Month: March 2015

First Scrutiny

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For catecumems coming into the church this Easter, today was their First Scrutiny. The Gospel for them to hear and discern is the woman at the well. I remember thinking on this nearly one year ago. It feels like forever ago. I’m looking forward to completing my first year in the church, and I’m thinking back and re-reading parts of my journey. My prayers are also with this year’s group.

Anniversary

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I saw the head of the RCIA program at mass tonight. She asked me if I thought about the upcoming anniversary of my baptism. I have been thinking of it. A lot. On one side I can’t believe a year has come and gone so quickly; it’s really flown by. On the other side it feels as though I’ve been Catholic forever. It’s an exciting feeling, though knowing how I feel about Jesus, and knowing that he is always with me.

Solitude

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Solitude appears in many places and are as different for each person as the people themselves. As much as the Lenten season is a group activity in that all Catholics do it at the same time, it is very much a solitary effort for each of us:

– what we give up for Lent, what we add, if and when we fast, abstaining from meat on Fridays, how and how often we do penance and ask for reconciliation, what we share for charity, how often we pray, and where our individual journeys take us.

Lent is forty days of solitude, of just us and G-d, our thoughts and prayers, our priorities and our choices on our crossroads as we meet them.

Solitude is the quiet inside no matter how much the outside noise is raging.

Solitude is the thought of doing better, being better, offering kindness where there is none or more where there is not enough.

Solitude is random, and comes in the shadows, in the light, and in the in-betweens.

Solitude is the thinking space, the quiet within the quiet.

Photo 101: Solitude and Rule of Thirds

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I decided to do the rule of thirds slightly different than usual. It happened that the table I was sitting at was divided into three uneven sections and I used those as my thirds for my companions in solitude.

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I usually find solitude in traditionally noisy places: the mall, waterfalls, Cracker Barrel (best white noise anywhere), and Starbucks to name but a few. This one happens to be in a Target so while people are coming in and out to get their drinks, they rarely stay.

Another view of that solitude:

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And another example of thirds:

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Take Your Action Figure to Work Day

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While you’re unplugging, but still expected to work, why not participate in this event and take your action figure to work!

One of the bonuses to this rather than take your daughter/son to work is no need to buy your action figure lunch. Your action figure also won’t get bored and play with the office supplies.

It is possible that your action figure might step out and do what they do best: save the world in their own little (or big in the case of The Incredible Hulk and Giganta) way.

My husband takes his to work every day; the advantage of working from home.
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Here’s my friend, Dinah at my home office:

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Dinah Lance, Black Canary

But Donna’s the lucky one. I can take her on today’s Photo 101 assignment.

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Donna Noble

Reading is….

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Reading is fundamental. When I was growing up in the 70s this was more than a sentiment, it was a movement with suggestions and ideas and a non-profit. After food and a warm place to sleep this was what babies enjoyed most: the soothing sounds of their parents’ voices reading them stories. Our entire lives are made up of stories from fairy tales to our own origin stories. From princesses to cowboys, planes to trains and everything in between we have our stories.

The very first class I took for my Master’s degree was Children’s Literature. Not only seeing what was out there, but how to use it in the classroom. This was coupled with a new concept in the 80s which I adopted for the rest of my life: whole language. Whole language was the teaching of reading through actual reading rather than a focus on phonics. Phonics have their place for some learners, but what better way than using context and the whole language to learn how to read. From the moment I heard it, it made sense and it has never left me.

Three of the other things that I learned in reading classes for my teaching degree:

  1. Children’s literature encompasses much more than See Dick Run.
  2. Children’s brains and eyes are not ready to read proficiently on their own until they are seven years old, so stop forcing kindergarteners to pick up books and read them to you. Age-appropriate always.
  3. If you can read, you can do anything.

I can remember getting lost in the worlds of Winnie-the-Pooh and Cranberry Thanksgiving, one of my favorite books as a child. It is probably one of the main reasons I love Thanksgiving and it is my favorite holiday. I still have it somewhere. I put myself on the subway with Sarah and John in The Magic Tunnel, a book which still sits on my bookshelf. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were also favorites of mine. For my son it’s the Wimpy Kid books and the Zombie Chasers. For my daughter it’s Monsters High.

Whatever the favorites are, the reading is pure joy.

