HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL

I pray you will all have a blessed and happy day! I remember many a Thanksgiving long ago, when we would make the ninety mile trip from our home in Schenectady, NY up to my grandparents in Rutland, Vermont. My mother would always sing this song to us, as we indeed made our way over the river and through the woods!

Over the river and thru the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh,
Thru the white and drifted snow, oh!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.

Over the river and thru the wood,
To have a first-rate play;
Oh, hear the bell ring,
"Ting-a-ling-ling!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day-ay!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.


Quite often, we would have a white Thanksgiving. How precious are those memories to me this day as I baste the bird in balmy Virginia Beach. But in my mind and in my heart, I shall travel those old roads and bridges again, and stand in Grandma's kitchen with my loved ones all around me. And be thankful for them, and for those who surround me this day. I love you all!

THANKSGIVING EVE







I will be cooking up a storm today. The first thing is to clean the bird and get it soaking in some brine. Make the stock, then the stuffing, then start making the crust for my pies. The pies will be apple, pumpkin, and buttermilk (which is like a custard with a hint of lemon). I am also going to try Aunt Ruthie's recipe for another pumpkin dessert.

Then on to assembling the sweet potato casserole, the green bean, and the creamed onions. I will serve two small pie pumpkins that have been de-seeded and baked whole with butter, spices, and maple syrup. Oh yes, will try to get the cranberry orange relish made as well. More cleaning, ironing the linens, setting the table and covering it over with a sheet. And if those cats try anything funny with the table, they will be in danger of getting cooked up too!!!!


The little beagle boy better stay out of my way, and just bide his time on the sidelines for when something edible gets dropped on the floor.

I may just assemble the relish tray today, as well as the fruit bowl. Stuff the celery tomorrow. I will also serve corn, rolls, and of course mashed potatoes and gravy. The master will be mashing (and peeling, too, if I get my way). Maybe get a couple of them youngins to be my sou chefs.

Choir practice tonight, ugh!!!! Hope he doesn't keep us long, as I know my voice will be worn thin by then, ha, ha. But we have to practice our Christmas stuff, which is an odd collection of very pretty, but complex and sometimes weird harmonies.

Speaking of weird harmony, the entire clan will be here this year, and perhaps a friend or two. JoAnn will want me to roll (literally by then) over across the street tomorrow tonight for more dessert and a visit.

So now you know that I will be staying out of trouble for the next couple of days.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

More Troubling Effects of Ignorance

I would also like to add another point about ignorance. Here are some things that even the Harvard grad seems to have missed in his education:

Lust is a bad thing. Lust means wanting something really badly, and deliberately subjugating any regard for the consequences to you, other people, and society if you go out and grab such thing. It is the opposite of love, which denies one's own selfish desires for the sake of the well-being of the beloved.

Lust is a destroyer of lives, virtue, innocence and civilization.
Lust does not think, it just consumes victims and perpetrators alike. Just look at all the famous, otherwise gifted and talented men who have been put to public shame and have lost their positions in society because they gave full vent to their sexual lust. And what does that do to their families?

How about the government sanctioned lust for material goods and other people's wealth? Virtually all but the eldest among us have not been taught that buying on credit for all but emergencies is immoral.

When you whip out the plastic you are saying that you lack the sufficiency within your own means to obtain that product or service (a fancy way of saying you can't afford it) and so must borrow other people's money, in effect, to attain these things. You borrow against your own future, which is rather presumptuous at best, and you exhibit an immaturity and lack of self-control when you simply must have that something right now, instead of doing without it or saving up for it.

The situation is made exponentially worse when one goes out and "buys" a house that he knows he is not financially qualified to own, just because bankers have become ninnies and are willing to throw money at anybody. Remember how the wretched twin Ignorance (see previous post) had the word Doom written on his forehead? Who would have thought we could doom this economy so quickly by lending and borrowing money all over the place with no regard for how it might be paid back? A person with knowledge and the wisdom to apply that knowledge would have known that and restrained himself.

Of course there are the situations where the washing machine dies two days before Christmas. Ideally, we would have money saved against such emergencies, but with inflated prices (which has a lot to do with families becoming double-income households) and deflated paychecks I think using the credit card to replace the machine is understandable. Or if there is a sudden death or family emergency, then it is a mercy that we have access to quick credit. But I am talking here about everything else, from venti anything to big screen tv's.

