Sometimes an inspiration takes on many forms and has many hands to form it.
The pictures below are a couple of my visit (pilgrimage, I suppose it could be called) to the Canadian National Shrine of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. I had been trying to visit here for several years. I was hampered from visiting due to their pandemic closure, and then I thought I wouldn’t be able to again this year because their opening hours did not coincide with our vacation plans.
My husband rectified that by suggesting our return a couple of weeks after our vacation to visit the shrine. And so, I was able to fulfill my desire to see the final resting place of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. This was my final stop in seeking out Kateri’s footsteps, and it was a beautiful experience that I will share in time.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos that do not do the site justice:
St. Francis Xavier Mission Church. Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. (c)2023
The Altar. (c)2023
Looking from the altar to the entrance of the church. (c)2023
Tomb of St. Kateri Tekakwitha that holds her relics. (c)2023
I’m not sure about you, but this week, or partial week, set between the end of vacation and the beginning of school is always a tough one for me. This year is especially bittersweet as it is my daughter’s senior year of high school; the little one; the baby. Our vacation days were all messed up this year, coming earlier in the month than usual due to a commitment I made, the college school schedule, and the closing days of a shrine that I wanted to visit (see tomorrow’s Inspire post for more on this).
As I mentioned on Friday, September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It can be a burden to our mental health to constantly be reminded that we are not alone, we are enough, if in crisis, call 988. For some, it truly is a reminder of our worth and a valuable resource. For others, on the lower spectrum of suicidal thoughts, it can come across as trite, another checklist to get through to be called an ally.
You never know who you’re reaching, and so we keep reaching out. I hope the readers will take it with the compassion and empathy in which it is offered.
For today’s Mental Health Monday, find one thing.
Just one thing.
It can be something that makes you think; something that makes you feel; makes you laugh.
It can be as simple as a fortune cookie fortune that you’ve been carrying around in your pocket or in the cup holder of your car.
It can be a business card sized card with a mantra on it or a smiley face.
It can be a flower petal or a leaf that drifted in your open window.
Whatever it is, give this one thing a little time; focus on it in a mind-wandering way.
Journal, doodle, listen to music along with this one thing. Or do nothing at all.
There is no wrong way to do your one thing this week.
August has been full. Already. But as I looked over some of my recent photos, I thought of little things that inspired me and still help me look forward. See photos for captions.
In trying to find a sub-title for this post, I looked back at my previous posts that related to what’s been going on, and I was kind of pleased to discover that the last time I felt like I’d had a setback was in 2019, in the fall. I know I’ve had moments that go up and down, but this was decidedly different.
I try to be open and talk openly about my struggles and my successes. We all have mental health, and we all must get through any of its manifestations, good, bad, or neutral just like we do when we twist an ankle or get a paper cut.
Official rules will be posted this afternoon, but no worries, this is for fun. No judging, no judgment. Just do it.
For anyone familiar with my yearly scavenger hunt traditionally run by actor and activist, Misha Collins, there is always a mascot, a hybrid of two animals creating a new one. I don’t have that kind of energy. The mascot for my last hunt was a beeline – a bumblebee/ cat hybrid.
Our first item is to create your own mascot for this week. Design them, draw them, photoshop them, name them. My first draft is below the cut. I’ll be back this afternoon with a new post containing the day’s second item.
On occasion, I will flash back to my childhood, and hear something that I haven’t heard or thought of in forever. One of these childhood phrases was “porkchops with applesauce.” I’m sure this is from The Brady Bunch, although I don’t recall if it was Greg or Peter who said it.
Applesauce was a favorite in our house. In fact, I’m sure we ate pork chops with applesauce. We also ate roast beef with applesauce. Nowadays, I usually make it with gravy, but recently, since my daughter doesn’t like beef gravy, I offered her applesauce. This is a roundabout way of inviting you into my thought process for a dinner I made this week that came together when I was visiting Cracker Barrel restaurant. They have fried apples on their menu, and they also sell them in cans with the recipe on the back. I bought one can to go with the on-sale center cut pork that I bought this week, and we had a lovely (even if we used way too much butter than is healthy) meal.
The fried apples recipe calls for two tablespoons of butter; I think I used twice that? I used half a stick. Melt the butter, add the entire can, sprinkle cinnamon, mix, heat, simmer.
After searing the pork on both sides, and adding a bit of adobo seasoning, I poured a helping of the fried apples on top of the pork, added a side of mixed vegetables, and buttered egg noodles, and voila, yummy dinner in no time. It was about half an hour, but that’s not long at all. No leftovers.
