It’s the night before my mother died, and I’m in her hospital room, sitting with her. She’s very restless and demanding - close the shades! no, no, open them; no, open them a little. Fix my pillow for me, will you? I smile a little, jumping up to do everything she asks. I know it won’t be long before she won’t be asking me to do anything, anymore.

I also know she’s worried about me. Worried about me being pagan, worried about me being a single mom, worried about me not having a husband to “take care of me,” worried about my weight, the list goes on. I know that part of the reason why she’s hung on as long as she has, is because of her worry for me. She wants to know I’m going to be ok, before she passes on.

And so, I told a little fib. I told her about the new man in my life, “Tom,” who’s very handsome, Catholic, loves me and takes good care of me, and that we’ve been hitting the gym together. Well, most of it was true. I left out the part about him being married.

She smiled weakly and nodded her head, eyelids droopy from the pain medication she was on.

My mom was always unique. She was a Navy brat growing up, and traveled the world with my grandparents. At one point she was living in Guatemala, and there was an earthquake. Her maid, fearing for mom’s life, baptised her Catholic. She never told my grandmother, and it was never followed up with a priest, so it never was “official.” But I think it “took” with my mother, anyway.

Protestants really don’t “do” angels, or Mary. But when we were little, and we’d be scared of the boogie man, she’d draw us pictures of our “Guardian Angel” and tape them to the wall next to our bed, so we’d know we were protected. In her later years, she had a very personal relationship with her Guardian Angel, whom she called “Sing.” And all through her life, she had a natural affection for Mary. She used to tell me she would be sitting in Church and all of a sudden, get a whiff of roses, even when no one would be sitting near her, and no roses were on the altar. Roses are associated with Mary (hence, the Rosary), and mom just assumed that Mary came and made a little visit.

When mom got very ill, and all her blood levels went out of whack, she’d get very confused, and start calling for her. “Maaaaaary, Mary?” she’d call out, eyes shut tight. My siblings thought she was calling for our younger sister, but I knew she was calling for her Mother.

Who else do you want, when you’re sick?

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Discovery Channel has crack for commercials, I swear. Look at this latest commercial “The World is Just Awesome” - and fall in love!

Now that song will be in your head for the rest of the day. You can thank me later. Pagans aren’t the only ones who love the earth, you know. I’m pretty sure almost every person on the planet does, except for maybe Dick Cheney. Hell we’ve got Newt Gingrinch and Nancy Pelosi doing commercials together to combat global climate change.

Even the Vatican is going green. Yup! The Pope preached green at the UN, the Vatican itself is going carbon neutral, has installed solar panels, and at one point, there were reports in the media that pollution would be one of the new sins replacing the seven deadly ones, but that turned out to be a rumor. Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, in an interview with the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, did say we need to face up to that it is a “new form of sin” - but he’s not the Pope, nor does he speak for the Vatican. So don’t toss the Seven Deadlies away, just yet. (more…)