My point in all this consists in the way modern man has forgotten that prudence, self-control and self-sacrifice are virtues, and that what we have been encouraged to do (from the halls of leadership on down to the Walmart) these last several years is to satisfy our lusts by accumulating that which does not belong to us. Accumulating that which does not belong to us, for you academic elites, is called stealing, or theft, and is actually criminal. This also applies to many government entitlements and those that are in the planning stages now.

There is an old-fashioned term for what we have engaged in and what looks to be our undoing. It is called the love of the world.

"For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." I John 2:16

Beware the love of the world, for if you love the world, then the Father is not in you, so says the Apostle. He also adds,"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

IGNORANCE AND WANT


(image from Richards Williams' Academy Award winning animated short, "A Christmas Carol" from 1971)

In Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", the Ghost of Christmas Present commands Scrooge to look well at the two hideous creatures skulking at the spirit's feet. Scrooge tries not to look at the forms of the two ghastly children, but the spirit insists. He says:

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

Dickens was intensely interested in the plight of the poor of his day, and most especially the miserable lives of children growing up in grinding poverty. He knew well that a nation that tolerated either ignorance or structured itself in such a way that "want" would find no opportunity to break it's chains, would inevitably be consumed by them.

His solution was not government reform, much as our modern sensibilities might advocate, but rather that each one of us become our brother's keeper, and that we must as individuals do our part to end human suffering.

Are we far beyond all this in present day America? I'm not so sure. Just as we seemed to have cornered the market on wealth, prestige, knowledge and wisdom, things began to fall apart.

For one thing, today's young men who grow up in weak family structures, sometimes in decaying neighborhoods, sometimes in better ones, are the ones who join gangs. They are overwhelmingly drawn to the sense of identity and community that a gang offers - in other words, the gang becomes a family to them. And now we have to contend with the frightening reality that many in American prisons are now being radicalized into becoming Jihadists for much the same reason - the group is the family, the hierarchical, authoritative organization within which the individual is taught to structure his own life, and by which the he is promised hope for something better than the nothingness of now.

I believe today we are, as a people, in decline. The worst ignorance is willful ignorance. I believe we have made ourselves ignorant of our past, our heritage, and of right and wrong. We have become too lazy to care about all those things. These also get in the way of us taking our pleasure where we will. This sloth of spirit and slackening of right living now surely is leading to actual physical want. The bible warns us in Proverbs 24,

"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, [and] nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Then I saw, [and] considered [it] well: I looked upon [it, and] received instruction.
[Yet] a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come [as] one that travelleth (as a robber); and thy want as an armed man. "

We need to, and soon, heed this admonishment from Scripture:

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16

Let's find those old paths before it gets too dark, for the lights are surely going out in the West.

LIFE AS APPLESAUCE

Last Wednesday was a lovely fall day here in the Confederate States of America. The sun was shining in that autumnal, muted way, the air held a trace of warmth in it, and it was simply, as always, a good day to be alive. A die-hard holiday purist, I refuse to ditch the harvest theme till after Thanksgiving. These two pumpkins remind me of my friend JoAnn and I. In these last years, we have become quite the fundamentalists when it comes to certain verses of Scripture. Particularly the admonition to "delight thyself in fatness". Back when it was written, fatness would be a sign of blessedness, since there was no such thing as food security, pickings were slim, and most folks would be pretty lean.

Well, we have taken that verse to heart, and run with it, almost to the point of heresy. Heresy is when you take a biblical truth and emphasize it to the neglect of other, balancing points.

Whatever.

When we go shopping for clothes, we look for size Fat and size Fatter. We now go by those nicknames (but we are the only ones allowed to use them on ourselves, mind you). Fat and Fatter. That is why those pumpkins out there on the bench glorifying God in their plump, cheery way remind me of JoAnn and me.

Plump, cheery, and usually hanging out together. That's me on the left.

Big Bob was outside mowing the lawn while simultaneously sucking up leaves with the ol' mulching mower. I use all that for compost - ain't life great? Big Bob was originally called "Big" because our son Bobby Jr., was necessarily Little Bob. But times have changed and Big Bob, apparently also a fundamentalist, has grown into his name. Let's just follow him around a bit and watch him work.














Nice job. Good man.



Meanwhile, inside the house, I was trying to make the best of things. I pride myself in always trying to look on the bright side and making the best of things, whether it concerns people who still haven't learned their lesson, or being content with whatever circumstances I'm in, or aging fruit.

Stop thinking about those pumpkins; I'm moving on to apples and pears here.

So yeah, I decided that I would like to take the last of the New York apples and a couple of past-their-prime pears and make some sauce out of them. Thanks to my young friend, Madelyn (one of those nice young people who often have a lot of time on their hands), our day was documented by her picture-taking talent. Great job, Maddie, much thanks.

