First Photo - March

Better late than never I suppose.  I actually did take the picture on the first of this month, but being computerless left me late in posting it.  And, surprise, surprise!  More snow.  I'm beginning to wonder if April's first photo will be the same as well. 


AMDG

For my edification

I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks feeling angry and agitated.  I knew a case of raging PMS played a large part in it.  The weather, the seemingly never ending frigid temperatures and snow wasn’t helping either.  A broken computer and a failed attempt to get a new one just added insult to injury.  But late last week I realized something else was adding to the stress.

I tend to be a news junkie.  In the morning I usually check anywhere from four to ten news sites to see what’s happening in the world.  On top of that, many of my feeds on Facebook are news or political organizations.

What I’ve been finding lately is many of the site are more interested in invoking an emotional response rather than just reporting the facts as news.  Headlines are misleading if not downright wrong.  The stories leave out critical details, giving only one, biased side of the events in question.  In an attempt to sway me to their way of thinking, the author or reporter many times tells lies of omission. 

After reading articles that often paint a picture far from the truth, I have felt used and abused.  My time has been wasted and my emotions have been manipulated and played upon.

Late last week, Thursday to be exact, after reading one too many of these "stories" I decided that I have had enough.  Life is too short and too precious to be conned by charlatans posing as journalists.

I am tired of reading "what’s wrong with the world."  Chesterton’s response to that question when posed to him was short and to the point, "I am."

We’re human.  Humanity long has screwed up, both on a personal level and the world around him.  Just check out Adam and Eve.

But the bigger question is "What are we going to do about it?"

What are we, what am I, going to do to make it better?

For me, the first step is to take myself out of the line of fire.  Being bombarded by misleading headlines and stories of only partial truths was eating too much at my soul and at my sanity.

I unfriended, unfollowed, and removed from favorites any and all news feeds that I found questionable, which was pretty much all of them.  And I bet you might be surprised at some that have been banished.

I am not going to stick my head in the sand and ignore the world around me.  But, I will be much more selective of where, when and from whom I get information.

What I want to do instead is fill that void with positive action and soul nourishment.  I need to figure out how to make things good and just and right, if not for the whole of humanity, for my little part of it.

I need that for my edification.


AMDG

Mindfulness

This morning, shortly before lunchtime, our receptionist sent out an email to everyone letting us know that there were goodies in the kitchen.   Jimmy Johns dropped off three sandwiches for us to sample.   Considering it was Ash Wednesday I thought their timing was pretty bad, but given how fast they disappeared it doesn’t seem as though there are many Catholics at my company.  Later on, when I was in the kitchen, a bit after lunch, there was a boxes of leftover doughnuts and pizza sitting out for whomever wanted to munch.

I thought how I mindlessly eat things, not because I am hungry but because it’s there.   I was glad for the fasting of this day as I wasn’t tempted to swipe a snack or two.

This evening while waiting for dinner to cook, I read a few blogs and two struck me and helped solidify what my Lent is to be about.   Rebecca is going to pay more attention to her prayer life.  Spending time with the Lord will take a priority over the instant access to social media.   Then I read Stephanie’s post about picking a word on which to focus over the course of these forty Lenten days.

My Lenten plans suddenly became clear.   The word that I thought about at work today is it - mindfulness.

I had been struggling as to what I was going to do in preparation for Easter.   I really didn’t feel called to give up something. In doing that it seemed like I was choosing something more for health reasons than for sacrificial and prayerful purposes.   I knew I wanted to do something.

I need to be mindful.   About what I eat.   About what I say and do and write.   About what I fill my mind with through books and television and the net.  About what I spend time and money on.

When we watch our niece we are careful in the language that we use.   Her little mind absorbs everything.   We don’t want to be the person that teaches Sara her first bad word.  Actually, it was her mother that did that one!   Sis still blushes over that.  So why do I use those same words around anyone else?