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
My view on July is that it’s too hot. It’s barely the first week, and it is already too hot. When will fall be here? However, we still need to get through July (and the rest of the months) as we do all the other days. Be in the present. At least, try to be. The photos I’ve shared on bright, colorful, and motivating. Especially the books. The books are my intentions for July: spiritual journaling (and other writing), continuing to read the daily Scriptures in the voice of the Indigenous Peoples of this land (Turtle Island), and participate in a four week personal retreat with the four female Doctors of the Church: Therese of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen. Each has a special meaning for me that I hope to share in the next four weeks as I go through the book.
What are your plans for July?
What inspired you this week?
What is making you determined?
My new spiritual journal. PS I found the lost one. 😦 (c)2023
While we were in Canada a couple of years ago, in the mall on the way to the food court, we came across a vending machine that sold and dispensed CAKE! I had never seen anything like it before. I thought it was amazing!
For the next four weeks, I’ll be posting some information, links, art, and photos for Pride and hopefully including some LGBT+ history. I’d like to start by saying that last week I heard some complaints by folks with nothing better to do asking why Pride gets a month and our veterans only get one day. This is obviously meant to create an issue where there is none. First, Memorial Day is not about veterans in that way; it’s about the war dead, which most people are glad to ignore until it suits their agenda. If they really felt this way, they’d spend Memorial Day at the cemetery, at a house of worship, volunteering instead of barbecuing and at baseball games and concerts. Second, there are many, many veterans (and war dead) who are in the LGBT+ community, and Pride is as much for them as any other person. Third, for those who declare that “pride” is a venal sin, I’d like to suggest that those divorced, adulterous, lying, hypocrites stay quiet and/or remove the log from their eye.
I wonder if, when these people see a rainbow in the sky if they shake a fist at it and complain loudly to the Creator about how woke He is.
Pride was born in revolution, even though LGBT+ people were around long before 1969. The ones who are out and open and celebrate Pride are not only celebrating themselves but are celebrating those of the community who are still not out, for personal reasons as well as safety ones.
My friend has a denim vest with the stenciled words: The first pride was a riot. I’ve used that to influence the art I created last night for this post. Sometimes the simplest designs tell a greater story.
For those who know, Wednesday is new comic day. It’s a weekly collaboration and celebration of reading and community tied together with a pull list and a handful of new issues. They range from black and white and vibrant color and everything in between, where words and pictures mesh to create something new that cannot be done with only one or the other.
Each local comic store has its own personality, and Earthworld Comics in Albany, NY’s personality was as big as the heart of its owner, JC Glindmyer. As the motto stated, they (and he with an assortment of helpers) had been rotting minds and seducing the innocent since 1983. We moved to the area in 1995 and had been visiting Earthworld whenever we were in Albany before that, well befoe our kids were born. My husband wouldn’t move to a place that didn’t have a comic store, and with Earthworld he found the best.
JC died this week.
We missed him on Free Comic Book Day due to a family obligation – it was the first one we’d ever missed, and this one really stings. Each first Saturday in May we’d get there early, waiting for the doors to open, hanging out with the costumed superheroes of the day that JC arranged to be there: Spider-man, Gamora, Batman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman. There were special days all through the year: Batman’s 75th anniversary, Halloweenfest, Fangirls Night Out, and while Free Comic Book Day was filled with free comic books and entertaining heroes, the biggest hero was JC, raising money each year for local charities.
I would also be remiss in not mentioning how often he helped us by floating our comics from payday to payday, knowing our struggle, but also knowing that we were regulars (for a couple of decades) and needed the respite of reading the new issues without the embarrassment of not being able to afford them. Kids don’t always understand the money aspect of life, and JC knew how important some of those books were to the little ones.
If Halloween was on a Wednesday, Earthworld would be our first stop before trick or treating. Below is a photo or our kids dressed up as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – the one trio we couldn’t wait to dress them up as!
During the covid pandemic, I’m sure he was worried about business, but he pulled together a curbside delivery after one week or so, and we tried to get there each week. We didn’t necessarily need the comics, but supporting JC was something that we didn’t even have to discuss. He met us (and other customers) curbside in his Earthworld t-shirt, Superman cape, and of course, his mask and gloves. A real super-hero.
This is JC. My husband dressed as him for a recent Halloween.
We’ll be there today because it’s Wednesday, but the store will seem emptier, quieter, sadder.
If you’re visiting upstate New York, stop in at the Albany store, and see the magic for yourself. If you’re too far to appreciate our bounty, visit your local comic book store and see the magic there.
May your memory be an eternal blessing, JC. You will be sorely missed. ❤