Here we go.


I really do not know what I am doing here. Looks like I am adjusting my halo. The crucifix in the kitchen typifies my favorite decorating style: 1950's Convent.

So yes, indeed, the following pics demonstrate me chopping apples and the unhappy pears, followed by pics of other ingredients, and me putting it all together.










I really want to stop and talk about this photo, which to me says tons about real life. If you look past my "not ready for tv commercial hands" chopping the apples, you will notice an iron which was used recently to iron starched doilies (they are lovely things), but the iron should have been put away by now. Then you see the Folgers coffee can, which unbeknownst to you, holds vegetable scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds soon to meet their friends, the leaves and grass clippings, in ye olde compost pile. Now look into the background and you will see why friend Madelyn had time to take pics. Her friend, Michael was engrossed in something on the Internet, probably that Youtube video of the legendary Mexican devil-dog, the Chucacabra, haunting the Sangre de Cristo mountains or some such place.

Michael needs to get a job.

Notice that there is more than one computer in the family room, and a whole lot of wires. My oldest son is home from the Air Force, and these belong to him. It seems little Bob has a BIG fascination with computers and wires. Thanks for that, Bobby. It's just those little touches like that, that make me want to.....

Since the family room has been altered somewhat, I decided to give in to the chaos and throw a poster on the wall which is a copy of a painting I saw in Ireland. I loved it, so I bought the poster online at Allposters.com. It was a much LARGER poster than I thought it would be. But anyway, there it is, in all its romantic, melancholy loveliness.


After I bought it and put it up, I discovered that the story it depicts is much sadder than I had planned on, so I am in the process of inventing a new story for it in my mind.

Back to the applesauce. I do not really measure anything out when I make stuff like this. I added a little water, sugar, about a tablespoon of butter, a few drops of apple cider vinegar, a pinch of salt, and of course cinnamon.














































Then I cooked it all down, stirring occasionally.










Here is a nice photo of the apples and a pot of wonderful chicken soup I was cooking.


And here, after I ran it through the food processor, is the finished product:















So this was a very nice day. And this is me, looking rather smug when I'm in my own element. And behind me on the fridge, are decorations that my children made when they were small. And the reason I do all this is not to necessarily brag to you about my life or the way I operate. I just want to explain WHY I cook and bake and wear aprons, and have cheery colors and sweet things around me and pretty pictures, and my children's artwork from long ago. And why I give young people a chance to do something they love while keeping them out of trouble. I am trying to make lovely applesauce out of this life. I am taking what I have and making the most (well, not always, but often) of everything and every day and every minute I have on this earth. I want my family and those who spend time in my home to feel safe and happy and to know that God loves them. And to know that if things aren't so good sometimes, we can simply get busy and do something. And just like for those poor pears, life is full of second chances and we always have the opportunity to change our minds and reinvent ourselves if we don't like how our lives are going.

I hope you enjoyed your visit with us. So have a nice day, and now we must get ready for the mother of all cooking days, Thanksgiving.

To be continued, one hopes.

P.S. I have friends who read this blog but do not leave comments here, because they say they do not see how to do it. Simply click on the word "comments" you see below the post, and well, comment. Thank you!

COLOR, COLOR EVERYWHERE

The leaves are falling all over the place now. I have these two bushes in the front of the house, aptly called "burning bushes". They are absolutely gorgeous at this time of year, but the nor'easter kind of made them hurry up the show. Well, here is the one that still has some of its glory. I would have had my picture taken with it but I didn't want you to confuse me with Moses.

THE NOR'EASTER FINALLY PUSHES THROUGH AND BLOWS AWAY

"...weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5



Well, we knew it would, but during the last four days, it sure felt like we would be stuck in this doom and gloom forever.

On the home front, we managed to get through this fairly unscathed, with just a few roof shingles coming off. Praise the Lord on that one. This morning, Sunday, I got up and sat down at the kitchen table across from my husband. Through groggy eyes, I struggled to see what he was pointing at on the table. He is a funny guy whom you'd really have to meet to appreciate, but anyway, he was excitedly pointing to the table and doing this little mime face of great excitement.

"What?" I said, annoyed to be playing games on a day where I had gotten up late (choir warm-up was in 40 minutes) because I hadn't been able to go to sleep until about 4 a.m. (a long story, always a long story). Well, finally I saw it. A skinny bar of sunlight stretching across the table through almost closed kitchen curtains.

"Ah, sunlight! Yay, hooray!!!!!"

