March for Life 2014

This was my second go round on the March, it was a different experience but a good experience. I was a chaperone with our parish priest and we were charged with keeping our little group of high spirited teens amongst the larger together. I love these kids, a few are almost ready to go off to college and it was a great opportunity to see them get out of our small town for a spell and focus our energies on a cause larger than ourselves. 

 

It's overwhelming being amongst half a million people but exhilarating, even though it was 19 degrees and it felt like the shuffle for life as we linked arms and tried to keep warm, it was a joyous crowd. This year's theme was Adoption, which was very fitting. Three of my cousins are adopted and they have been such a big part of our family.  

 

I believe every life matters, and it was a joy to stand up and be counted with so many people that I would severely miss if they weren't a part of my life :)

 

Also in the freezing cold and falling snow we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a poignant moment as we read the tomb and it said "Here rests in honored glory, an American soldier known but to God." And it just made me think of all the children who are known but to God.

Eastertide, spring on the wing, and adventures on the horizon

Sorry it's a little late in coming but Happy Easter Everyone!!! We're still in the octave right? So it's legit. I had a wonderful Easter weekend, I'm in two different choirs and we sang every day, it was splendid to hear the jubilant songs return, but most of all it was good to take a step out of the world and focus on spiritual matters. When Easter comes around, it's like falling in love with God all over again and knowing that He never ends. In the past year I've experienced moments of great joy, the kind of joy that pierces your soul but ties everything together with an unbreakable golden thread. I found this feather stuck to the elbow of my coat the other day and the sight of it just puts me at peace.

You are never too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny, okay I get visits from this little guy every day and he blesses my home with homemade black jellybeans in abundance (word of warning, don't eat them!). My mom still likes to give me an Easter basket, and hey who says no to free candy. Although, I had a major Fringe moment, I gave my mom a bouquet of tulips for Easter and guess what was in my basket? Red Vines. Those faithful few of you who watched the show will know the significance. 

 

Though I'm trying to eat a bit healthier I couldn't resist making this, after all the brie was expiring, see I had an excuse. It was so delicious and so easy, brie baked in crescent roll dough! My friend MaryAnne at lifeathaven.wordpress.com made me a jar of homemade mulberry jam. MaryAnne I apologize for waiting so long to open it ha ha! but whenever I thought of mulberries I would think of bird poop on the farm but the jam was delicious with the brie :) Also my friend Renee gifted me a lovely cookbook when I moved into my new house and I've decided to work my way through it Julia Child style, because there are so many healthy recipes in it that would spice up my diet more, thank you Renee.

As far as recent adventures, they have been relatively low key but memorable. I had a really beautiful and deep conversation about the nature of art through the eyes of faith, cafeteria food, travel, and the seeds of ideas that have the potential to bring change to the world with a friend that I met last summer. It's those kind of conversations that linger with you for days and replay in your mind. So many conversations are electronic these days that I savor the face to face encounters. I also got to catch up with a college friend last night that I hadn't hung out with in almost a year and our night was filled excellent food, The Hobbit, playing records, laughing at old photos and simply enjoying each other's company. Then came this morning's adventure, after barely any sleep I made it to an estate sale at 7:30 in the morning with my cousin in crime, Carrie of swankyladyvintage.etsy.com. We were giggling the entire time. Above are the treasures that I found, she found a crazy load of vintage swizzle sticks among other wonders. But we laughed the hardest at the Salvation Army run we made after the sale where we happened upon...adult...footie...pajamas, the worst part, we bought them. We plan to do a Macklemore inspired photo with them, they were too good to pass up. Even the cashier thought no one would buy them, but of course she was wrong. She admired our jovial sport and told us to "keep on laughing". 

Looking ahead, with my Indiana Jones hat in tow, with the warmer weather I foresee road trips, hijinks, bonfires, and the great unknown. The best thing about this hat is not that it was $2, it's that it makes me want to drive up to one of my friends say "Get in the car, there's no time to waste" and screech tires to make our future into something spontaneous and worthy of talking about for years to come. So I ask you, what is your next adventure?

Happy Palm Snowday!

So it's been a few weeks since my last blog post, sorry folks, I've been boggled with a lot of freelance lately which is a good thing!! I'm saving up for this long list of home improvements that I plan to make this spring and summer. My house has a lot of space but I feel like I'm not using it to the fullest, I've been in my house for three years and I've only managed to hang a mirror and a Tron poster. I have so much art that I need to frame. And I can't wait to get rolling on redoing my basement, I have a rather rad 80s toy collection that is screaming to be displayed (and played with ha ha).

Since my last post we got a POPE! I went to the symphony, ate free pie, saw a production of Footloose, celebrated my dad's birthday and laughed a lot with great people.

On a weather side note, yesterday people were in shorts and it was 50 degrees outside, today's forecast?  About 5 inches of snow, welcome to Illinois. Well, Holy Week has commenced, I've got my fresh palm branch and time to delve into some meditation and prayer this week. Where is your favorite place to find peace and quiet?

