One of my favorite books from our one-year journey with JustFaith last year was entitled Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Henri Nouwen and others. In this book, the authors talk about the idea of voluntary displacement–the idea of consciously setting oneself outside of what is comfortable and protective and thus cultivating a [...]
Archive for July, 2009
29 Jul
Timing
Rob saw him first. There we were, taking the opportunity of an extra-long layover on our way home from New Jersey to walk around the terminals in Dallas Fort-Worth. We wandered into an area that we had never gone through before, just enjoying the chance to stretch our legs–after all, we still had another 3 hour [...]
27 Jul
So Lucky
As our week in New Jersey comes to a close, I reflect today on how lucky I am. I married a perfect gentleman, a man with wonderful family values and a heart as big as the sky–and whenever I spend time with his family, especially his parents, I am consistently reminded why he is the [...]
26 Jul
“I hear the rolling thunder…”
“…Thy power throughout the universe displayed…”
I love weather. I just can’t help it. It brings out the little child from within me and I squeal like I was 5 years old.
We have been blessed this week with some pretty awesome thunderstorms. Thunderstorms, to me, are among my favorite of the extreme weather occurrences. I think [...]
25 Jul
“Married to Amazement”
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms…
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
-Mary Oliver
Today my wonderful family by marriage and I went frolicking through the beautiful countryside of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I found [...]
24 Jul
Fiddle finagling and farm frenzy
So I pulled out my fiddle this morning to practice, and BOING! My G string, the lowest string, broke. Practice postponed.
This gave me a great excuse to restring both that string and the D string, completing my restringing since nabbing the fiddle at the Pico Blvd. garage sale. I can’t tell you how much better [...]
23 Jul
Simple Fun
Sometimes the way you plan things to turn out just isn’t the way that God wants them to be. That’s okay; the trick of responding faithfully is to figure out a way to be joyful anyway.
Today we had a wonderful day planned with the whole family–parents, sisters, nieces, and aunts–to visit a large sculpture garden. [...]
22 Jul
The Value of a Mentor
A continual lesson in my life seems to be to hold gently the balance between being a gutsy risk taker and a humble apprentice.
Here we are in New Jersey, miles away from our home in California but feeling right at home in the house of my incredible set of in-laws. Robert’s parents really do feel [...]
20 Jul
Life without TV
So this is the picture that I’m posting as “for sale” on Craigslist–both the TV and the entertainment center–as part of the next step in our simplification process. I would be lying if I told you that this decision was an easy one for me. In fact, I think it was easier for my husband [...]
19 Jul
Seeking the Sabbath
I’m sure this is the first posting of many regarding my personal reflections on what Sabbath means. The readings from Mass certainly prompted the timing of this blog, but it’s something that Rob and I have been in conversation about for a few months now.
So the Bible says that even God set aside a day [...]
Just a joyful Catholic girl trying to live as simply and consciously and gratefully as possible in this beautiful, amazing world...and bringing as many as possible along for the ride.