"Blessed Mother"

I was looking through some of my old scrap books yesterday, which I haven't done in I don't know how long... Anyway, as I was looking through them I found a poem that my Grandpa wrote before he died. It is a beautiful poem which I have put below. I also found some notes he wrote to me that I totally forgot about. As I was looking at those things he wrote I became a little sad. I always like to tease my friends when they complain about their grandparents and tell them at least they are lucky to have theirs still living... all of mine have passed away already. I think I miss my Grandpa Mike the most because I remember the most about him. All the others died when I was really young, and so I do not remember them so well. There are things I remember about him, like how he would always give us chocolate when we would bring him his mail everyday, or how he LOVED fishing so much... he would go fishing all the time and he cooked the best fish frys ever... he called me his "little piano girl" and would brag about me to his friends when they would come over. There are so many other memories that came almost immediately to me as I was looking at his stuff, and I hope that I have made him proud to be called my grandpa... Anyway, one of his favorite things to do was write poetry. He even had a book published with his work along with other family members poems in it. Here is one of his favorites;

Blessed Mother

May you keep us in your sight
protecting us day and night.
If we are downtrodden and weary,
send us your love to make us cheery.

When we say your rosary we envision
you kneeling at the foot of the Cross,
and it reminds us that you
suffered a great loss.

Ask your blessed Son Jesus to forgive
us for our share in putting Him there.
We want you to know, Blessed Mother,
that we have found Jesus--
no other.

Help us, we pray, to live each day
as we would if we were standing
BEFORE GOD.

-Michael Morgan-

The Catholic Church teachings and the death penalty

Last night I was able to spend the evening playing penny poker with my extended family members ( as a side note, I ended up winning a dollar in pennies... so if we were playing with dollars I would have made a nice amount... my Aunt wanted to take me to Vegas with her to win her some money...) and we somehow got on the topic of the death penalty. I have mixed feelings about this topic as it is, but having to listen to my family debate over this issue brought some interesting things to come up. I know that my dad happens to be a believer in the death penalty, and although he is, I am still not at all happy with the whole idea of it... What really got me was how one of my cousins who is very against the death penalty happens to also be pro-choice, which I cannot really understand. She seems so worried about convicting innocent people to the death penalty, but she is okay with killing an innocent baby who also did nothing wrong... I am not quite sure how she can be okay with killing that baby, but not okay with killing someone who was innocent, but found guilty. It seems like those two things kind of go hand in hand to me, but what do I know. So as my family was debating this topic, I decided to not make much head way, mainly because in my family when they get into one of these heated debates you kind of have to yell to get yourself heard, plus I had started to get a head ache from hearing way too many people talking all at once. Instead I would look at my cousin who was standing next to me and feeling in the same boat as I was and occasionally add a comment to him here or there. Today I started thinking more about this whole death penalty issue and decided I'd look up what the Church teachings are on it in the Catechism, and this is what I found;

"The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safegaurding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety. It has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm- without definitively taking away from him the possiblilty of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically non-existent."
- C.C.C. (2266-2267)-

I hate the "G" word

The thing about having to say good-bye is when you have regrets... especially if you never truly told a good friend how much you appreciate them, and how important they are in your life. After they have left, you regret taking them for granted, because when you finally realize you've taken a friendship for granted... it may be too late to fix it. I hope that those people who are leaving know how much I love and will miss being around them terribly. Just thinking about this year without them is making it hard for me to breath... like I will suffocate without them here... The hardest good-byes for me to make have finally started to begin, and I'm not gonna lie... I'm hating that feeling right after you say good-bye.... you know that kind of empty feeling. Like all of a sudden there is this empty space that once was so full and everything felt so right. I'm not saying that just because they are gone means that I automatically forget them, because that's when I think about them the most, but not having them close by where I can see them when I need to is what is really killing me. There are the things that people always say when they are saying good-bye. Things like, "don't worry... we''ll keep in touch.," "I won't be gone for long," "Me leaving won't change anything," so forth and so on... it's as though there is some unwritten rule and people feel the need to say those things. The problem is that sometimes when people say these things, they say them in the beginning probably believing it, but really when you or someone else leaves, things will always change. Everyone starts focusing on the new people in their life that they meet, and slowly the old kind of goes on the back burner. It's sad when that happens... I think the worst thing is when you have been forgotten about by someone you could never forget. I guess that's what I really fear when I say good-bye to people... that they will forget about the good times we had together and how close we once were. I have a feeling though, at least on my part, that the one's who are leaving for wherever life takes them, that they will be the kind of friends I will keep for life. I am not saying we will always be as close as we once were (which if I had my way, we would be), but I am going to work really hard in keeping them in my future life, because once I met them and I thought about life before them I can't even imagine how my life would be without them in it.