March in with a Mask

So, has anyone seen February, I just had it then I looked away for one minute and it was gone. It's been a busy month, and a fruitful Lent thus far as well. One of my non-Catholic friends asked me how long Lent was and I said 40 days. His response, "Yikes!" I look forward to Lent though I've grown out of giving up candy and ice cream, I've decided to evaluate the bad habits that are holding me back from being productive and focusing the necessary time for a healthy spiritual life. Distractions are a part of life but they grow on us like a warm blanket and we end up inviting even more in if we don't police it carefully. Thus I gave up Facebook, cut back on TV during weekdays, and invoked a 12pm curfew. And I must say the house is so quiet without the TV, I can hear myself think a lot louder and have been catching up on projects and visiting with friends. Recently I've been designing iphone covers for an online company as well as logos for a photographer and lawyer. I've been painting a lot more lately too, I go in spurts, and I'm going to embrace this batch of creativity while I can!

On a side note, I went with some friends to the downtown cathedral where Bishop Jenky held a prayer service for our now former Pope Benedict XVI, and we offered up our prayers for the new Pope to come. It was a gorgeous service and quite crowded. But the really cool thing that happened afterward, is Fr. Joe took my friend Jody and I to the reliquary chapel in the back of the cathedral - what people don't realize is that there are bone fragments in cases of dozens of the bodies of the saints. It's a little creepy, I agree, and odd to think of your body being split into a million tiny pieces when you die, but is was also really cool. They are very tiny but in beautiful little ornate cases and ornaments, even the hairs of Mother Theresa!

2013 March for Life Pilgrimage

My apologies for my absence over the last few days, I've been in DC. I volunteered to be a chaperone on our Diocese March for Life trip. It was a spiritually reaffirming trip, full of lively souls and quiet prayerful moments. It was surreal to be surrounded by 500,000 people all of different cultures and religions, standing up for a single cause - LIFE. Every life matters, and in the words of Dr. Seuss "A person's a person, no matter how small." No matter how a person was conceived, they are a person, worthy of respect and love. Some of my friends are pro-choice and I love them to death though we disagree. They argue that it's better for women to have abortions because our social services and foster care systems are appalling, well I'm sorry but something is seriously wrong with a country where it's better to be dead than be in the system. I also learned that children are a gift, not an entitlement. There were several parents of adopted children in attendance (a few in our group alone) and though they were not able to naturally conceive, they were called to adopt and it changed their lives. Everyone is wanted by someone. Change is coming and I'm proud to be a part of it. We also got to experience a taste of DC, I'd never been there and I already want to go back. The museums are absolutely amazing and we were literally speedwalking through, I about died at the Gemstones exhibit, I LOVE ROCKS! They were so pretty I wanted to spend all day there. I also got to know the youth of our parish a bit better, they are hilarious and creative and they give me hope for our future :)

Fringe is Forever...White Tulip

Tonight concludes one of the best television series to ever grace the set...FRINGE. There will truly never be another show like it-- It is a miracle that the show lasted 5 seasons given that it goes against what is popular. It mixed science, with wit and cinema quality handling--but at it's core it was a family drama in dire circumstances. There is Walter, the broken genius who tore the very fabric of the universe to save a son that wasn't his and spent the rest of his days paying the price. Peter, his estranged conman son, who never has had roots to tie himself down, nor anyone he could really be close too, a tetherless soul. And Olivia, a driven FBI agent, betrayed by her partner and lover, mentally and physically abused as a child, she has spent her life building an impervious exterior to not let fear and connection keep her from doing her job. Three seemingly disparate people find that they form a unique family unit that will last through the worst of circumstances. This show taught me many things, a lot has happened in their lives over the last 5 years and a lot has happened in mine. These characters and unusual phenomena have taught me the value of perception and seeing things from both points of view, the lengths that parents will go for the love of their children, the importance of sacrifice, that doing what is right at all costs is more important that being the best or winning, and that we all have a purpose and we can't even begin to know how much the choices we make affect the lives of those around us.

This show also handled faith in a way that I had never seen done, they handled it with respect. Walter, after being humbled by all of his life's betrayals knew he had betrayed God, by trying to be God and write the universe as he saw fit and defying the laws of nature to save a son that wasn't his. He asked for forgiveness, from his son who had been fed a house of lies and God. He asked for a sign, a white tulip. The last scene ended with a white tulip, a symbol of redemption.

I will miss them, I will miss Walter's latest food obsessions, Astrid's frustration that Walter never gets her name right, Peter's dry humor, Olivia's kindness to Ella and Etta, Nina's latest fashion choice, Broyles' gruffness, and all of the alternate universe characters especially Lincoln Lee, you tall drink of water you. I will miss the way the show made me think, it didn't force me to turn my brain off, it forced me to solve problems and invest my time into fully developed characters.

My night ended sharing a pack of Red Vines with my dad, and it made me so grateful for my parents and all that they sacrificed for me over the years, I owe them far more than I can ever repay. Thank you Fringe for helping me to realize that.

A New Year, a new chance

It's been an amazing year, one of the best of my life. I look back and smile on all of the wonderful people I'm blessed to know and all of the experiences I've been privileged to have. It has been a year of growth. We have hills and valleys and plateaus in our lives and this year was a hill. I started in a low place, questioning myself, my life choices, feeling inadequate and falling behind. Then I chose to rise above the negativity for comparison is the thief of joy. It doesn't matter what others think of me, for if I follow the path that God wants for me, arguments to steer me from that path are rendered moot. When others criticize my life, I listen, for they may have a point or perspective that I had not considered, but part of me smiles inside for if I'm criticized by worldly forces for doing good, then that means I must be doing something right. Life is too short for worry and fear, it's just long enough to be a bright spark in the darkness. I dare to make 2013 even more amazing than 2012, and I dare you to do the same.