The spam refers to this entry.
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How pathetic is it that this is my most interesting spam?
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
–1 Corinthians 13 (NASB)
One of the bloggers I read, Elizabeth Dehority, is in the hospital with pneumonia on sepsis protocol. Oh, did I mention that she has cancer and is undergoing chemo… with a son with Down’s Syndrome and a son with CP stemming from Maple Syrup Urine Disease as well as three other kids at home?
If you could spare a prayer or a rosary for her, please do.
FOR TODAY February 13, 2012
Outside my window… gray and looking like the rain is coming back.
I am thinking… about all that I have to do.
I am thankful… for the gifts given to us by the parish yesterday.
In the kitchen… dishes to do.
I am wearing… my black “Governator” t-shirt and my blue striped pajama bottoms. It’s the extent of my clean clothes other than my jeans and “going out” stuff after Daniel spewed his lunch on me.
I am going… out to get diapers and stuff as soon as Jon has changed out of his work clothes.
I am wondering… if Lisa of All Things Gale has had her baby yet. (Just checked her site and there’s no word yet.)
I am reading… Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner. I didn’t cry during my last session of reading so that’s a plus.
I am hoping… that the antenna still works even though half of one of the arms broke off.
I am looking forward to… Daniel going to bed tonight and being able to watch “Hart of Dixie”.
Around the house… don’t want to think about it.
I am pondering… what to do for my Lenten sacrifice.
One of my favorite things… minestrone soup from Olive Garden.
A few plans for the rest of the week: Valentine’s dinner at church tomorrow, peds appointment on Wednesday, OT on Thursday, massage on Friday, and whatever else pops up that needs doing.
Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook
One of the blessings of doing the Quick Takes every week is that I’ve made friends with some amazing Catholic young women. Today, I’ve got a guest post over at Catholic Newlywed in which I talk about marrying at 21 and the almost 10 years of marriage that have happened since.
I read some more of Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner and the two chapters/reflections that touched me were the ones on anxiety.
In one, she talks about checking obsessively to make sure her driver’s license is there when she’s on the road to the airport as well as worrying about if she’s turned off the stove and envisions her house burning down. I don’t have those particular two fears but I obsess about whether I locked the car door frequently and I’ve been known to worry about things happening in the future. She talks about her friend suggesting that she give up anxiety for Lent. Her friend’s wife asked if she was going to have a major panic attack come Easter if she does this.
In another, she talks about her friend suggesting that she give up anxiety for Lent. She finds a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer that helps her out with this and another friend tells her about distancing herself from an emotion for 15 minutes. All are good and she also talks about her experience with medication. She spoke of her experiences coming off of the medication (which are eerily familiar to my experiences with them trying to get me off of Effexor XR when I was pregnant).
This book (again) has been an interesting read for me just because I’ve been through a lot of the things she discusses. Even though I haven’t divorced Jon and my parents are still alive, I’ve dealt with crushing anxiety in my life and I can understand her reactions, even if they haven’t been mine. The physical toll of my anxiety are the weakening of my (already crappy) immune system and migraines. In her case, it was tingling in her joints. I’ve had severe panic attacks but none all that publicly.
I will be interested to see what the rest of the book has in store for me.
And no, giving up anxiety for Lent is not on the agenda.
Wow! Lots for me to choose from this week in the news, so I guess I’ll get started.
Mea culpa. I owe a number of you an apology for posting the link to the White House blog and saying that there were religious exemptions if you had mentioned the HHS situation on your Quick Takes. Thank you to Lisa at All Things Gale for emailing me and explaining the intricacies of the situation politely and civilly. Thank you also to Katie of NFP and Me for giving me the link to the roundtable on ABC that includes this discussion.
Regarding the Susan G. Komen debacle, it is THEIR choice as to whom they choose to grant funding. Yeah, it was spineless of them to have caved to public pressure but it would also be dishonest if they did not fulfill the grant money that had already been promised for this year. Next year, however, is different and they can sever ties at that point. The damage has already been done — their donations will drop because of this. This should also be a sign to Planned Parenthood that they need to acquire some mammography machines and get some licenses to use them so they can actually claim truthfully to promote breast health rather than making referrals out to other providers.
On Monday night, I found a great article on being a super successful introvert. I’m one of the last people to like anything sanctioned by Oprah but this article is excellent. I’ve actually put some of these things into practice in past situations and they really do work. And seriously… I’m proud to be part of a class of people that includes Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The petition to rescind the HHS mandate hit 25,000 signatures on Tuesday. It’s not surprising given that even *I* signed it because I think that the terms of the mandate needed to be adjusted to allow for issues of conscience for *ALL* religious groups, not just the Catholic Church. (I signed it on February 1st if anyone wanted to know). 25,000 is the threshold to go to the HHS peeps and the president so I hope this all gets resolved soon. It doesn’t go into effect for another year but it isn’t good to have more tension in a country that is already polarized enough and has been for a very long time (since 2000 at least).
I’ve been having to sleep in the living room because of the cough from the MUTANT DEATH COLD. I can’t be flat or I start coughing up a lung, making it really hard to get sleep. I’m on the last few days of my antibiotics which were supposed to treat any infection if it was present (as bronchitis = hospital for me) and the only difference is that I’m maybe getting some stuff up now. I don’t know if I just have a really inflamed area in my throat or what but this is getting frustrating. *makes a mental note to get more cough drops*
Dude… marshmallow gun. President Obama and Joey, an 8th grader from Arizona, shot a marshmallow across the State Dining Room of the White House using the air cannon that Joey built for his science project at the White House Science Fair.
I don’t care how you feel about Obama — I think shooting *anything* out of an air cannon needs to be viewed… repetitively.
This article on helicopter parents in the workplace from NPR is scary. I honestly can’t imagine my parents calling the seminary or the clinic or UPS Supply Chain Solutions (my brokerage in Montana) to make them be nice to me or make them pay me more. For one thing, it’s highly unprofessional and it also shows that the candidate cannot function independently if their parents are still fighting their battles for them. My mom has told me who happened to be hiring when I was looking for a job one summer and I’ve asked her advice with regard to work situations (she’s calm and diplomatic which is what I aim to project); but that’s the limit. The only reason she met my boss in Montana is that she was at the baby shower that the UPS Supply Chain Solutions people threw me when Daniel came home from the hospital. Helicopter parents in general just stymy me. I mean, I’m uber-involved in Daniel’s life and advocate for him but he’s also only two years old and autistic. I’ve told friends of mine to shoot me if I ever show up to a parent-teacher conference and complain that the teacher doesn’t see Daniel’s innate specialness.
In California news, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Prop 8. This is kind of a useless ruling because it was going to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, regardless of in whose favor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. (The 9th Circuit Court gets overturned by the Supreme Court 54% of the time which another reason why this ruling is useless.) I probably should have an opinion on this… and I don’t. I have too many friends on both sides of the issue who are going to be wounded when it is decided one way or the other that I’ve just decided to keep my mouth shut. I will say, however, that this is not a good thing for those who were in favor of Prop 8 (which means that they are against same-sex marriage) because the Supreme Court deciding the law is unconstitutional means that the door is WIDE open for DOMA to be repealed and other states to pass laws allowing same-sex marriages.
For more Quick Takes, visit Hallie Lord at BettyBeguiles.Com who is graciously hosting this meme while Jen pushes toward the end of her manuscript.