The Saturday Sketch

(I feel a little bit conceited to put a picture of myself up here, but it is a self portrait I did a couple years ago and I thought that as I am striving to become a better person everyday, that it would be excusable. :)
Recently I have really been pondering the meaning of life. Everyday I realize how much I really do encounter so many different people in different walks of life. Yesterday I played the whole day with a 2 year old, and as I was leaving I looked at his hands and pictured them 10-20 years later. His precious little hands would no longer be holding my fingers on the playground, but would be much bigger and before long he would be all grown up. Then I examined my life and realized that my little two year old hands of the past, would never have expected to be sitting here typing this today, and these same hands today, are not expecting what will happen when I am an old lady with most of my life behind me. I am sort of in the "think, realize, and scold myself" mode right now, my brain will go off on these long tangents about the future and imagining what will happen someday, but then I realize and remember that I should be living in the present, then I mentally scold myself, and jerk back to the present. It is like a constant battle for me to keep time in perspective, time has always been a rather daunting and confusing prospect to me. To think that I am me and I live now and not in some other time, and that someday I will no longer be on this earth, and all those other befuddling concepts. When I was 9 and 10 I used to just lay in bed and cry, I wasn't exactly sad but I just couldn't comprehend time, it didn't make sense to me.
So basically I think what I am getting at here is, (if you haven't lost me on the strange path my brain takes me on,) is that I must make the best of this confusing time that I have been given and make sense out of it, become better because of it, and always strive to look for the good in it, and in the meantime be grateful for it, and not try and rush the future.

The Saturday Sketch

I am sure as many of you know, Pope Benedict the XVI is in the United States right now, so I thought this would be a good picture to use. I also thought I would post a little part of his homily, because I found it very beautiful and inspiring. It is really what I have been trying to talk about and promote here on this blog, so here it is:
"In this morning’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that spiritual unity – the unity which reconciles and enriches diversity – has its origin and supreme model in the life of the triune God. As a communion of pure love and infinite freedom, the Blessed Trinity constantly brings forth new life in the work of creation and redemption. The Church, as “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life...The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization. For true life – our salvation – can only be found in the reconciliation, freedom and love which are God’s gracious gift. This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts. Saint Irenaeus, with great insight, understood that the command which Moses enjoined upon the people of Israel: “Choose life!” (Dt 30:19) was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments (cf. Adv. Haer. IV, 16, 2-5). Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love. "

The Saturday Sketch

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air but to walk on Earth.
Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes.
All is a miracle.”

This is kind of a run off from my last Saturday Sketch, about our gathering wisdom from un-seemingly wise things like little children or flowers. In a way it is regaining our sense of wonder. Like the I hope you dance song: "I hope never lose your sense of wonder."
Or as my sister always says, "Finding beauty in the unexpected," (thank you Heather :)
Our culture is such that there is no longer time to just stop and be amazed or to have wonder in something beautiful. Look at cars, you zoom past everything so fast you don't have time to look or savor anything. The other day, I decided to walk the same road that we usually drive, and for the first time I noticed how beautiful a certain thing was, or how many lovely things had been there, but that I had never seemed to notice because we were always zooming past them. It reminded me how really important it is to stop and look at things in wonder.
I think I will leave you with this poem written by a girl who has cancer, she wanted to share with the world the importance of savoring every moment:

SLOW DANCE
Have you ever
Watched kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to
The rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a
Butterfly's' erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading
Night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so
Fast.

Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

Do you run through each day
On the
Fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the
Reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your
Bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through
Your head?

You'd better slow down

Don't dance so
Fast.
Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it
Tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see
His
Sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good
Friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call
And say,'Hi'

You'd better slow down.

Don't dance
So fast.

Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You
Miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry
Through your day,
It is like an unopened
Gift..
Thrown away.

Life is not a
Race..
Do take it slower
Hear the
Music
Before the song is over.

