I Want to Be Little

I'm feeling a little emptied out today, and my well of ideas for blog posts feels like it has run pretty dry. Sometimes I think I should take a few weeks off and get rejuvenated, and then come back with all sorts of interesting anecdotes and profound insights for you (as if I could!); but I know that if I did that my husband would go through major withdrawals.  He is my #1 reader and cheerleader--my #1 everything--and I really don't like to let him down.  So I'm going the lazy route today, because after all, Sunday is meant to be a day of rest: I'm giving you a re-run and simply recycling "Spiritual Childhood," a post that first appeared on this blog a little over a year ago.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Spiritual Childhood

Sometimes, the most beautiful things come into our house buried in the piles of what would otherwise have to be labeled "junk mail."  For instance, we recently got some cards from a Missouri group called the Association of the Miraculous Medal, and one of them had this darling painting by Donald Ruessler on the cover.

St. Therese of Lisieux taught the "Little Way of Spiritual Childhood," saying that the way to Heaven is easier when one remains humble and small--when one keeps his soul in a state of childlike innocence, with a child's boundless capacity for love and joy.  When I saw this piece of artwork, I thought immediately of St. Therese the "Little Flower" and her "Little Way."  There is nothing more pleasing in the eyes of God than the simplicity, purity, and innocence of a young child, like the angelic little girl depicted here--for as Jesus said, "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matt. 19:14).  It is said that God always listens to our prayers, especially the prayers of children.  I love the way this painting perfectly illustrates that idea.

I am drawn to this piece of artwork not only because of the little blond angel (a reminder to me of my angelic twin granddaughters), but because of the Miraculous Medal on the bottom left, with both the front and back view shown.  I have been wearing a Miraculous Medal for many years now, strengthened by the knowledge that Our Lady Herself promised to give graces to those who wear it with confidence.  I could use all the graces I can get, so I'll continue to wear my medal until the day I die, and to pray the words engraved on its front: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

In the meantime, I need to work on becoming more childlike with each passing year...so that the older my body gets, the younger my soul will become.  Because I think the perfect scenario would be to leave this world just the way I came into it, as small and helpless as a newborn baby.

**********

As much as I do desire the kind of littleness St. Therese espoused, I often struggle with wanting to be more than I am...with wanting to be more well-liked...with wanting to be more well thought of in the eyes of the world.  I want to embrace my littleness fully, without longing for bigger and better things.  I want to love God with the purity of a small child and remember that I must strive to be pleasing in HIS eyes only.  I'm glad I re-posted this today, because I needed it as a reminder that I still have such a very long way to go to achieve my goal of Spiritual Childhood.

My Generous Blogging Friends

I wasn't going to post anything today.  I was going to give you all (or y'all, for you Southerners out there) a bit of a break.

But this morning when I was scrolling through the list of blogs I read daily (this blog roll shows up on my Blogger Dashboard page, where I go to write new posts or edit old ones), I was surprised to see a picture of a copy of Finding Grace included in a picture collage next to the text of today's post on "Footprints on My Heart."

When I clicked on there to read the post, I found out that my young blogging friend Sarah Therese has begun to read my book.  I am both touched and terrified.  Whenever I know that someone is reading it, I get a bit nervous.  That's one thing about having a published book that was difficult for me: once it was "out there," it was open to criticism and bad reviews, and I had to brace myself for soul-crushing rejection (hyperbole, anyone?).  I was pretty much sick to my stomach for about three weeks after it was released in August of 2012, and then with the help and support of my husband, I began to relax.  I kept reminding myself that it was okay if no one in the entire world liked it; I had honestly written it first and foremost in an effort to give glory to God; secondly as a gift to my kids and grandkids; and thirdly in hopes of inspiring just one young person to fight the good fight in this new topsy-turvy world of ours, where right is wrong and wrong is right.   And to be honest, I never truly thought it would get published anyway, and that was okay with me as long as the aforementioned people gave it the thumb's up.

So far, readers have been very kind.  Another generous blogging friend, Erica over at "Boys, Books, and Balls," read it recently and gave it this mention and this kind endorsement.

It seems strange that I have blogging friends that I will never actually meet, but I do feel a special kinship with these women.  I had no idea, before I started participating in blog link-ups not too long ago, what a rich and vibrant world of Catholic blogging was going on out there on the Internet, and I never even knew about it.  Most of the blogs I read are written by women much younger than I am; many of them are raising small children and are right in the heart of their child-bearing years.  Many of them homeschool and have very large families--not just by today's standards, but by the standards of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Most practice NFP, and no matter how big their families are already, they are delighted to welcome another baby made in God's image and likeness.  Erin from Australia, one of the bloggers with whom I've had many "conversations" over the past months, has just announced that she is expecting her 10th child, due around Christmas--and her oldest child will be 20 when the new babe arrives!

