home is my escape. The 2 AM drive to sleep in my bed, the place I go to just be.

I'm not ready to let home go. I guess I'm just a little sentimental about it....