Musings

Have you ever experienced the “magnet of God”?  What is that, you might wonder? One day I hadn’t planned to go to weekday Mass at the Catholic Church, when I started to feel what I refer to as the “Magnet of God”—a strong, supernatural pull to go.  This is just one small...

Have you ever prayed for something for years?  Were your prayers answered?  Were they answered the way you hoped? There is a popular saying -- Prayer Changes Things.  Does it? 

When I received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic Church in 6th grade, the nuns endlessly drilled into our heads that we were going to become “soldiers of Christ”.  What on earth did that mean to a 12 year old?  Not much.  Who knew those words would come back to haunt...

There are times in life where we just don’t know what to do or which direction to take.  To quote from one of my favorite poems written by Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.”  Sometimes we are at a fork...

I just want to lay at Your feet and absorb Your love, O Lord for I am weary of this world and long to find rest in You. That is the cry of my heart. At least it was during Christmastime when my life was....

Remember bookmarkers?  Back in the day when Hallmark shops had a carousel with tasseled words of wisdom?  As a child, I was mesmerized by them.  What profound truths would jump out at me?  I only have a small collection because it was a rare treat to be able to buy one.  Nowadays,...

As a mother and wife, I have heard the words, “Not now” or “I’ll do it later” far too often.  It drives me crazy because when I ask someone to do something, that is when I want it done, not at a future time (or more likely, never).  I have a note...

I wonder what happened to the common phrase I heard throughout my childhood, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”  Seeing how youth come out of universities these days, it should be taught on every college campus.  Instead, academia is raising “snowflakes”.  Young people who can’t...

1-16-2023 It’s Ordinary Time.  If you are Catholic, you know what that means.  The Christmas season is officially over, (sigh of relief!) but don’t get too excited, it’s almost Lent.  “Always something” as we like to say.  And so it is in the Church, and in life.  As I get older, I...

I bought a sign for my laundry area at the dollar store recently that reads, “Laundry, sorting out life one load at a time.”  It just spoke to me so I didn’t think twice about grabbing it.  Words of wisdom found at the dollar store!  Hooray!  Laundry truly is a lot like...

I’m not a Jolly Jane when I wake up in the morning.  All my problems and worries immediately come flooding into my brain. Or, I am angrily awakened by neighborhood noise such as garbage trucks, landscapers, or birds chirping in the nest they decided to build right outside my bedroom window.  My...

“My soul, wait in stillness, only for God—from Him comes my salvation.”   Ps. 62:2  (TLV-Tree of Life Version) In preparing our hearts for celebrating the birth of our Savior, it is difficult to obtain peace in the midst of worldly Christmas preparations like shopping, meal prep, relatives and adult children descending...

I am always trying to comprehend the ways of God, but it’s just not possible with my finite mind.  The nuns told us everything will be revealed to us when we get to heaven and I always hoped they were right!  I want to know all the secrets of God and the...

Catholicism is a fascinating thing.  Often I am really stumped by it.  There is so much doctrine, ritual, legalism, rote prayers, Sacraments, Mary, saints, statues—the list is endless.  I call it “Catholic clutter” and so I basically took a break from the Catholic Church during my child-rearing years for what seemed to...

On a recent trip out of town we had three great choices of where to go out for breakfast.  We ended up at the place I rarely get a chance to visit that has a country shop I love, yet I was still thinking maybe we were missing something better at the...

Like many people, I was a Target fan.  I lived for the clearance pile.  My heart would pound with excitement driving to the store each week.  I couldn’t wait to get there!  It was like a person needing their morning coffee.  I had to have my Target fix.  I would find stylish...

One of the saddest, most heart-wrenching experiences I have had was watching my grandmother, and then my mother, descend into the abyss of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Both came from Europe as immigrants in the 1950’s with only the clothes on their back, to find a better life.   My mother’s childhood during the war...

I used to always say, “Mother feels best when everyone’s in the nest.”  Well, nowadays the nest has been mostly empty which is mostly good, but there are still lots of times when I am restless and worry about all of my “birdies”. My youngest used to sit on the backyard swing...

I find it interesting the way people receive gifts differently.  Maybe this stems from my grandmother sobbing whenever she received a present.  She would insist, “I don’t need anything for my last three days.”  As a child, this always confused and frightened me.  I felt dejected because she did not receive my...

St. Patrick’s Day, 2009 Today I learned that people are fragile, just like kites. Easily torn and broken. It was an unseasonably warm, almost spring kind of day. The wind was fairly strong, as is typical in March. My youngest daughter, who seemed to have a flair for physics, had been constructing...