Truly, I feel fortunate to have discovered this vibrant and uplifting world of Catholic blogging, a world filled to the brim with family values and faith--just when I thought the world was going to you-know-where in a hand basket.  It's a world where one can find a comfortable kinship with other Catholics, when so often these days it seems as if we're expected to apologize for believing in and following the tenets of our beautiful Faith.

Thanks to all of you Catholic blogging women out there who have given my morale a tremendous boost.  And thanks, Sarah Therese, for plugging my book on your lovely blog.  I can't wait to hear what you think of it...or can I?  (LOL, as they say.)

7 Quick Takes Friday, Volume 18: The Faces of God's Children

Back in 1999, the nun who was the principal at our sons' Catholic grade school asked me to paint some artwork on the hallway walls of the basement level of the building, where the kindergarten classrooms, nurse's office, library, and several storage rooms were located. The theme was to be "multi-culturalism" (which at the time I didn't realize had a bit of an agenda associated with it), and I decided to paint children of all different colors from all over the world, with the words "Be friends...love one another..." and "We are all children of God...all precious in His sight... all beautiful..." written beneath them.  I was only able to paint two of the images full-length, facing each other from either side of the end of the hallway. Here's my youngest son (when he was a WHOLE LOT SHORTER than he is today) standing next to one of these almost life-sized children, shortly after I'd finished the job and put my paints and brushes away.

Just beyond where my son is standing in this picture, there were wooden cubbies for the students' coats, boots, and backpacks on the bottom half of the walls on either side, so for the rest of the children, I painted only faces--surrounded by glittering golden stars--floating above those.  

Recently, I was made aware that since the school has grown and changed (and the pre-K and kindergarten rooms are no longer located along this basement hallway), there are plans to paint over the images I so painstakingly applied to the walls, during quiet after-school hours in 3- and 4-hour sessions.  These faces of God's children will no longer go with the decor that is planned for this area of the school, which will include trophy cases and framed memorabilia from its 100 years of serving the area's Catholic families.  Therefore, I thought I'd better go and get some pictures of my babies before they're gone for good, hidden away forever under a fresh coat of paint.

Lest you think my little break from this 7QTF link-up made me forget how it works, I do have some takes, and they are nothing if not quick.  Today I'm sharing 7 of my favorite images from this art project, one that was a complete labor of love for a school that was like a second home to my boys for many years.  These will be the quickest takes I've ever posted!

--- 1 ---

--- 2 ---

--- 3 ---

--- 4 ---

--- 5 ---

--- 6 ---

--- 7 ---

I was going to try to end this with something clever (clever-ish?), like "And there's my little rogues' gallery."  Then I looked up "rogues' gallery," because I wasn't exactly sure what it meant and didn't want to use it in the wrong context.  Well, it's a term used to describe a police collection of pictures of criminals and suspects. So...I really don't think these sweet children deserve to be called that...and I'll just wrap this up by saying head on over to Jen's!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Theme Thursday: Water

I just had to link up with Cari at Clan Donaldson today, because the theme this week is so apropos.  I've got water on the brain.

My husband grew up in a house on a lake, in northern New York.  We just came back from a visit up there with two of my husband's sisters and their broods, and I snapped a couple of pictures the other day as I was sipping my first cup of coffee in the a.m.  The morning sun was shining on the water, making it sparkle like diamonds.  That's what my late mother-in-law used to say, as she sat in her comfy stuffed chair in the kitchen, staring out at the view: "The lake is diamonds."

It's astonishingly beautiful, isn't it?  Is it any wonder that my husband and his seven siblings gravitate to their childhood abode every summer with their families in tow, to be together again in such heavenly surroundings?

To this day, my hubby could sit and stare at the water for hours on end, mesmerized.  The view right out behind his childhood home is his favorite on earth--and as an airline pilot who's been flying hither and yon for a quarter of a century (to breathtakingly beautiful spots, both foreign and domestic), trust me, he's seen a lot of terrific views.  Give him a Diet Mt. Dew or a beer (depending on the hour of day) and a deck chair to sit in, and he could be happy for hours on end, just sitting on the deck of his parents' house, gazing at the water.

When my mother-in-law died in 2009 (six years after we lost my father-in-law), my husband and his siblings decided to keep the house and share it equally, rather than sell it and split up the proceeds, and they formed an LLC to manage its upkeep.  This year, a new sea wall was built in order to shore up the bank, because they were losing so much real estate to erosion.  Atop the sea wall is a gigantic patio like you've never seen before: I believe my husband could land one of his 767's on it.  I can only imagine the fun we're going to have sitting on that patio when the whole gang is there (which will happen around the 4th of July). We have a big gang.  It's a gang that needs a big patio.

