A Prayer for Christmas

Dear God, Creator and Savior, I, who am the least of thy servants, lift my eyes to the heavens and make bold to sing thy praises.  Throughout the year, but especially at this time when we celebrate your greatest gift to us, I am aware of thy greatness, thy mercy, and thy love.  I thank you for all that is seen and unseen.  Look into my heart and test it for truth and love and worthiness.  Speak to my spirit which honors thee and my soul which is the reflection of your divinity.  Thank you for the sunrise and sunset and the ever-changing moon.  They are the manifest evidence of your creation of our universe.  Thank you for the multitude of graces given us by a father's loving intervention in our lives.  I trust that you will lead me to whatever destination pleases you in fulfillment of your plan for me.  You have read my heart and know what is in it.  I ask thy blessing on those I love....that you grant them joy and peace and understanding.  I offer myself as a sacrifice to that purpose and accept thy will, whatever it may be.  Amen.

The Fourth Week of Advent....

Time marches on with incredible dedication.  We have so little of it here.  Some of us have to hurry to complete our "life tasks" and some of us never do finish.  There are those who say this leads inexorably to a return to "earth school" to get through the learning process and accomplish all the things that were intended for us.  I have no idea.  This presumes an active and participatory cosmic supervision of some sort, but then, so do all religious philosphies.  There is a great deal of comfort offered by the notion that there is an external "higher power" to which appeals can be made.  It is my belief that our "Deity" is internal.  If we are made in His image and, Jesus, His incarnation, tells us we each have the spark of divinity within, what else could it mean?  Just maybe we each carry within us the power of God.  Doesn't that require that we be held to a much higher standard?

Remembering something

Yesterday, December 14th, was the 63rd anniversary of my Mom and Dad's wedding......December 14, 1946.  Dad died on July 19,1995, and Mom passed on August 23, 2009.  She never forgave Dad for dying. and spent the last fourteen years of her life being incredibly angry with him and turning into someone that neither I, nor Patricia, nor MaryBeth could recognize.  The three of us independently remembered their anniversary.  It was a quiet recollection.  It was a little sad and painful, but we believe they are together in heaven or waiting for heaven.  In any event, the belief that they are together is comforting to us..  Wherever they are, God keeps them and that is the safest place in the universe.

Sunday morning, clear and warm

Okay, only the lights are on the tree and I didn't finish baking.  Today there are two masses, trips to the pharmacy and the grocery store, tree decorating and baking........."and a partridge in a pear tree."  It can get quite hectic, but I can keep up.  I am filled with anticipation, expectation, elation, joy and love.  The only thing that could possibly make it better is the realization of dreams.

Come Saturday morning.......

Saturdays are the days when chores and errands get done.  Today will be more decorating, complete with photographs.  There is more laundry and baking to do.  Tomorrow will be "clean up" day, as in "all of the things I did not get done today".   

This is the third week-end of Advent.  We will light the rose-colored candle.  Rose is the color for joy in the church.  I am joyful......in my own way.  I love the music of the Church and being in the choir.  I love my relationship with my friend.  I love the possibilities of the future in every aspect of my life. 

I feel love.  I feel loved.  I am love.

O happy day.....O happy, happy Friday....

Yes, indeed, I have survived to see another Friday.

I have so many questions about life..mine and the lives of those I care for.  Like everyone else, I have always had questions.  Life has taught me that sometimes the answers to them are not always what I want....... and sometimes, there aren't any answers at all.   I don't know where I came up with the notion that if you understand why, the circumstances will be more tolerable.  There is a flaw in that logic.  Just because you know that your leg hurts because you broke it, doesn't make the pain more bearable. However, a new day is always an opportunity for new answers and  new experiences.   Any day you wake up is a good day.

Some Mondays are just too much

And today was one of them.  To begin with, the refrigerator died an ugly death on Saturday night.  Well, it didn't actually die, it just stopped being cold, which caused nearly everything in it to die or smell like it did.  Unfortunately, I can't get a reputable repair man here until Tuesday afternoon. 

I just finished paying the November bills.  That was devastating enough because it is already December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day.  Seems some how appropriate.

I don't have my life on track yet and I am 61 years old.  What is wrong with this picture?

By the light of the Cold Moon

She hangs there in the eastern sky tempting me with dreams.  She frost everything with silver and discretely hides my flaws.  Oh, gentle Moon, who bathes with kindness care-worn eyes and an age-worn face, extend your blessing to my world-worn heart and open my soul to the possibility that love might some day come to me.