Totally grateful

time

In the Wisdom Class on Tuesday, an older woman talked about what she used to ask high school students when she was a substitute teacher (and admittedly an "excellent" one): "What do you all have in common?"

She surprised me (and probably those kids) by saying that each person is given the same amount of time each day; it is what one does with it that shapes the person.

Tonight I am so aware of this after reading Katherine's post for today, with her wish to "teach from her heart." How she does this with her life, her ministry, and her writing.

teaching

I trained to be an elementary school teacher, which was the only goal I had growing up. I loved teaching, but gave it up when I had children and experienced TX schools. (That sounds like a gross rationalization, but my experience was stifling.)

Through a fluke, I became an adult Sunday School teacher in 1995. Back then (when I was depressed and extremely under confident) I hesitatingly suggested a class based on Richard Foster's book on prayer, and someone said I should do it--that a shock! Then another man said he would teach it with me, so it was decided. This was a transforming moment in that I researched my talks as I later would write papers in seminary; I amazed everyone and myself, even though I was shaking as I talked.

I am grateful that my love of teaching returned and has endured concerning spirituality and spiritual formation with adults.

trees

I love trees, probably because Washington State is where I went to high school and college and where my parents settled after the Marine Corps. More trees determined that CB and I chose to live in older sections of Corpus Christi, rather than the new developments. After three different moves here, we remain in the same area.

thank you

I appreciate the expression of gratitude. I remember my children learning to say "thank you" and I am happy still when I hear them expressing it.

thank you notes

I really like to write and receive thank you notes. It was important in our family to write such notes after Christmas and birthdays. On Christmas Day, I always made a chart for the six of us (four children and two parents) to check off when a thank you note was written to the friend or relative who had sent a gift. Since we lived so far away from our families in Washington State, it was a good thing for us all to write back to them in thanks. I always told the kids that a good thank you note had at least three sentences:

1. thank you for the gift
2. something you like about the present
3. something interesting in your life

Through the years, people have complimented me on my children's thank you notes. I can see that they write better ones than most people do!

Happy Halloween!

"If the Broom Fits"
by Trudy Kenyon

Death by blogging?

xkcd cartoon

Contemplative Prayer

"Contemplation is the response to a call: a call from Him Who has no voice, and yet Who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being; for we ourselves are words of His. But we are words that are meant to respond to Him, to answer to Him, to echo Him, and even in some way contain Him and signify Him. Contemplation is this echo. It is a deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit in which our very life loses its separate voice and re-sounds with the majesty and the mercy of the Hidden and Living One…."

(New Seeds of Contemplation – by Thomas Merton)

SO grateful!

silliness

I am grateful that our family values silliness. A semi-compliment is, "You are so silly." It is not an insult.

showers

I so appreciate hot showers each morning. I say "thank you" for them, because I remember when I was in Zambia in 2006, sometimes there was no water for a shower and other times the water would be cold. I do not understand taking a shower at night, since I so love them in the mornings.

sitting with God

I call my prayer times of Christ-centered prayer "sitting with God." I am grateful that God has grown my commitment to sitting with him/her to twice a day. God grows our prayers (and us).

sons

Just as I was grateful for my daughters, so am I glad I have two sons. BJ is 24 and lives in Houston; DC is 30 and lives with his wife AA in Austin. They both drove to San Antonio for my birthday dinner on Sunday night. They are honest, hardworking, and fun. I appreciate when they call me to talk.

Pictures from my birthday

BJ, AA and DC, MJ, Jan, and CB

Luckily, DC knew how to set my camera to take an automatic picture of all of us. We met at MJ's dorm before going out to dinner to celebrate my birthday.

AA and DC, BJ, and MJ

I wish I had taken more pictures, so some would be clearer. No one else had a camera, which I find surprising, since I always had a camera at family gatherings with my parents. Maybe because I have always been the main photographer of the family, no one else does it that much.

Ready for thanks?

Read/reading

I love to read. I remember how excited I was to learn to read in first grade with the Dick, Jane, and Sally books, as I mentioned under gratitudes for "L".

For my recent birthday, I received lots of books. My dear husband surprised me greatly by giving me a Kindle! That is turning out to be such fun, because I can download a "sample" of a book I am considering and read a chapter or so before deciding to get the book or not. The first time a Kindle sounded interesting was on a visit at Songbird's blog.

