Tagged by Elizabeth

I’ve been tagged by Elizabeth for this really cool meme.
The Rules:-
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

The book nearest me is one of the 6 history books I am reading for my class. Authored by Stephen Ambrose it is titled, Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962.

“Then he’d reason with them. Rather than make a direct contradiction he would lead them around until he had them over in his corner. He has terrific ability in that regard.”

For context, this quote was said by Roy Day, the creator of the Committee of 100 who were Nixon’s supporters in his first run for political office for the Republican Congressional seat in 1946 against Jerry Voorhis.

Tag! You’re it, Vara, Meg, Cousin Ken (if he’s reading this), Aniroo, and Uncle Curmudge.

“The Gift of Pain”

While reading a past issue of Life Transfigured:  A Journal of Orthodox Nuns published by The Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration, I came across a beautiful and inspiring article which is an excerpted of Mother Alexandra’s book Hospital of the Queen’s Heart.  In this excerpt she wrote about “The Gift of Pain.”  Since many of us struggle with pain of many sorts – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – I wanted to share it with you.

The little excerpt retells Mother Alexandra’s reintroduction to her childhood playmate whose name happened to be Ileana.  Ileana was struck with epilepsy in an era when it was not understood.  Her family interpreted the manifestation of her illness as disobedience and did all they could to discipline her out of her naughtiness.  Eventually, they came to understand that Ileana was incurable.  Her father purchased a small cottage in a small town where she lived away from others so she would not be an embarrassment to them.

In 1944, Mother Alexandra returned to Bran and visited her childhood friend “out of a sense of duty.”  What started out being done “out of a sense of duty” became a desire to be with her friend.  Mother Alexandra recounted the following:

“She confided in me how tragically her illness had separated her from her family.  She had watched her friends grow up and marry, have children and live normal lives, while she lived apart, isolated in her own precarious world of illness.  But she was never lonely…She told me about her discovery of the Bible, and the strength and sustenance it gave her.  She said that as she studied it she realized that her own struggle…was the common struggle of the human soul through the ages.”

“Because of her illness, Ileana had never had a formal education…  We talked about pain…and what it does to people, how it develops or deteriorates something within them.”

“Seeing Ileana’s affliction, caring for my patients in…the hospital, I began to understand the meaning of pain.  I began to see it, not as one of the misfortunes of life to be avoided at all costs or to be deplored, but as a discipline and a process of distillation.  It is a means whereby faith and reliance upon God are laid bare…when  man’s skill and science can be depended upon no longer, or when the world becomes our adversary, we simply and instinctively turn to what has been there all the time, our individual oneness with God.  He cannot be escaped although we try our best to do so.  He can only be denied and lost sight of, for He is ourselves – our true indwelling nature which we bury deep under sophistry and false values.  We are giving the opportunity to find this out when pain breaks down the barrier between.”

“It is almost as if we who are ill, or in deep trouble, are singled out for our schooling,” said Ileana one day.  “As if God lays His hand upon us and says, ‘Come apart with Me from the others – I have something to teach you.  I will show you a way to find Me, for I have so much to give you if you will take it.’”

May God bless us all in our schooling.

Sundays

I love Sundays.  I always have.  I don’t know why.

Growing up the Sunday routine was always as follows:  get up, go to church, come home and get changed.  We always had our main meal at noon on Sunday, prepared by Grandmom.  It always was (at least as far as I can remember) some kind of pasta and I think salad.  She made the best Pasta Fagioli in the world, as well as homemade Ravioli.  Sigh.  I cannot find another replacement for them.

Sunday afternoon’s were spent either finishing homework; which was rare since I usually did homework Friday right after school so I had the weekend to myself; or reading.  I would curl up on the sofa in the den.  Dad inevitably had football, baseball or golf on TV and was shouting his coaching directions to “his team.”  Or telling the ref how blind he was.  You guys know the drill!

I can’t tell you how many times when there was a good putt or a touchdown, he would yell in great joy throwing his hands in the air in glee and I would jump 20 feet in the air, not noticing what was going on around me since I had been transported to other worlds through my book.

I honest can’t remember what we did for “dinner” during the traditional five o’clock hour.  Perhaps when Mother reads this blog she can fill us in via the comment box.  Mother, you’re turn!