It doesn't take much, after all, to engender a mood swing in me. This was the first sunlight we had seen since last Tuesday, so yes, thank you dear Lord, for restoring your cheery sunlight to our gloominess.

Rahm Emmanuel never likes to see a good crisis go to waste, and I never like to miss out on a metaphor. So yeah, what I am taking away from this storm is that things might seem like judgment day, but the only thing that is the end of the world, is the end of the world. That hasn't happened yet, God is still on the throne, I will new light shining on what may seem on any given day to be insurmountable problems, and so will you.



Now it is time to SERIOUSLY think about Thanksgiving, that profound, round, wonderful opportunity we get to ponder with gratitude. Then eat with fatitude.



And sing "Over the river and through the woods...", and smell the smells, and feel connected to family and tradition and ancestors and our great beloved country, and well, yes, watch football I suppose. And then make that special turkey sandwich at night with the mayo and lettuce and realize how exhausted you are and then realize that tomorrow IT begins with a vengeance, and you know what I mean by IT.

But oh, we are so blessed, are we not?

WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A NOR'EASTER


Nor'easter, by Harold Kirby, see website halsart.com

Funny how a thing can seem to be settling down, then somehow get blown all out of proportion and take on a life of it's own. No, I am not talking about rumors and gossip though that is the kind of mess that reminds me of our current plight.

There once was a hurricane, arriving rather late in the season, but like an irksome, uninvited guest, there she was, knocking at the door of the gulf coast. Hurricane Ida proved to be less formidable than she had threatened to be, however, and soon turned into a modest little tropical storm. Or so it was thought.

It seems Miss Ida was not done stirring up trouble as she gracefully but forcefully slid ashore, throwing open doors to corridors which led her through the states and changed her as she went. Just like getting angry can change you physically, here she came, huffing, puffing, and splattering her way up the southeastern interior of the U.S. Yesterday she started wailing and flailing her way up our streets, deciding that our town would be ground zero for her fury.

Now because the guardian spirits of the North put up a high pressure system which blocked this witchy busybody from entering their realm, she has not taken it too well, but has pitched a fit and her stormy tent right here, screeching, twisting, turning and spewing torrents of rain upon our heads.

Miss Ida has reinvented herself, spinning into the sickly swirls of a true nor'easter! Her anger she has vented lo, this last day and a half, flinging shingles and siding, flooding streets and homes, throwing down trees and power lines, her tantrum continuing on with frightening power, no visible end in sight.

Since I started this post a few minutes ago, inky darkness has fallen all in a heap outside my rain-lashed window. It is suddenly dark as pine pitch. All I can see of outside is the wan glow of a street light half-hidden behind the trees.

They say our afternoon tide, aided by the moon in its current phase, may reach historic highs, causing much beach erosion, property loss and human misery.

I am praying for all of us, and certainly for three of my children, who are out in this tonight. As the old folks used to say when I was a child and there was a blizzard, "'Taint a fit night out for man nor beast".

To be continued...........

Swine Flu Redux and One Woman's (that would be me) Crusade to Vanquish Illness

So the 21 year old started feeling ill last Friday with a sore throat and general feeling of malaise. By Saturday morning he was weak and tired. He lives down at the beach, but quickly sought refuge here at the ol' homestead.

This is what I did: I immediately started feeding him Roman egg soup, which is a gelatinous chicken broth cooked with much garlic, some spinach, an egg beat up into the boiling broth, some orzo and a generous topping of grated Italian cheese (I use loccatelli romano, from sheep's milk).

Along with good wholesome food and pure water, I had him drink numerous cups of herbal tea, including a blend specifically concocted for throat ailments. He slept a lot, and basically hung out with the family.

The only medicine he got was some pseudofed, and some Robitussin with codeine.

I was really concerned about him going into pneumonia like the 16 year old did, but by yesterday he was much improved. He is home now, with my cellphone(!), and I will call him this morning to make sure he isn't relapsing or spiking a fever.

I am going to start feeding everyone cod liver oil capsules today, but please don't tell them that is what they are taking. I am not showing them the bottle, just calling it winter tonic!

Along with the above measures, I always wash towels, linens, underwear, cleaning cloths and anything else that can tolerate it in very hot water, sometimes with bleach, and dry everything in a hot dryer. Call me extravagant, but since I am very frugal in other aspects of my life, I feel I can splurge with hot water.

I also try to air out the house, reveling in the fact that fresh air and sunshine are free. The lack of Vitamin D has been discovered to push people into illness, and guess what, when sunshine hits your skin it makes vitamin D, FOR FREE, and only in amounts your body needs so yeah, we can all benefit from going outdoors for a few minutes a day.