I am definitely grateful that I can read and that I like to read!

rain

I am grateful that it has finally begun to rain again in TX, which has had a severe drought. I like rain, though I am not sure I would like the frequent drizzling rains of the Pacific Northwest for long periods of time at this point in my life.

raspberries

I am grateful that I have tasted Northwest grown raspberries, which are supremely better than anything sold in stores in TX. My mother grew raspberries in her backyard in Bellingham, WA. My children grew up picking them on summer trips there.

recycling

I am glad that recycling is becoming more normal in the USA. When we first moved to TX, there was no community recycling, which was a shock as we moved here from Oregon. Now there is twice monthly recycling pick-up in our city, but no glass recycling.

On trips, I save aluminum cans and plastic bottles and sometimes cardboard to bring home and recycle.

roof

I am grateful that we have a new roof on our house.

rhubarb

I am glad that my mother also grew rhubarb in her backyard. I like remembering how she made rhubarb sauce for my children to eat.

I am grateful I know what rhubarb is and like to cook with it. It is not found too often in supermarkets here, but when I have bought some, a few clerks have asked me what it is!

I used to make a rhubarb cake that called for one cup of vanilla!

Any Q's for gratitude?

I am not feeling creatively thankful for Q's, except for:

quiet

Probably because I am an introvert and a practitioner of contemplative prayer, I am grateful for quiet, for silence. I especially became aware of this desire for quiet when the workers were putting on our new roof for three very noisy and chaotic days a few weeks ago.

I want to be thankful for PEACE

prayer

I am grateful for prayer and for my renewed commitment to sit in Christ Centered Prayer twice a day. I remember reading a long time ago in one of Roberta Bondi's books about the desert mothers/fathers that even the thought of prayer is an invitation from God to pray.

I am grateful that my concept of prayer has widened to be more about relationship with God than mostly requests to a "magician God." And Richard Rohr writes so well about this concept in his newest book The Naked Now:

"Western culture has tended to be an an extroverted culture and a 'can-do' culture. Prayer too easily became an attempt to change God and aggrandize ourselves instead of what it was meant to be--an interior practice to change the one who is praying, which will always happen if we stand calmly before this uncanny and utterly safe Presence, allowing the Divine Gaze to invade and heal our unconscious, the place where 95 percent of our motivations and reactions come from. All we can really do is return the gaze." (74)

And as you can see with labels for my blog, I have many posts on prayer and prayers.

prayers

I am always grateful for the prayers of others. Every Wednesday at our lectio divina group, someone always prays for me. In our group, after all our reflections, each of us prays for the person on our right.

pecan pie

I am grateful for a wonderful recipe for pecan pie that my children love. It's a very pretty pie, too, because the final touch is to place whole pecans in consecutive circles on the top of the pie. I like remembering that pecan pie was my father's favorite, too.

poetry

I've always liked poetry, which is probably one of the reasons I was an English major in college. I have many poems posted here on this blog.

peas

With "peas in a pod" at the top, I feel like I should add "peas," even though I don't like them much. Daughter MJ likes to eat frozen peas, just like she did when she was a toddler. I gave frozen peas to all my kids when they were young; I think she's the only one who still prefers them icy.

puns

I'm not clever about creating puns, but I appreciate them. Here's one I've always liked:

Me Today

I feel much wiser than I used to be; but I still have a far way to go! I am grateful that my children in TX will meet me for dinner at Cappy's Restaurant in San Antonio tonight! CB was so nice to plan all this for me. Everyone, except MJ, have a 2+ hour drive to San Antonio (BJ from Houston; DC and AA from Austin; and CB and me from Corpus Christi). I'll miss AE and KA, but they'd rather be in Seattle than (anywhere) in TX, which I totally understand.

I am also very happy to be 59.

Only gratitude

ocean

I love the sound of ocean waves on the west coast, so that is the Pacific Ocean. I cannot remember that from the east coast, but I'm sure the waves look and sound just as beautiful on that side of the USA. I am grateful for the latest memory of waves while we stayed at Moclips, WA this past August.