Our Missions

I read this article from Spirit Daily : spiritdaily.com, and found it very interesting. :

Perhaps most intriguing in the depth of spirituality is the notion that in life we all -- each one of us -- have a special mission. We have written of this before. Let us explore it further. This is a very deep secret in your spirit. You have been sent here for a reason -- a specific reason that is unknown to you -- and it is important for you to fulfill that assignment. This is a prayer to be said each day -- that your mission be completed.

In fact, every person's mission is equal to every other person's. It may not make any "sense" to you -- any worldly sense -- but what God has assigned to you is as important as what He assigned to the President.

At a spiritual level, we all reverberate -- have effects -- that will not be recognized until later (that is, eternity).

Thus it is important for all of us to pray each day to fulfill the task.

That's not necessarily to know exactly what a mission is. Indeed, it may be against God's Will for you to precisely know what has been set for you. It may compromise the "test" of life. If we knew exactly what God expects, it would make the "test" easier" (and make no mistake: life is a constant test).

At the same time, we are not to dwell on what the mission is so much as fulfilling it according to its time. We are not to rush into what we think our mission may be. We are safest and most effective when we simply pray to do God's Will every moment.

This will take us to successful completion. A mission is defined as being sent forth with the authority to perform a specific duty. We get into difficulty when we stray from the authority (or misuse it).

"Your mission will be made known to you so that you might make a clearer decision," one woman claims she was told by Jesus. "But after this, you must decide. If you return to your life on earth, your mission and much of what you have been shown will be removed from your memory."

It could be simply raising a child. It could be helping someone who is ill. It could be offering up pain. It could be shining shoes. It could be suffering an illness to give another person the opportunity to help us! It could be simply praying for others. It could be leading a nation or cleaning the floors of a school -- both of which, in God's eyes, may be equal; it could be saying nice things to people as a cashier at a checkout.

For every time we do, it has a domino effect. A drop of goodness is a bright light that will cause other sparks of goodness.

Another spiritual truth:

Holiness sanctifies our surroundings.

The devil tries to twist the mission we have been assigned -- the grace we have been given, the gifts. He will seduce a leader into misleading a nation. He will cause a person who has been given the gift of income to use that money only on himself. He will influence a person who has a mission to build into construction of mansions instead of homes for the poor. The biggest traps are lust, selfishness, and materialism!

Doing God's Will (and following Sacred Scripture) is the answer.

One thing we can know: kindness will bring us joy and somewhere in the mysterious missions we have -- somewhere in the depths -- is the mission to love everywhere and everyone and despite the circumstances. Somewhere in that is always the "test"!

It is very interesting to me, because it seems that everyone is always pressuring, the world is always pushing you to go out there and get a career, be someone, get a good job and money so that you can live comfortably and "do" well. I have always had a negative reaction to this, I ask why? Why is it that this means success and being a babysitter or raising a family isn't success or isn't fulfilling your mission. But truly that is just what the world wants you to believe, not God. Babysitting or having a family is one of the best missions, just as cleaning floors or washing cars is. I think it was one time I was cleaning a floor or something like that, and I was kind of annoyed, why was I spending my time on this? then it dawned on me that maybe there could be some spiritual significance. That changed my attitude and then I decided to offer a prayer for all the people who had walked on that floor. Whenever I feel like I am doing so called "menial" tasks I must keep reminding myself that this may be greater than a senator giving a speech. Who am I to judge what is important in God's eyes.

That said I am going to go clean my room, and pray for whoever else is cleaning their room right now. :)

The Saturday Sketch

He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower. ~Mary Howitt

I found this quote and this picture to fit very well together. The reason for this is that so often it is the young children who have the ability to cherish a flower that are the happiest. One time I was babysitting a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old, and when we went outside they immediately discovered the little wildflowers that grew around the edge of the driveway. It was like it was a profound concept to them, these flowers. We spent quite some time out there looking at the different colors and textures, and picking a few here and there. Not only did they greatly appreciate them, but the 4 yr old spurted out some spiritual meaning connecting God with the flowers. It is about time that we take to heart the verse where God tells us to "be like the little children."
We can gather the wisdom from the children and from the wisdom they gather from little things like flowers.