Kid's Say the Darndest Things #4

Aaron: Mommy, I need a dollar. (he picks up her purse and starts to dig through it.)

Maria (his mom): Hey now, didn't I ever teach you you're not supposed to go through a woman's purse?

Aaron: You're not a woman. You're just a mom!
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Miss Ellie: Teresa, you see the nest up there? Do you think it's a bird's nest or a squirrel's nest?

Me: Well, I think it looks to small to be a squirrel's nest, Ellie.

Chelsie: I know what it is.... It's a duck's nest!

James: Uh uh, Chelsie. It's a Guinea pig's nest.

Chelsie: Guinea pigs don't live in nests.... they live in boxes, silly!
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Miss Marva: Callum, you are just way too adorable!

Callum: I'm not aborable, Miss Marva. You're too aborable.
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Sam: Hey, there are puzzle pieces gone.

Me: yeah, I know. We've been missing them for a few days, Sam.

Sam: I know. A squirrel came and took them.

Me: Maybe, the squirrel got in when some people were coming in the door....

Sam: No, I am pretty sure it came in that window right over there.
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Miss Marva: Hey, Kaytlin. Are you even listening to a word I am saying!?!?!?

Kaytlin: No, I'm stuck in my head, Miss Marva. I'm a very silly silly little girl.

According to Your Will....

"Christ, hear me.
Christ, hear me.
Christ, graciously hear me.

Discerning your silence is a difficult task,
but it is not something I do on my own.
Everything I am, all my experiences, thoughts,
memories, passions, and my spirit,
comes to me from You, Jesus,
You give me life.
You sustain my life.
You inspire and guide the course of my life.

Show me how I can please You.
Grant me the strength to love you more intensely.
Let Your Spirit direct my choices.
When I pray about my vocation in life,
let me not focus too much upon the future.
Let me become more receptive to your presence;
it is when I am patient, humble
and self-sacrificing that I encounter You.

Becoming fully attentive to each moment
allows me to see you working in others
and in myself.
It is when I am patient, humble,
and filled with love, that I grow closer to You.
Intimacy with you is how I will know
what you ask of me.
Grant me the strength to do whatever you ask of me
according to Your will. Amen."

~Colleen Wamser~

"An Exceptional Beautiful Woman"

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anybody.

Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years-only grows!

--Audrey Hepburn"

I have always liked this quote... I have never read the whole thing though, until tonight when I saw it on a friend's note on facebook. I thought I would pass it along because I agree with everything it says.

The burden of being a "secret keeper"

"Sometimes reality has a way of sneaking up and biting us in the ass. And when the dam bursts, all you can do is swim. The world of pretend is a cage, not a cocoon. We can only lie to ourselves for so long. We are tired, we are scared, denying it doesn't change the truth. Sooner or later we have to put aside our denial and face the world. Head on, guns blazing. De Nile. It's not just a river in Egypt, it's a freakin' ocean. So how do you keep from drowning in it?"

"At the end of the day, there are some things you just can't help but talk about. Some things we just don't want to hear, and some things we say because we can't be silent any longer. Some things are more than what you say, they're what you do. Some things you say cause there's no other choice. Some things you keep to yourself. And not too often, but every now and then, some things simply speak for themselves."

"The thing people forget is how good it can feel when you finally set secrets free. Whether good or bad, at least they're out in the open. And once your secrets are out in the open, you don't have to hide behind them anymore. The problem with secrets is even when you think you're in control, you're not."
~Grey's Anatomy~

One of my favorite shows happens to be "Grey's Anatomy." I cannot really explain why, except that some of the things the writers come up with make so much sense and really make me think... take the quotes above that come from the show.

Secrets... we all have them. I know I have held back a lot of them. I tend to be the one people go to when they want something serious to be kept because they know I won't go around and tell everyone about it. I have become quite good at keeping them to myself, and sometimes being the "secret keeper" sucks, to put it bluntly. Sometimes I get tired of holding onto everyone else's problems, but at the same time, I like being able to know that people trust me enough to tell me those secrets that they probably would not talk about to anyone else. Secrets are a burden, so how do you tell which ones to keep and how long till you want to explode from holding them in for so long.... I think the "secret keeper" needs another confidante themselves just to vent out frustrations... but because they agree to keep the secrets they tend to be stuck in a rut.
Not only is it a burden holding onto other people's secrets, but after awhile holding onto your own gets tiring. I am getting very close to breaking that "barrier" and letting some of mine out, but the thing is I am afraid of what the repercussions might be if I do just that. I don't want to have any awkwardness with anyone, but if I do put it all out there... I have a feeling there may be. I think I should have put it out there earlier on this year, but the fear of those repercussions has always stopped me from doing it. I am still afraid of what may happen, but not so much anymore... I figure living in denile over certain things is much worse then laying it all out on the line.