Oblate School of Theology

I am grateful for the seven years I went to Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. In that time, my faith and knowledge grew (just as Fran's is now), as well as confidence in myself. Often I was one of the best students in classes of mostly male Roman Catholic seminarians. I am grateful that I got to go to Zambia for a month in 2006 as a member of a class entitled: "Global Ethics, with a concentration on Zambia."

opals

Opals are my birthstone as my birthday is in October. My mother gave me a fire opal ring and a fire opal pin, though the pin was stolen when the other jewelry was taken in 2003 (while I was in San Antonio going to school at OST). I've been told that there is an old wives' tale that it is bad luck for people to wear opals if their birthday is not in October, so I am grateful the opal is my birthstone.

oatmeal

I love oatmeal for breakfast cooked with raisins and peanut butter stirred in when it is cooked. Creamy and delicious! How grateful I am for the idea of putting peanut butter in my oatmeal.

New thanksgivings

natural

I am glad I stopped coloring my hair and let it become its natural color. After my 40th high school reunion last year, I decided that I no longer needed to color my hair browner than it really was. So now I have mostly white hair, and I'm glad it is white, not yellow-white or "dirty" white.

names

I am grateful when I can remember people's names! I remember better now that I will admit when I can't remember someone's name, so I ask for it--the embarrassment must help me remember!

I am glad I have my name. I also really like the names of my children. Oddly, we used to always name our dogs for "food," but that does not always hold true now.

Northwest

I am grateful I lived in the Northwest US for so many years of my life. I am glad my parents moved to Bellingham, WA in 1966 when my dad retired from the Marine Corps. It is a beautiful part of the country. I am glad that my daughter AE and her partner KA live in Seattle, so we can visit them there, though I wish we were closer to them, too.

Marriage Equality spoken by WWII soldier

This video is 3 1/2 minutes long. It is worth the wait to hear this elderly man speak about how he fought for equality for all people.



Thank you to my daughter-in-law KA for sending it to me!

M's make me merry

M&Ms

After MJ was born, what I wanted CB to bring me was a cold TAB and a bag of M&Ms. I don't really choose them first of all for candy these days, though they are good on a long drive to keep me awake--eating one at a time. So I guess my gratitude is more for chocolate candies and the memories of M&Ms brought to me in the hospital by my three other kids when MJ was born.

mysteries

I am grateful for the many mysteries I have read in my life. I started out with Nancy Drew when I was young, though I liked the Hardy Boys' mysteries better than hers. After that, there were books by Agatha Christie and Mary Stewart. The authors that stand out from adulthood began with Dorothy Sayers and continued on with P. D. James and more I cannot recall. When I had my knee surgery last year, I rediscovered mysteries thanks to blogging friends. The ones I especially enjoy are by Jacqueline Winspear--the Maisie Dobbs mysteries.

mother

I will always be grateful for my mother, who was my best friend, too. She lived 1919-1992 and I still miss her. I am grateful that I am the mother of four children AND the mother-in-law of two others.

middling

I am grateful that I learned a new word on Tuesday: "middling." I loved the sound of it in an e.e. cummings poem that was the meditation for the Wisdom Class then, and they taught me that it is an actual word. I had always thought e.e. cummings had created that word himself.

let it go - the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise - let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear

so comes love

~ e. e. cummings ~

Community together

Today I remembered this circle when thinking of community. Dorotheus of Gaza, a desert Abba in the 6th century, drew a circle in the sand with lines drawn to meet in the center. The lines represent our spiritual journeys: the closer we come to God, the closer we are to each other. Plus, I think we then may realize that all was in God from the very beginning.

Dorotheus wrote:
“Imagine that the world is a circle, that God is the center, and that the radii are the different ways human beings live. When those who wish to come closer to God walk towards the center of the circle, they come closer to one another at the same time as to God. The closer they come to God, the closer they come to one another. And the closer they come to one another, the closer they come to God.” (Instructions VI.)

Love creates thankfulness

letters

I used to be a prolific letter-writer, especially with my friend NKE since I left Japan in 1964. The internet has slowed me on writing letters these days, though my elderly cousin Margaret in Calgary, Canada is an example of someone who still writes 10+ handwritten letters to me. No one else though. I am grateful for the letters I have received in the past and those still to come. I have a drawer full of special letters I've kept.

When my dad died and we cleaned out his house, I found a blue canvas notebook full of letters my mother wrote to her parents while she was a Marine in WWII. What a treasure to have. I am grateful my grandmother (Nana) saved my mother's letters, and also that my mother kept them, too.

listening

I am grateful that sometimes I listen with my whole being. I appreciate when someone truly listens to me in this way.

