Funny Foto #12 - The 11th Commandment?

A couple of weeks ago we went to a nearby parish for Sunday Mass.  They have one at 5:30pm that is just sometimes so, so conveinent.  As we were walking up the to back entrance we saw some new signs that had been recently hung up. 

Think they have a parking problem??

AMDG

That’s who I am

Did you happen to see the new show, Red Band Society, which premiered last Wednesday?  For lack of anything better to watch I saw bits and pieces of it.  It is about a group of young people dealing with terrible illnesses (cancer, failing hearts, eating disorders) on the pediatric floor of a Los Angeles hospital. 

I can’t imagine that this show will last more than one season, if that.  How long can you keep the same characters as patients?  After all, hospitals kick you out just as fast as they can. 

Two of the characters, Leo and Jordi, are fighting cancer.  Leo has had a leg amputated and Jordi is facing the same operation.  As the day of the procedure nears, Jordi is understandably apprehensive.  He wonders what it will be like to live without part of his body.  He wonders what he will be like.

In probably the best line of the show, Leo tells him “Your body isn't you. Your soul is you and they can never cut into your soul.”

The line hit home in a personal way.  I am infertile.  That statement is often used as a definition rather than a descriptor.  But it is not who I am, it is just a little bit about my body.  Nothing more, nothing less.  What I do with it, how I react to it, that’s who I am.

AMDG

Wonder Doubled: Seen and Unseen

We have a new post up at the USCCB website For Your Marriage.

Donna:
Jack Clive Staples, our wonder dog, let me know in no uncertain terms that his water bowl was empty. I took it to the sink and glanced out the kitchen window as it filled. I was surprised by a large red-tailed hawk sitting on the back of our garden bench. It looked like it was enjoying a day in the park. I called for Tim to come see. . . .

 

Tim:
The segment of the Appalachian Trail which passes through New Hampshire is particularly rugged. My backpacking partner and I were at the end of our week-long hike with dozens of miles behind us and a steep climb waiting ahead. I was taking a turn leading with my friend following a few hundred feet behind. Backpacking inevitably becomes a solitary experience regardless of the presence of companions. . . .

You can read the whole article here.

AMDG

The first step?

Whoever said taking the first step is the hardest part of the journey is a lying sack of . . . Umm, sorry.  They are just not right.

I've taken that first step so many times, both figuratively and literally.  I am great at starting things.   It is the finishing them that’s the problem.  I have a closet and a basement full of newly started projects.

There’s the counted cross stitch sampler I started for a wedding gift to Himself; we will soon be celebrating our sixteenth anniversary.  I bet I have at least five or six other partially started cross stitch projects as well.

And then there are the quilts.  I think there are two that are started, one that is promised, and another that needs to be repaired.  I just remembered the material we bought for our fall colored raggedy quilt.

I have a couple of books that I want to write.  I have notes jotted down, but that is about as far as those projects have gotten.

I could go on and on and on, but you get the drift.  The first step is easy, for me.  It’s what comes after that’s a challenge.

That being said, I started something new last night.  Yep.  Me.  Something new.

Feeling like a slug and needing to lose weight, I decided to take my inspiration from this lady.  I started the Couch-to-5K program.

Yikes!  It was hard.  I used to be a runner.  I ran twenty miles once, but twenty minutes of walking and running just about did me in last night.  I was a sweaty, dripping, achy mess afterwards.

But you know what?  It felt good!

If I keep up with this, I should be able to run 5k by my birthday.  What a great gift to myself that would be!

To add a little extra motivation, I found a 5k race on October 18th to do.  It’s a fund raiser for the Knights of Columbus at the parish where our friend, Fr. Ed, is a Parochial Vicar.  If you’re in the area, come on and join me!

I know this is going to be hard.  I know I am going to find excuses not to do it.  But I know I need to do it.  So, I ask that you bug me, cajole me, bother me and remind me.  Hold me accountable and make me do it.

Maybe this time I will actually finish what I start!

AMDG

Weekends with Chesterton: Joy and Castle

Last week I finished watching all the episodes of Castle that I had missed.  Ugh!  No new Castle until the season starts at the end of the month.

In the third episode of season 5, Secret's Safe With Me, Richard finds a little doll in Kate's desk drawer.  He's intrigued by it and wonder why she has it.  Finally, near the end of the show she explains:

Kate:  Coney Island. We had a reception at our place after my mom’s funeral and it was miserable.  

I was miserable and my dad took my hand and he said, “Let’s get the hell out of here, Katie.”

And we took the Q-train and we went up to Coney Island. And we walked up and down that beach just enjoying ourselves. We were still in our funeral clothes. And the best part was that we made this little guy out of the twigs and twine that washed up on the shore.

Richard:  Does that make that day a bad memory, or a good one?

Kate:  Both. He’s reminder that even on the worst days, there’s a possibility for joy.

Richard:  Nice.

About a hundred years or so ago GKC had something to say on the subject as well in Orthodoxy.

The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Nevertheless (I offer my last dogma defiantly) it is not native to man to be so. Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live.

AMDG

Tale of a pumkin or "fun with food"

We have tried to grow pumpkins in gardens past but were never very successful.  That is all changing this year.  Our little patch has at least twenty of these lovlies ripening at the moment.  When we were checking them the other day we found one with a bad spot. We picked it so it would not rot on the vine.

As we were walking back to the house Himself accidentally put his thumb through the bad spot.  Being goofy, he stuck his empty beer bottle in the hole.  I decided that it needed a face so Himself obliged me and drew this for me.

 

I later cut out the bad stuff and roasted what was left of the pumpkin.  I made a couple of pies that we took to Dad's on Monday.  Yum!

 

Sometimes you just got to play with your food!

 



AMDG

First Photo - September

It's the first of September and Labor Day already.  How did that happen?  It feels right that Labor Day is early this year.  It just kind of fits with the feeling of a short summer.

It's warm, humid and hazy today.  It feels like summer doesn't want to let go yet.  Good.  Neither do I.


AMDG