Archive for September, 2008


Gloom, despair, and agony for me

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Well, not really. Been doing pretty good, actually.

Whilst others are beating their chests, wailing on CNN, or blogging about the collapse of our economy/society/political system, I’ve just been bee-bopping along here. No worries.

It’s not that I’m not aware of what’s going on, or that I’m not concerned. I am; I just know that whatever happens, I’ll be ok. Chaos whirls around me, but my center is stable and I am at peace.

There’s a phrase our deacon has said a couple of times in RCIA class that I’ve found extremely reasurring. He’s said “Catholics are FOR this world, we aren’t OF this world.” It all seems to tie into the view of personhood; yes, our personhood does include our bodies, but it also includes our spiritual selves. They’re united. Since we aren’t OF this world, we’re pretty much immune from what goes on within it.

I really wasn’t that way when I was pagan. (more…)

In Remembrance

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Current Mood:Sad emoticon Sad

jenzi

well the crying’s over, and I’ve been spending a lot of time hugging on Rufus. He doesn’t mind, he’s an affection whore anyway. I swear I’ve never had a dog who was ALWAYS in such a good mood.

I loved Jenz, everyone who met Jenz loved Jenz. She had such a goofy sense of humor it was hard not to. We met many years ago in the “Ask a Witch” room on AOL and fell into friendship. Of course she did with most she met!

I knew her for probably 10 years online before I even met her. But you know, it didn’t really matter; a friend is a friend, online or in real life. I remember after my divorce, when things got really dark for me, Jenzi sensed that things were really really wrong and set up a three way call with me and another friend, and really just cheered me up. Took about an hour and a half, but it did.

The only time our friendship was ever really threatened was over stupid forum crap, when she was letting herself get swayed by some negative people, well, one in particular. I had made a comment that sometimes the greatest life lessons, come from being ill. She thought that was the most stupidest thing she’d ever heard, and really attacked me for it. You know while we were going through that, I kept thinking to myself - God, I hope she never has to find this lesson out, personally. Cuz you know the Universe works that way sometimes.

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Touched by an angel

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Current Mood:Playful emoticon Playful

Story in USA today:

Touched by an angel? Most say they’ve been protected

“A new survey of the USA’s religious beliefs and practices finds 55% of all adults — including one in five of those who say they have no religion — believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.”

What I found particularly interesting was this little tidbit right here:
“Members of almost every major religious group sensed angels running heavenly interference: evangelical Protestant, 66%; black Protestant, 81%; mainline Protestant, 55%; Catholic, 57%; Jewish, 10%; other religions, 49%; no religion, 20%.”

I think we must be running our Guardian Angels ragged these days :)

RCIA class went great tonight! It was on creation and original sin. Learned two important lessons: 1)It wasn’t Eve’s fault it was ALL ADAM’S FAULT for letting the serpent in to begin with and 2)Eve was intimidated into eating the fruit by a great big ol mean 7 headed dragon type critter, not some talking serpent from Dr. Doolittle. That always bugged me.

Girly bits

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Current Mood:Sickly emoticon Sickly

You know, women who get all into this “menstration as female empowerment” crap, scare me.

I can’t say that I’ve ever felt “more mystical” “more powerful” more “anything” other than “more cranky,” in the 35 years that I’ve had a period, period. It’s a period dammit, a sign that most of the time means you’re not pregnant, and no longer need all this fertile bedding stuff anymore. It’s not empowerment, it’s em-bed-iment, a perfect time to sit in bed and do nothing other than eat chocolate, watch George Clooney movies and give yourself pedicures.

It’s my down time, dagnabit, I get precious little of that as it is, why any woman would want to do anything else besides collapse and assume a fetal position, is beyond me.

My anamcara, who is blood-brother Lakota, told me once that in the Lakota tradition, the women have their own special “Moon Lodge” where the women who are on the rag go and do nothing. It’s a very special place of ritual, where they bleed in reparations for the sins of their husbands and brothers and warrior men from the previous month. Apparently, there’s lots of sinning to be had in warrior Lakota men.

And here’s what I have to say about that:
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It’s a Mystery

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

So the class tonight was on the holy trinity. The buzzwords for the day were “It’s a mystery” which kept reminding me of the movie “Shakespear in Love.”

“It’ll all work out.”

“How do you KNOW??”

“I DON’T know. It’s a mystery!”

…but, I figured it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to bring up a movie about a Catholic man having an adulterous affair, in my RCIA class, so I shut mah mouth.

I kept my mouth shut about a lot of things, actually. Like how some theologians (including Pope John Paul I) envision the third person of the trinity as feminine, but fortunately I didn’t have to say anything - he brought it up. He also admitted to having issues with that theory, which it is helpfull to know what one’s teacher’s issues, are. I suspect discussion of the Divine Feminine will be kept to a minimum in this class.

I really don’t have much difficulty with the concept of the trinity; I never did stop dealing with a triune god figure, even in paganism - after all. And even though it’s been proven that the whole shamrock-as-a-symbol-of-the-trinity thing can NOT be attributed to St. Patrick (the story is only traceable back 100 years or so; St. Patrick lived around 500 A.D.) - it’s still a good representation, I think.

A few more people showed up tonight, all with that wild-eyed deer-caught-in-the-car-headlights look. Catholics should take a cue from the Methodists and FEED new people.

It’s harder to bolt out the door when you’re busy digesting.