The flu vaccines are controversial, and just not too available, so for now, I am doing what I can for myself and my family. I cannot stress enough the importance of not getting over-tired and otherwise run-down, so of course I have been nagging about people getting good amounts of quality sleep. Quality sleep, it has been proven in experiments, is when you get in bed early in a very dark room and stay there for at least seven hours. Depending upon one's own particular needs, the healthy range for sleep time is seven to nine and a half hours. And Ben Franklin was right about the early to bed, early to rise thing.

I post this in the hopes that everyone will stay healthy and enjoy the most fantastical time of year, the holiday season!

Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811–1879). The County Election, 1852. Oil on canvas. 38 x 52 in. (96.5 x 132.1 cm). Gift of Bank of America.



ELECTION DAY

We have arrived at the day each year when it is our solemn duty and sovereign right to choose those who would represent us in government. May we have God's ear as we pray that our choices may be just and prudent. May we have His mercy if they aren't.

Election Day also calls for us to fly the flag, so fly it proudly.

Here in Virginia, the national media is making no small to-do about our race for governor. It it supposed to be a litmus test for Obama's popularity. Since Virginia went democrat in the last gubernatorial and presidential election, contrary to its typical rock-rib Republican stance, it seems to be a stereotypical feather in, well, one of those hats.

So the conventional thinking suggests that a return to republican leadership in the Commonwealth equals a rejection of Obama and his policies. I really don't think so, and I hope I am right, because I like to think that Virginians have a little more depth to their thinking than that. The seeming (and we shall find out when the polls close) lead for the republican candidate is coming from our having taken the measure of each man, as best we can. And our feeling that McDonnell is more competent to run the state than Deeds. I think their policy objectives run parallel to each other in many instances, so it isn't even a question of liberal versus conservative. Its just that McDonnell seems more confident and professional than Deeds.

If McDonnell does win, then may he have deserved it, I pray. May he be an honorable gentleman to Lady Virginia and a cautious conservator of her wealth.

What happens in the rest of the country, especially in the case of the U.S. House races, is more important, in my view, for our country has been undergoing extreme changes, and these folks are key players in that change.

I have an old U.S. Flag with only 48 states on it. It is our nation's most enduring flag, having flown from 1912 to 1959. Both World Wars were fought and bled for, under its reign. I contend it was the last flag to fly under a truly free America.

No disrespect intended towards Alaska and Hawaii, but I may start flying it, as it represents for me all that has been lost since it once was the flag of the land, and all that is being destroyed right now.

Mater dolorosa, ora pro nobis.

ALL SOULS DAY



November 2nd is observed in the Catholic Church as the Feast of All Souls, a day on which we solemnly pay tribute to all whom we trust have died in Christ. We pray for them and we believe they pray for us. For we who still walk the earth, we take the time to remember our loved ones and ancestors who have gone before us, and we reflect upon our own mortality and the hope of heaven.

There has been so much death and mayhem in the last month, that I was especially eager to get to mass this morning and to rest in the comforting arms of holy mother church. The weather today could have been sent from a Hollywood casting agency: the sky was dark, the wind was blowing dead leaves about, and the threat of rain hung like a funeral pall over the scene, as I made my way up the path to the church.

Our pastor wore a vestment of black with some white and gold in it. I thought this was an especially appropriate symbol of our relationship with death. The black, to me, represents the harsh reality of the sin which caused and still causes the corruption and decay of life. The sting of death, the separation and the fear of passing through its dark portals paints a dark picture indeed.

Black says its final,
you may not peek through it,
it is a lack of, an absence of,
light and life.

It is supposed to hurt, to be sad, for it was not the Father's original plan, but the natural consequence of a fallen world.

The white in the vestment, however, posits the counterpoint to death: life will come from death, it is indeed not final, in all things Christ will triumph! He is the light of the world, He came to bring life and life abundant, He is the beginning and the end, and just as white light contains all the colors in the spectrum within itself, so Christ will redeem all creation and keep us in the fellowship of the blessed, forever!

The gold is just another way for us to see Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, who shines on and lights the way for all eternity. Gold reminds us of the richness of our faith, and the Glory of the world to come.

"Death is swallowed up in life. O death, where is thy victory, O death, where is thy sting?"