The need of being mindful about what I read and write became terribly obvious to me last week.   I scribbled out a rant a couple of days ago and when I post it tomorrow I think you’ll see why.   Words and time make a difference.

I do love when things come together.   I struggled the last few days figuring out what I was supposed to be doing.   Thanks to Rebecca, Stephanie and a mixed up set of circumstances I’m now mindful of just what it is.


AMDG

Enforced downtime

With all great intentions, I had planned on participating in Jen’s 7-in-7.  I even had a few ideas for things I wanted to write about.  Alas, it was just not meant to be. 

Sunday after doing some futzing and clean up on this page (I added labels) I decided to install some patches on my laptop.  Sometime after that, my eight or nine year old machine gave up the ghost.  The screen went black and the hard drive started making an awful noise and just spins and spins. 

I knew I was going to need to get a new machine, I was just hoping it would be at my leisure.  I have one ordered and it should come early next week.  Do you know just how hard it is to find machines that still have Windows 7?  Very.  And I know I do not want Windows 8, not my thing!

As annoying as it is to have to scramble to get a new machine, there’s been a big plus in all this.  I don’t have a device that is eating up all my “spare” time.  I knew I spent too much time on the computer playing games and catching up on my favorite TV shows that I can watch online.  I now see just how much that was.

Just in the couple of days that I’ve been laptopless, I’ve gotten a lot of long neglected chores done.  A year and a half worth of paperwork has been gone through and is ready to be filed.  Cleaning has been done.  I’ve been reading another great book. 

So, I sneak writing and posting this at work and I’ll see you sometime next week!

AMDG

A good read: Race With the Devil

Saturday I made the comment that even when I'm not writing about Chesterton, I'm writing about Chesterton.  I think that this has to be one of those cases.

 

2010 GKC conference: Himself, Pearce, me

Back in 2010 we attended the Chesterton conference where one of the speakers was Joseph Pearce.  Himself had just finished Wisdom and Innocence, Pearce's biography of Chesterton and I had started it.  After his talk we had the opportunity to meet the author and get his autograph on our well worn copy of the book.  This past summer Pearce was once again a speaker at the Chesterton conference, this time talking about Tolkien and the Hobbit. 

 

 

2013 GKC conference: Pearce

Both times we heard him speak he was both entertaining and brilliantly informative.  Often during his talks and, in the introductions Dale Ahlquist gave, his storied past was alluded to.  He had spent time in prison on two occasions and was active the white supremacist movement in Britain during the seventies and eighties.

 

Thankfully, after all the biographies he has written, he has put pen to paper about his own story.  In Race With the Devil he will tell you that the book is not so much an autobiography as it is his conversion story. 

 

Nominally Anglican, he was raised to hate Catholicism and all things "papist."  He soon gave up any acknowledgement of God and faith played no part in his life for many years.  As a teen he became involved in the National Front and soon became a prominent leader and editor of the Bulldog, the organization's newspaper.  He was imprisoned twice under Britain's Race Relations Act for publishing materials thought likely to to incite racial hatred. 

 

A prolific reader, he was introduced to the works of a number of Catholic writers including Hilaire Belloc, Otto Strasser and GK Chesterton after his second incarceration.  Although he did not approve of their Catholicism, he found their political and social views appealing.  As he sought out and read more and more of Chesterton's works  he began to see the truth and faith in the teachings of the Church. 

 

Pearce's story, his conversion, with all the gory details of his racist and violent past, seems like it ought to be just that, a story.  But reading his works, listening to him speak, I get the feeling God has mighty big plans for this man.  He truely shows that there can be a  Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love.



AMDG

Weekends with Chesterton: Democracy of the Dead

“Trdition is the democracy of the dead. It means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes: our ancestors.”

- Orthodoxy

Lately, if it wasn't for GKC, I would have very few posts.  But that's okay as he has much better things to say than I.  And you'll see later on this week, even when I'm not writing about Chesterton, I'm writing about Chesterton.