“In every experience of true listening, especially to God but also to another person, there is a mysterious moment in which the one who listens steps out from a fortress of self-concern and dwells silently in the truth of the one who speaks. This is a moment of great risk and great courage, for it ushers us into a different way of being in the world. Over time, we may even cease to be people who listen and become people who are listening, people whose very being is shaped by the posture of listening. This is the posture of the servant, whose attentiveness is not a sign of cringing compliance but a mark of human life lived ever more fully in the Spirit of love (see I Sam. 3:10).”

~John S. Mogabgab

LOOK

"Look" is the first word I ever learned to read in first grade. I still remember the giant Sally, Dick and Jane book my teacher (Miss Golden) had at the front of the room and "Look" being the only word on the first page of the book. That memories reminds me of how grateful I am to be able to read.

Lemon Torte yogurt

Though this sounds silly, I am very thankful for Yoplait's new Delights, especially the Lemon Torte flavor. Having one of the 100 calories cups is so delightful that I feel like I am indulging myself, as I try to stick to the Weight Watchers program.

La Leche League

I am grateful that I was introduced to La Leche League and that I continued to be associated with La Leche League through my four children for almost 15 years. I met my good friend Lisa through this, so our children grew up together. I learned being a mother involves loving discipline rather than the harsher discipline I was brought up with.

Lectio Divina

I am grateful that God opened me to the practice of Lectio Divina in the 1990's. Through this practice I learned how the Spirit opens us to the truth hidden in the words of the Bible. I appreciate the Lectio Divina group that continues to meet every Wednesday since 1997.

Lebh Shomea

Though I have not visited Lebh Shomea retreat center in Sarita, TX for over a year, I will always be grateful for the existence of such a place and for the many times I stayed there since the 1990's. I attribute my love of the Eucharist to the times I was there.

Keeping grateful

kindergarten

I am glad that my four children loved kindergarten. Three of them had my good friend Margy Hoffman as their teacher. I have a vivid memory of BJ skipping along to and from school and me wishing he would always be this happy!

Unlike my children, I went to two years of kindergarten. I have a late October birthday, which allowed me to enter kindergarten in WA State. But when my dad was transferred to Quantico, VA, the cut off date for birthdays was Sept., so I was not "old" enough to start first grade there and had to go to kindergarten again. I was never grateful for kids teasing me that I had "flunked" kindergarten!

kitchen

I am grateful that I have had four brand new kitchens in my married life. This current house had its kitchen remodeled two different times--the first time we lived in it (1987-1991) and it was made larger when we moved back and bought it a second time in 1994. In that interim of living in RI and NJ, I had a brand new kitchen in a new home in RI and another remodeled kitchen in NJ. They've all had granite top baking centers, which were excellent for kneading bread upon, something I did often when the children were young and could help. Each one got his/her own tiny loaf of hot bread from the oven.

knee

I am grateful that the arthroscopic knee surgery from last year relieved the pain in my knee. I feel fortunate that I no longer have pain, especially when walking up and down stairs. I am glad that praying the Jesus Prayer throughout kept me calm and relaxed my muscles. While I was doing that, the doctor told me, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" which I understand to mean he could tell a difference from when I wasn't praying and I was.

kindness

I value kindness. I end my emails with a quote about kindness:

"The highest form of wisdom is kindness." (The Torah)

This is also framed on the wall of the bathroom. It was on a card I bought in Morristown, NJ before we moved back to TX in 1994.

Joyful thanks

jam

Until my mother died in 1992, she made raspberry jam and always gave us jars of it. I am grateful for the memories and for wonderful jams that are in existence.

Janet

I am glad my name is "Janet" and that my nickname is "Jan." My great-grandmother and my aunt were named "Janet," and so it is nice to carry on the tradition. I meet very few "Janets" but have met various "Jans" even spelled differently, which seems odd for such a simple, mono-syllabic word.

justice

One of my favorite Bible verses is Micah 6:8:

What does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with your God.

jet

I am grateful for jets so that we can fly to visit friends and relatives in faraway places. Jets made it possible for my mother's visits to TX two or three times a year while she was alive.