Here are a few of my favorites from these genres:

Sci-fi/Fantasy

Sci-fi/Fantasy is wonderful because it can be set anywhere from back in time and time travel to the future and spaceships. You can be in outer space on another planet or on a spaceship traveling the stars. You can be with the dinosaurs while also using ray guns and modern to us equipment or you can be in a magic land of Harry Potter-esque wizardry or Hunger Games dystopia. You can play what if Lincoln had lived or what if Jefferson hadn’t written the Declaration of Independence. The possibilities are endless.

  1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. You can also find Adams’ perfect cup of tea
  2. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
  3. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  4. Bellwether by Connie Willis (and most of her books. After this I read To Say Nothing of the Dog.)
  5. Neil Gaiman
  6. Stephen Donaldson

Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

I’ve been on a biography/memoir kick lately. My top five of recent reads are:

  1. Life’s That Way by Jim Beaver
  2. I Am What I Am by John Barrowman with Carole Barrowman (memoir)
  3. http://nphbook.com/Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
  4. My Beloved by Sonia Sotomayor
  5. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden

Religious and Spiritual

This is a genre that I have found more recently. As a child attending Workman Circle Schools I knew all of the Bible stories and loved to read and re-read from our set of four Jewish History books, three of which I still have. It was a wonderful time in my life and fostered and encouraged both a love of my religion and of history.

More recently as I have journeyed on my conversion to Catholicism, I have read numerous books and booklets, periodicals and devotionals, some better than others, some outstanding. Here are my top four:

  1. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
  2. Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin, SJ (I also highly recommend this e-book retreat, Together on Retreat (Enhanced Edition): Meeting Jesus in Prayer.)
  3. Under the Tamarind Tree: A Secret Journey into Our Souls: Inspirational Quotes About Life, A reminder of the Inner Magic by John Harricharan
  4. The Little Books Series. I’ve read The Little White Book for Easter, The Little Blue Book for Advent and I am currently reading The Little Black Book for Lent.

A few others to enjoy:

  1. A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (history)
  2. On Writing by Stephen King (writing)
  3. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawning of a New America by Gilbert King (history, won the Pulitzer)
  4. A Writer’s House in Wales by Jan Morris (travel, Wales)
  5. The Truth and Legend of Lily Martindale by Mary Sanders Shartle (historical fiction, North Country, NY)
  6. Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich (memoir)
  7. How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman (history)
  8. Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering by Meredith Baxter
  9. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned by Michael J. Foxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Fox.

Also, Lucky Man, also by Michael J. Fox

  1. Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (history)

National Day of Unplugging

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unplugToday and tomorrow you can pledge to unplugging. For me personally, I’m going to commit to the one pet peeve my husband has: no tech at the dinner table.

With a near-adult child and an ill mother in law, I almost always have my cell phone on, not to mention my extended family on Facebook and Here.

But this is one thing that I can start today, and keep going throughout the year.

Visit their website and download your own unplug sign and sign the pledge to unplug.

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Recs – Kindle Fire

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When I like something everyone knows about it because I gush. I’m a gusher. My black boots from Payless? No less than three posts about them since the fall. Supernatural? Need I say more?

Most regular readers know how much I love my Kindle. I received my Kindle Fire for Mother’s Day in 2012. From the moment I pushed the power button I loved it. I talk about it all the time. My only complaint about that first generation Fire was no memory card slot and no exterior volume control. In reality no biggie. I used this Fire religiously on a multi-daily basis from that first day through the end of 2014. Two and a half years of positive bliss.

During Amazon’s Christmas sale, we decided to get my daughter one of the new ones. The HD-6 was less than a hundred dollars and the rest were also very good deals. I advanced myself a small portion of our tax refund and upgraded mine. (My first generation still works fine, and I’m prepping it for my husband’s use.)

The new one (an HD-7) was a little more than $100 but I opted for greater memory (still no external memory card slot), 16GB. The new one does have exterior volume controls, and a sleep mode if you buy the compatible case.

I use my Fire for everything; literally everything:

Photos
Checkbook and Expense tracking
Paying my mortgage
Calendar
Traveling – between lists and planning and maps, it’s indispensable
Facebook and Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter
Email – ALL of my accounts
Music
Netflix
Mass Readings and/or Devotionals
WordPress writing and posting
First drafts and other short writing (for this Mother’s Day, I’m planning on getting the keyboard to make this even more accessible for my writing)
And of course, reading. I moved my subscription to The Writer to my Kindle, the only magazine subscription I get and I download my library e-books on here too!

In fact, I’m writing this on my Fire in my car right before my therapy appointment!