As for we who plod on today, let us take time to remember all the souls who have left this earthly plane, and also offer up this prayer for all those, whom time and obscurity have forgotten:

A Prayer for the Forgotten Dead (taken from Catholic.org)

O merciful God,
take pity on those souls
who have no particular friends and intercessors
to recommend them to Thee, who,
either through the negligence of those who are alive,
or through length of time are forgotten
by their friends and by all.
Spare them, O Lord,
and remember Thine own mercy,
when others forget to appeal to it.
Let not the souls which Thou hast created
be parted from thee, their Creator.

May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

(image from http://deaconpathomily.blogspot.com/)

ALL SAINTS DAY

Now here November gray and brown
with windy gusts blows into town
ragged battered leaves fall down
the year has almost made its round.

Pull covers up against the cold
and dream of golden days of old
when we were young enough as yet
to live each day without regret...

Thank goodness we are past all the macabre, tension-producing (at least in me) excitement of Halloween. All Saints Day dawns inevitably as a quiet epilogue to the pagan revelry of its eve. November's first light is solemn and still, sometimes littered with pieces of pumpkins smashed on the street, but always somehow clean and hopeful in its tenor. This is a holy day which begins a holy season, and ironically, it sits here in the darkest part of the year. The time in nature when life and light are waning away, I am prone to reflect, not only on my disappointments and failures, but also on the sure and certain hope that good can still come in this life. When it is dark outside, the lights from my windows shine all the brighter. And on this day, we celebrate those in church history who shone the brightest against the dark backdrop of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We remember on this day, all those frail human beings who said yes to God and were transformed in their lives by their self-surrender, bearing heaven's bright beams in their smiles while bearing the cares and crosses on their backs and in their hearts.
Even the martyrs were silly with hope. St. Lawrence who was roasted alive, quipped at the point of death, "Turn me over. I'm done on this side".

What compels people to hope against hope? For me, it is the knowledge that God has always been present with me, and no matter what may befall, He allows me to "see" His hand in all things. Every day is a miracle, and everything good that is, is God-breathed.

When you go into the supermarket, or to a roadside stand at this time of year, look at the vibrant colors of the produce. All creation praises the Lord, just by it's being itself, and my, the colors of nature are no exception. I have a deep orange and also a smokey blue hubbard squash sitting on my counter top right now that are absolutely rich with harvest goodness. They make me happy just looking at them!

When you are driving along, and an old, favorite song comes on the radio, that is a little gift, a sweet nothing just gratuitously thrown your way. Be thankful. I am even thankful that we have a special day coming up to be thankful! I usually spend way too much on Thanksgiving dinner, but actually quite a feast can be available for not that much money. The stores always have turkeys for less than a dollar a pound, and potatoes and vegetables fresh and canned are pretty cheap, too. This is the one holiday that the world has not quite figured out how to commercialize, so I look forward to it with happy anticipation.

So to try and tie my varied themes together, I think that this is an excellent day to celebrate the soul's triumph over the all too certain dreary darkness of life, that all the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of a single candle, and that we ought to look forward to the good things coming our way, even as we enjoy all the little, seemingly inconsequential lights and goodies of each passing day.

Happy Harvest, Happy November, Happy Feast of All Saints!!

SICKNESS

If you are not dealing with it yet, you may soon be. Before anyone could get any vaccines, controversial though they may be, the youngest, strongest, most physically fit member of our family was stricken with the flu and then pneumonia. Apparently the H1N1 flu goes deeper into the lungs and significantly raises the possibility of complications, ala pneumonia. It also afflicts the older children and young adults with greater frequency. Thus, my sixteen year old is Patient Zero in the Aggen household (southern branch).

He was also run down from working six nights a week on top of doing full days of school and weight training. A recipe for disaster, yielding a great big cup of affliction.

So as I told his manager at work, we're done with that. Three nights a week, max. The guy agreed. After all, Kevin always shows up early for work, doesn't take breaks and does everything (and probably more than) they ask him to. Sounds a lot like his dad, who was hospitalized in his twenties from exhaustion. Seems he had a boss who liked to have him work day and night, day in and day out delivering sides of beef, until one day he couldn't move and his heart was affected. He ended up staying in the hospital for over a week. He slept the whole time.

I just love my menfolk, but sometimes I have to step in and save them from themselves. Or at least try. Often I am very ineffective. Then I go into Plan B, which is "mop-up" mode, cleaning, giving meds, cooking, fluffing up pillows, running interference between them and the outside world.


I am boiling down a chicken and even found a farm that will sell me the feet, which make the rich, gelatin broth which is so nourishing. (PLEASE DO NOT TELL MY FAMILY ABOUT THE CHICKEN FEET). My son Kevin will eat whatever I make, but he told me yesterday that actually he loathes soup. I told him there must have been a mistake at the hospital when he was born, and someone else is raising my soup-loving baby.