Japan

My dad was the provost marshal at the Yokosuka Naval Base for three years (1961-1964). We lived on the base, which was an American enclave for me as a middle school girl. I am grateful for the memories of being in Japan and especially for meeting my dear friend NKE, who reminds me of another "J" word I appreciate.

jade

I appreciate all the different shades of jade that are used in carvings and jewelry. When my parents took NKE and me to San Francisco in 1967, we bought each other (regular) green jade rings in Chinatown. We wore those rings until they broke in the last century. That had been my most consistently worn jewelry until it broke. When MJ and I went to visit AE in Seoul, South Korea in January 2002, I found a pale green jade ring in a store that came with a matching ring, which may mean they were meant to be wedding rings. The couple of rings gave me the opportunity to give one to NKE. Now we both have pale green jade rings to wear. I wear mine everyday. I like its simplicity. I am grateful for the long friendship with NKE, for our rings and memories of jade rings.

I am grateful

I am an Introvert

As I wrote in a blog post of the same title: I am an introvert. At times in my life I have wished that I could be an extrovert, I am glad to be an introvert. It is who I am! I gain my energy from being alone, which helps facilitate silent prayer practice. It may also be why I love to read. Being an introvert gives me the opportunity to make close, intimate friends, though I do not have lots of casual acquaintances.

ice cream

This was suggested by husband CB, who likes ice cream much more than I do, which does not suggest that don't like it. I am glad vanilla ice cream goes so well with cake and pie and under hot fudge sauce. The only kind of coffee I like is Haggen Daz coffee ice cream, which is something I am grateful for.

ink pens

This should have been under "F" for "fountain" pens; I am glad ink pens and ink bottles still exist. I really like ink pens for writing letters, though I don't write them very often anymore. One of the first fountain pens I bought was a brown striped Pelikan when BJ, MJ, and I visited AE in Germany (in 1999?). I remember the little shop so well that I am grateful I bought it there.

internet

Having high-speed internet makes life so easy and convenient, what with quick communication with e-mails, connection and information through blogging and websites, and googling for anything. I am grateful we have such easy access to the internet.

ice

I am grateful for ice, especially living in south TX. Water with ice is wonderful to drink here. Both my sons DC and BJ worked at an ice house in College Station while going to college--making, bagging, loading, and delivering bags of ice.

inner and insight

I am so grateful for the insight that Jesus did not tell people to pray in their "closet" or "inner room," as I've always heard and been taught in Sunday Schools. The homes of the peasants whom Jesus mainly spoke to did not have closets or inner rooms. Instead, he was talking about the inner journey of prayer (in silence). This seems so obvious since I read it in Richard Rohr's newest book The Naked Now on page 71.

H in tHankfulness

Harry Potter

I love the seven Harry Potter books, just as much as my children do or maybe more. The only person in our nuclear family who has not read a Harry Potter book is husband CB. I have read each one at least twice, some more. When I start reading Harry Potter, I fall into his world and am grateful.

Husband

CB and I will be married for 38 years right before Christmas. He is a kind, generous, hard-working man. He does nice little things for me, like yesterday he took my car in to be inspected to get a current state inspection sticker. Only that morning, I sat in a parking lot and gazed at another car with 9/0 on its sticker and then looked at mine and saw 9/09--uh-oh, it's not September anymore! I am proud of the way he works at Habitat for Humanity four mornings a week, which often extends into the afternoons. And I'm really grateful that he's going to the Richard Rohr conference in January with me!

Hugs

I am grateful for the hugs I receive (and give), especially from my children and husband. I did not grow up in an openly affectionate family and so when I joined CB's family, I was a little uncomfortable with all the hugging. Living in south TX and especially being involved in the Emmaus community grew me into appreciating hugs.

In the book authored by our new priest Sandy Casey-Martus, The Lessons: How to Understand Spiritual Principles, Spiritual Activities, and Rising Emotions, there is a short section on "Hugs"(107-108), which is partially quoted below:

• Hugs should not be given as an after thought, or kind gesture. They should be thoughtful, caring, gentle, and given without a desire for compensation--(if you give a hug, you may be liked better).
• The greatest benefit a gentle hug offers is you cannot give a hug without, at the same time, receiving one.
• Hugs have a rescuing power. Within a gentle hug's endearing embrace is the strongest power of the One--God's love.
• As a truth seeker, you may be constantly seeking the experience of the embrace of God. Be aware God's embrace is yours.
• The only way in which you may experience the embrace of God on this plane, is for you to embrace another. You are the heart, arms, and hands of God. You have the ability to gently hug the God of others, as the God of yourself.

Hippopotamus postcard

I have this hippopotamus postcard that I bought in the Johannesburg Airport on the way back home from Zambia in 2006 on my refrigerator. I smile whenever I see it and am grateful I bought it way back then.

by Rose Rigden