It's not just the water that brings us all together in that place; it's the shared family memories that have been made there--not just for my husband's generation, but for our boys and their many Pearl cousins.

Yes, it's really family that makes this spot special.  But the fact that it's by the water doesn't hurt one bit.

Now swim on over to Cari's.  The water's fine!

Happy Birthday to My Best Guy

Here is a picture of my then boyfriend/future husband and me on June 19, 1974, when we'd been "going together" for almost a year.

That night, we did something a little out of character: we got all gussied up (that's a floor-length dress I'm wearing, a hand-me-down from an aunt) and went on a fancy double-date with some friends of ours.  Normally, our dates went a little more like this: put on a nice peasant blouse and jeans (me) and a clean t-shirt and jeans (him) and meet up with the gang at the Strand or DQ.  But that night, in celebration of my boyfriend's 16th birthday, we pulled out all the stops and had a nice dinner at our favorite grown-up restaurant out by the lake (the same restaurant where he was a bus boy every summer during high school).  It was a formal affair, my friends.  It is still one of my favorite high school memories.

That guy was just the BEST BOYFRIEND EVER.  As a dreamy-eyed teenager I wrote a love poem about him--about the boy who would become the man who would become my husband.  This poem was packed away in a box, along with my disintegrating scrapbooks and other priceless bits of my girlhood memorabilia, for over 30 years.  At the time that box of treasures was unearthed (around Christmastime 2010), I had in my possession only one surviving high school scrapbook and wondered what had ever happened to all the others I knew I'd lovingly put together.  When I went through that musty box, I couldn't believe the plethora of long-forgotten souvenirs of my youth it contained.  Not just my missing scrapbooks, but many other goodies, including a poorly written (but heartfelt) ode to my boyfriend.

I know you're probably dying to hear this poetic masterpiece from 1975...so without further ado, I give you "To the Special One":

Many boys are handsome,

Of this I have no doubt.

But who could be as beautiful

As you, both in and out?

Many boys are funny,

I admit that this is true.

But who can bring such gentle mirth?

I know it's only you!

Many boys are kind, of course,

This isn't hard to guess.

But only you alone possess

That caring thoughtfulness.

Many boys are talented,

But none so much as you.

God blessed you with abilities

In all you say and do.

The great thing about blogging is that if you're laughing at me (because I'm not a poet and I don't know it), at least I can't see or hear you.

But those feelings I had for my husband back then--and I knew deep down he was the only one for me, even at 16--have only gotten stronger and stronger over the going-on-33 years of our marriage.  So on his birthday, maybe we should get all gussied up again, go out to some fancy restaurant, and celebrate the fact that we've been so incredibly blessed to be able to grow up together. Hopefully we'll get to grow old(er) together, too!

Happy Birthday to my best guy (my boyfriend forever), with love from the luckiest girl who ever lived.

The Bar is Open!

We have a bar area in our "man cave"/sports room.  It wasn't planned, but came about with the help of a little serendipity.

A few years ago when I was out on a walk in a neighborhood near ours, I saw a nicked-up 70's-era pine bar (a cast-off, no doubt, from someone's college frat boy days) at the end of a driveway, with a sign on it that said $10.  I stopped walking, pulled my cell phone out of my super cool fanny pack (yes, I live simultaneously in modern times and the Stone Age), and called my husband right then and there.  Good husband that he is, he drove over--stat!-- in our fire engine red 15-seater Dodge Ram van to pick it up.  We brought it back to the house and were pleased to see that with a little wiping down and a shiny new coat of varnish on the counter, it was as good as new.  Originally, I thought we might pass it on to one of our sons, who was getting ready to move into his first apartment.  But we liked that very manly pine bar so much, and it looked so at home in our very manly sports room, that it was a total case of finder's keepers.

That may be the best $10 we ever spent.

The three vintage-style bar stools we bought to go with it, however, were a tad pricier at $40 apiece.  They're wonderful, though--and I really think they deserve a close-up.

These stools are proof that you can find absolutely anything on-line.  They don't even brew Pearl beer anymore, but there are sites like this one where you can pick up all sorts of Pearl beer paraphernalia.  If you're a fan of beer-themed home decor (like we Pearls are), fear not: the Internets probably have just what you're looking for.

Okay, the bar's closed now.  Commence partying elsewhere!

{simple saturday}: Boys and Trucks

What makes little boys happy?  Big trucks!!

This picture of my two young nephews watching the work going on in the back yard of their grandparents' house yesterday, from their front row balcony seats on the deck, pretty much tells the whole story.  Words are simply unnecessary.

I love boys.  And they love trucks.  And that is all.

Join Iris for more simple thoughts on this glorious Saturday morning.