As International Women’s Day comes to a close tonight, I wanted to do something different besides railing against the patriarchy or calling out the magnificent women who are and should be our role models. Here are some of my favorite women authors. Hit them up on Google and at your favorite bookstore or library!
Read a Book!
Lent has snuck up on us again this year. It is quite early with Easter happening the first weekend in April. I just finished listening to Fr. James Martin’s Ash Wednesday podcast, and it reminded me of many of the things that I want to do to make my Lent intentional. As with the last few years, I am not giving anything specific up. I am going to continue to be intentional in what I am taking in whether that is food, candy, drink, or media. I want to put more thought into the things I’m doing, saying, and bringing into my life.
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis, and Pope Leo has declared this to be a Jubilee Year in his honor from January 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027. There are all kinds of ways to earn plenary indulgences and what not, but that’s for someone else.
Another exciting event this year is that it is the 350th anniversary of St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s baptism. This happened right here in New York state, and the shrine in Fonda will be celebrating. One way is by having mass on Easter Sunday, which is her baptismal anniversary to the day.
Some of my other Lenten Intentions include:
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It’s been more than six weeks since the final, final chapter of Stranger Things, and I thought I’d think about the discourse surrounding the Stranger Things fandom at that time that’s been bordering on psychosis. According to people on the internet, January 8th was the day that the “real” series finale was supposed to drop – episode 9 because the New Year’s Eve finale didn’t give the fans what they wanted. I hate to break it down into a generational thing but kids today…
I mean dude can you be any more self involved and relishing of your main character syndrome? This show, the entire decade of five seasons was a true love letter to Gen X, those of us who grew up without the internet, dragging the ridiculously long telephone cord into a closet to talk, sneaking in after a showing of Rocky Horror and diner dessert.
Watching the discourse about continuity errors and plotholes that didn’t exist, the theory that the whole thing was a dream – been there, done that thank you very much Bobby Ewing; that it was a failed Dungeons & Dragons game or in someone’s head – again been there done that, thank you very much St. Elsewhere. We’ve lived through it all, and those of us who did, knew the Duffer Brothers wouldn’t do us dirty like that.
Google is free. It wasn’t available in the 80s, but it is available now. Please use it and stop driving those of us who were there crazy. We are becoming impatient with you. We are begging you – get some media literacy.
I can’t believe I need to explain that there was a world of experiences before you were born, before streaming, before reboots, so here’s a rundown that even my kids got:
And another thing do you think if it weren’t actually the finale that the Duffer Brothers and Netflix would have paid Prince’s estate for the use of not one, but two songs?! He licenses nothing – this was a big deal.,
Take your theories and write some fan fiction.
In the immortal words of Ferris, it’s over. Go home.
Here is a very simple list of my Top 5 books to give, to read, to re-read.
Happy Valentine’s Day and Book Giving Day!
Also check out Richard Osman’s and Bernard Cornwell’s books! All excellent.
Happy Reading!
Any excuse to read!
I almost always have my Kindle with me, and it often has a half dozen or so books on it, available or in some form of partially read and currently reading. The most used app on my Kindle is probably the Libby app and the Kindle app itself. Of the books in the above photo, a screenshot of my Kindle home page, three books are finished, one is not started, and the sample of Fr. James Martin’s newest book is still in the deciding stage of buying or borrowing.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins is a prequel to The Hunger Games. It falls between Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds and The Hunger Games, and follows the story of Haymitch Abernathy. Well worth the read, it gives some background and really shows how Haymitch became the man we see when he meets Katniss and Peeta.
The second book pictured, Jesuit Relations, edited by Allan Greer, et al, is a book I bought for research for my own book about St. Kateri Tekakwitha. I am writing a chapter on the Jesuit influence and work in New France that Kateri was exposed to since childhood and certainly contributed to her conversion.
Skipping to the seventh book, How We Learn to Be Brave by Bishop Mariann Budde Edgar was one I had started to read, but then was assigned as a group reading at work, so I’ve re-read the first three chapters and will continue as the group continues. It’s really a good view of Bishop Edgar’s memoir as well as how she put herself out there, to be brave, and to move forward in her life and her career. It offers advice and direction.
Lieutenant Nun: The True Story of a Cross-Dressing, Transatlantic Adventurer Who Escaped From a Spanish Convent in 1599 and Lived was a Man by Catalina De Erauso, the third book pictured tells almost the whole story in the title, which is what attracted me to it in the first place. It’s a wild ride!