As a consolation prize to him, though, I will make homemade pizza and stromboli tonight as well. Now, once again, I am not working an outside job, and since I do not bring in any money, I suppose I am an abject failure and just plain weird to the outside world. I asked the Lord about this, and He said not to worry and that the check is in the mail.

FRUITFUL VINES DEFY GRAVITY

"Thy wife [shall be] as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house" Psalm 128:3

This is what I strive to be, but like the green plant's struggle to break free from the earthen womb and climb higher toward the sun, so is my struggle to keep reaching higher in God's plan for my life.

So when the pressures, the negativity, and the trials come to crush me to the ground, that is when this little vine must reach up toward the Sun of Righteousness, that I may grow toward Him, defying gravity as I do!

FOR ALL THAT IS SEEN AND UNSEEN


Guardian Angel - buy at Allposters.com


If I were a guardian angel I'd probably be annoyed - a lot! And really not be too happy about the fact that the little person in my charge was routinely oblivious to my loving care and attention, and always making me work overtime. No wait, that sounds like my life already, so never mind, let's start over.

I think it is really great how our Lord loves us so much He can't take His eyes off of us, and weaves our little lives together with the lives of others in such a way as to accomplish His will in us, sooner or later. And I appreciate how sometimes, when bad things seem to befall us in such seemingly random ways, we may look back years later and understand how, my yes, those things simply HAD to occur the way they did in order for x and y to work out the way they did.

Then sometimes I wonder why one may have to pray for something for a couple of dozen years, and not receive what one has requested. Then one gives up, and says, "Well, OK, I guess I accept Your will", only to find that within 20 minutes of acquiescing, the request gets granted.

What also unnerves me is the thought that I may spend the rest of my life praying for something, a good thing, and then die without hearing from the Lord, which defaults, really to a "No". Well, really that hasn't happened yet because I am still here and while there is life, there is hope.

I have, as have you, however, seen the most heinous, over the top bad things happen not once but twice or more to the same person and that is where having faith gets really tough. A schoolmate of my daughter's got drunk and lost control of his car, striking a tree and killing himself. Within the year, his father, unhinged mentally from his loss, went banging on doors ranting and raving in a paranoid state about someone being after him, trying to kill him. He was pleading with the people in those homes to call the police. When the police arrived he was acting so bizarre that instead of saving him, the police ended up shooting him and killing him.

What? Why? What were the immediate circumstances leading up to this? Whatever they were, I am sure they were the final set of things that went wrong once his young son was taken from him.

Just last week, another young man (aged 21) of my daughter's acquaintance left a bar (under the influence, yes) and attempted to cross the street. He was struck by a car. He lay for several days, hooked up to life support. They took him off it earlier this week. They are burying him now. Tragic, but unnecessary, yes? Foolish young people. Demon rum. The incident that set this one in motion?

Six months ago his 18 year old brother sat in his car outside the kiddie playland place where his girlfriend worked. She was due to get out of work around 9 pm. Shortly before that, a man walked up to the young man's car. He saw the gold chain the boy was wearing and wanted it. Things went very wrong, and the man shot the boy, leaving him to bleed and die right there.

So big brother quit college in California to be close to his grieving mother. Now she has lost two boys, within six months of each other. Both gratuitous, unnecessary, and in there sum, beyond tragic. A caricature of tragedy. Why? Why? What kind of God, etc.?

I do not know. I have a few problems of my own, though nothing, as yet, and I pray never as horrific as these I have described. All I can give is my own testimony. I know that God is real, that He loves me, and pays close attention to everything about my life, that He gives me good things, and makes all things to work together for good. I also know that we are not promised easy lives, but abundant ones.

I pray I may take hold of that abundant life and make as much of mine as I possibly can. And where I cannot, where my strength gives out, He will step in and provide. When I lose my way, He will guide me back onto the good path. I have many a merry companion on that path as well, fellow pilgrims who lean on me and I on them. I am thankful for them and I hope they are thankful for (or at least forgiving of) me. I pray we will all keep our minds stayed on Him.

"Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3

Continuing the discussion...on food, families, and being our brother's keeper



I read an interesting article in our newspaper this weekend about a new program here in town. Our school system, in partnership with the area-wide food bank, has just initiated a new program, "Beach Bags" in the elementary schools that serve the most transient and poor families. Every other Friday, school children of these families receive a grocery bag full of donated food which is tucked into the children's backpacks at the end of the day.