 

This past week the American Chesterton Society posted the details about this year's conference to be held at University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary) in Mundelein, Illinois.  If you have never gone and perhaps are thinking about it, I have one word for you: GO!

 

We went to our first conference back in 2010 at Mount St. Mary University in Emmitsburg Md and had a most remarkable time.  I was a bit nervous about going as I had read very little GKC and figured I was going to be surrounded by a bunch of stuffy academics.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The speakers were excellent and the other attendees were so very welcoming.  At a couple of the conferences there have been evening plays and the big guy himself, GKC, usually makes an appearance. 
 

Speakers: Joesph Pearce, Leah Darrow, Peter Kreeft

Interesting people, shopping at the vendor displays, contemplating life from
a tree (a la "Manalive"), praying the rosary at lunchtime



Socrates (meets Jesus), Magic, GKC



 Linking up with Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things for Weekends with Chesterton.

AMDG 

Weekends with Chesterton: Wonder Doubled

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

- A Short History of England

I think that as a married couple we have found our strength in being grateful.  We are thankful for each other, the gifts we've been given, and even the little things around us.  The birds at the feeder and the flowers in the garden make us happy, as do reading good books or a walk in the park.

We have been asked to contribute to the For Your Marriage section of the USCCB’s website where I will be writing monthly articles with Himself from the perspective of a couple living out their marriage vows without children.   We named our blog Wonder Doubled in honor of this quote of Chesterton's. 
 

Linking up with Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things for Weekends with Chesterton.

 

 

AMDG

 

Quick Takes (30) - This and that

 

- 1-

Well, I’ve embraced GK’s observation that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly!  I have been asked to contribute to the For Your Marriage section of the USCCB’s website where I will be writing monthly articles with Himself from the perspective of a couple living out their marriage vows without children. We call our blog Wonder Doubled.  We’ll be stealing plenty of good stuff from the big man!  Please keep us in your prayers as we string together a few coherent sentences each month!

- 2 -

A week or so ago we had some wickedly cold weather, like the way below zero kind of cold, with a lot of wind.  We started seeing some odd formations along the ground which we later found out are called snow rollers.  They are both interesting and rather freakish.

 

 

- 3 -

I hate wishing time away, but the weather of late has been such that May just can't get here fast enough.  Not only should it bring warmer weather, but, in case you missed it, it'll bring our Waiting Well Weekend.

- 4 -

Last year one of my goals was to read more substantive books and less fluff.  I didn't do all that well but this year seems to be off to a better start.  I am just about done with Joesph Pearce's Race with the Devil.  It is his story of conversion from agnostic to the Catholic faith.  Once I got started it has been hard to put down.

- 5 -

Oh, the garden catalogs have been flooding the mailbox lately!  A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning home and garden talk show they referred to them as garden porn.  I'm not so sure about that name but they are certainly addictive.  I page through them marking this, and this and this, . . .  Anyone have a credit card I can borrow????

 

- 6 -

Of course I must include the gratuitous dog picture.  Jack was humiliated with the sock of shame this week.  He has a sore on his foot that he will obsessively lick if we don't keep it covered.  A few days wearing one of my socks should cure him of that! 

 

- 7 -

"... that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."

- G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

 

Don't forget to check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Have a great weekend!

 

AMDG



Weekends with Chesterton: Fly!

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.

- Orthodoxy

 

I think this has to be one of Chesterton's more frequently misquoted lines.    The words 'can' are often omitted, leaving a big difference in meaning.  Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it or do it frequently.  But then again, sometimes you just have to take yourself lightly!



 

 Linking up with Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things for Weekends with Chesterton.

 

 

AMDG

First Photo - February

 

It doesn't seem like much has changed from last's month's photo, we still have snow, at least for now.  It is forty degrees out and raining so much of the white ground cover is disappearing.  This picture, however, as the telltale signs of the fun that was had last weekend - lots of footprints and sled marks!

 

AMDG