The last few weeks have been nothing short of active, and I hope I’ve gotten through it with less scathing than would be normal for this kind of busyness. This post will be part mental health check-in, part inspired, part goal-setting.
I went back to my original post to see what the goals were that I thought I needed to focus on, and this was less than helpful. Goals and goalposts are constantly being adjusted. Looking at the biggest priorities, it’s still been iffy. Although to be fair to myself, I’ve been busy and not wasting time and opportunities, so while it’s been slow-going, it has still been going.
This is very much a positive.
Where are we this week?
Mental health check-in = EH.
I’m looking forward to taking my presentation and using it to push my book in the right direction. Below the cut are some of my inspiring and inspired photos from St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s feast day weekend.
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I feel twisted like a pretzel, trying to get my goals organized and sorted and focus on the many things that need to be done.
Overall, I think I’ve done okay. The one success I can see is not hitting the snooze button. I’m still pressing snooze but not as often. This is definitely a good thing.
I’ve been working on my presentation for next week, and the good news is that all of the work for that is also useful for my book.
I do need to crack down on my Cursillo responsibilities though.
I need to reschedule a couple of medical appointments in the next few weeks, and I need to plan our family vacation.
How did all of you do this week?
Let me know in the comments.
As I’ve done for previous Mental Health Mondays, this Monday got away from me. And a day late doesn’t end the world. I think that is an important lesson to remember when things in our days get out of hand. I had three things to do yesterday and realized early on that one of them would need to be abandoned. That came with some regret, but I cannot bi-locate (yet) so choices were made. The day was still a time crunch and a lot of driving, but while I didn’t’ get something posted for yesterday, I did remain steadfast in my awareness of my mental health. I knew that I’d need to eat throughout the day. I knew that I’d need to sort out what was for dinner and get the groceries. I knew I needed to plan for the rest of the week, both at home and at work since we’re all “losing” a day to my son’s college commencement. My brother is taking the day off from work to be there, and my daughter is splitting her shift so she can be there and stay for lunch. I should get a cake, but if not, it will be okay since he’s already planning on going to the movies that night with friends. The point is, we all have stuff that comes up in the middle of our carefully laid plans, and how we adapt to them is the basis for how our mental health goes that day and possibly some of the days that follow.
It’s okay to take a break.
We watched Rogue One last night after finishing the Andor series last week, and I only spent time at the very beginning thinking about all the work I needed to be doing on my computer including this post, but I let it go.
Sometimes you can let it go.
And it’s also okay to not be okay.
Take a break.
Read a book.
Watch a movie.
Listen to music.
Stare into space.
It’s all good. Or it will be.
Today is one of those made up holidays (aren’t they all) that caught my eye as I was planning the subjects for this month’s writing. I have taken a memoir class for the last thirteen years, and now that I’m working again, I won’t be able to return. This has made me fall into my feels, so I thought that memoir is very similar to biographies, and as it turns out today is National Biographer’s Day, which isn’t as generic as I thought it would be.
It commemorates the anniversary of the first day that Samuel Johnson met his biographer, James Boswell in 1763 in London. Samuel Johnson was an English writer and the biography written about him is said to be one of the most celebrated English biographies. Dr. Johnson himself was a biographer in his own right in addition to his other writing talents.
He is also known to have said that the “best biographers were those who ate, drank, and ‘lived in social intercourse’ with those about whom they wrote.”
In honor of this momentous occasion, a few thoughts, suggestions, and writing prompts:
Spend your weekend learning about others and yourself.
For readers who have been here for awhile, I rarely if ever declare or think about New Year’s Resolutions. That changes this year. After the election, I’ve been inundated with lies and misinformation, not to mention the focus on stupidity rather than real news, and I am damn sick of it. That led me to think about my life and my writing.
I may have already written about my new job, but I started working in October, and it is the kind of place that feeds my soul. I have never had a job like this before, and every day is a joy to be there, and that allows that joy to follow me home. It’s been a good couple of months.
Obviously, I’m disappointed (understatement) about the election. I hope we can get through the next two years, and use the midterm elections to return to sanity. My first Election Connection of the new year will appear in this space next Tuesday.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am really proud of my series writing, and those will continue. In addition to Election Connection, there will be more Mental Health Monday, monthly Inspired and Friday Food posts, and I’m hoping for a return to Penny Prompts – the writing prompts based on Louise Penny’s writing and her Armand Gamache mystery series.
Those are both my intentions and my inspirations and I hope to find more throughout the year. You will find more of my new year’s thoughts below the cut.
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Griffins and Ginger Snaps 