I have maintained that Sunday tradition through out my life.  I generally do not cook a big family meal on Sunday’s, claiming it as my “day off from work” especially when I was a SAHM.  We eat heavily at the lunch hour and nibble our way till bed time.  Alas, now I do homework on Sunday afternoons since my Friday’s are taken up with another writing project and other days with cleaning, food shopping, work, etc.  But that’s okay.  I still manage to enjoy reading something even if it is only the comics in the newspaper.

The last few months, though, I have found myself very sleepy by mid-afternoon.  Frankly, by the time I get home from church, usually around noon, I am absolutely exhausted.  Thus sitting down to do homework, which generally requires a lot of reading, finds me drifting off to sleep in a short amount of time.   And those naps are not just “little” ones.  I drop off to sleep and I am down for the count! I’m finding that I kind of like the napping “thing.”  I may have to keep that as a permanent fixture!

What are your favorite memories of Sunday afternoons?  Have you carried any of those favorites into your current Sunday afternoons?

A good week to you all dear readers!

Hope the Horse

In light of my recent post and link to Fr. Peter’s blog, I recommend to you this story about a horse named Hope.  In it you will read about the wonderful support of the local, sheriff, fire department and highway department to save this animal’s life.  Incredible!

I’ve yet to meet Hope but that will be rectified when I go to visit the owner who happens to be my SIL.  YAY!

Fr. Peter’s Rant

I dunno folks, but I think he’s justified in this rant and there is no need to apologize!

Read here.

With the dophins

Here are the promised photos of the hubster and I on the wave runner (also known as ‘jet ski’) tour.

Here is the hubster and I on the wave runner.  In the background is the shore line and hotels on Marco Island.  This gives a good picture of how far off shore we were riding.  The water was very calm with no waves at all and approximately 65 degrees F (18.33 degrees C).  A bit chilly for swimming!

At first glance, this looks like a really good picture of the hubster’s arm.  But follow the line of sight, and you will see the back of a dolphin.  We were so close!  Amazing!

The person on the right on the picture was our tour guide standing in his wave runner calling to us to “Look!  Dolphin!”  We did!  If you look between the guide and the hand on the left, right in the middle you will see another dolphin.  They were so close!!

In this photo you must look carefully.  In the trees on the left you can see a very big nest.  In the tree top on the right you can see who lives there; a mama Osprey.  She had a fish in her talon to feed her chicks, which didn’t want to pop their heads up over the nest four viewing pleasure.

This was a very interesting site.  It is a dilapidated concrete house that was built on the tip of the island.  At one time, it had a beach front of more than 100 yards (91 m).  Now it was significantly less.  The owner built it to withstand hurricanes and to be self sufficient.  It had a water storage tank that took salt water and desalinated it, a storage tank that collected rain water, and other food storage containers.  The reason for this was because it is only accessible by boat!  Unfortunately Hurricane Wilma took most of the beach front.  And then another hurricane took it down to the current state of decay.  The tour guide thought he had heard someone was buying it and would be restoring it.  Might make a nice hermitage, no?

This last picture shows the hubster and I following our tour guide through one of the water ways in the Barrier Islands of the 10,000 Islands.  Very cool mangrove forests, beautiful birds and thanks be to God…no snakes.

I really enjoyed this tour a lot and would love to do it again.  I enjoyed Marco Island a lot too and hope we return someday for another winter break.

HEMA Ad

I received this link from an on-line friend.  You need to check it out!  It is absolutely amazing and fun!

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands. HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany. In June of  this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.

Take a look at HEMA’s product page. You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer.

Flat Fee

Time Warner is testing the idea of moving away from a flat fee for internet provider service to one of usage, like electric bills are figured.  Read it here.

I don’t even want to THINK about what our usage bill would be!  YIKES!

Speed test in typing

Ya gotta try this!  Very cool!  I was astonished at my score.  I’m going to need to try again.  Perhaps it was a fluke!

74 words

free Touch typing

New Closet Organizer

One project the hubster tackled and completed was to build a closet organizer which he designed.  To say I am thrilled with the finished project is to put it mildly.  To say I am embarrassed beyond words of how many clothes I own is fairly accurate.  Thanks for allowing me to brag on the hubster!