According to the article, foods going home to the 200 or so families last Friday included the following: Frosted Flakes cereal, milk, SpaghettiO's, ravioli, peanut butter, applesauce, Cheezits, soup and canned chicken in barbecue sauce.

I think this is a wonderful thing they are doing for poor families. Some of the items are questionable in terms of their overall healthiness, but they are calorie-dense and easily consumed with no real cooking necessary. Considering some of these families literally live in tents at the local campgrounds, this is important. These are sad facts.

The family spotlighted in this article is made up of a mom and dad in their early 30's with a pre-adolescent boy and girl. The father has been out of work for a few months, and the mother does not feel well enough to work, having symptoms that are lupus-like. One of the children has been getting flushed, light-headed and short of breath in p.e. class (which could possibly be asthma or a heart problem), and the other child has asperger's syndrome.

My point in writing this is that while the city's efforts are good, perhaps we all could do better when it comes to creating well-being for ourselves and society. These people are the marginalized, and I don't know why, for sure. But in order to help folks truly improve their lives, we need to start finding out why.

The article states that the father does landscaping work, but has been out of work for a few months. We live in a place that has extensive landscaping of businesses and neighborhoods, and we mow lawns until November, so I think, and I daresay I may be judgmental, that there is an unspoken problem here. The bigger problem, however, is that even if he were employed, rents are too high to sustain a family on a $10 an hour landscaping job almost anywhere in this country. The family had recently been evicted from their apartment, and the parents had slept that first night in their car while their children slept at a friend's home. Someone has stepped up and paid for a week's stay at a hotel, but after that, what?

The aforementioned family has an Anglo-Saxon name, and most likely, are native born and raised. That means the parents were educated in this country and afforded opportunities to further their education through community college or vocational school. They could, most likely, get PEL grants, food stamps, and a host of other means of a leg up. What goes wrong?

You know, I still think as an immigrant would, because I come from that framework. That is why the first question that occurred to me is, "where is the family?". These people didn't just spontaneously generate under a cabbage leaf, so where are the grandparents? Are they dead, estranged, incapable themselves of offering any support or stability? Did they abuse or neglect the children who are now the parents in this article? Were the grandparents incarcerated; were they substance abusers? Are the parents?

I think my ancestors, though quite human and full of problems themselves, had something that so many people seem to be lacking in this age, and that thing is "connections". They were together with their families in the old country, and when they came to this country they were sponsored by family or friends here. New immigrants, whose wealth typically consisted of whatever they could carry over here in the boat with them (usually just a few items of clothing), would form little ethnic neighborhoods which would then establish a church, and get down to the business of improving their lives by hard work, surrounded by those of like background and faith. Faith was the influential moral authority, and functioned like the third parent in these families, whether the parents themselves were devout or not. Even being a nominal member of a faith community ensured that everyone was on the same moral page, that there was biblical consensus on what was expected of civilized people. And church was a major social outlet, as well. This of course was also true of the sponsoring American society at large.

Since a lot of immigrants were from the peasant class, and food in the old country was often not plentiful, they were very used to living on small amounts of the most basic of food. One of the old Italian ladies who lived across the street from my childhood home told me that they would eat greens for breakfast in Italy. Another friend was told by his immigrant father how there was so little meat to be had in Sicily, that as a young boy, in full drama mode, he had once stood at an upstairs window and told his mother, "If you don't feed me some meat, I am going to jump out of this window!"

The mother nonchalantly replied, "Then jump, because there is NO meat".

He did jump, aboard the first ship he could, and came to this country.

So I think that those people who came here on the boat, many of them unable to read and write, were in much better shape than many American-born people are today. Even though at the time there was a language barrier with no "English as a second language" courses taught in school, no welfare, social security, health care or any other government safety net, they often had a supportive network of people, and it was the norm within each family that all who earned a wage would contribute most of their paycheck to meet the household's needs, keeping only a small portion of their pay for themselves. They also had a strong motivation to improve their lives, and beyond that, had very highly evolved life skills. These laid the foundations for a realistic hope and expectation of a brighter future.

They could cook, survive and even thrive on inexpensive foods, they knew how to grow their own food, how to sew and repair their clothing and shoes, and do a myriad of other chores with their highly skilled hands. Many were artisans and craftsmen. Women would also crochet, knit and do lacework (tatting). As an aside, my own grandmother was required by her stepmother to do so much tatting before she was allowed to eat breakfast each morning, that her one of her fingers was smaller than normal and a bit misshapen. Child abuse is nothing new, is it? But a tad bit abusive, or at least neglectful, is our modern day way of teaching children almost nothing at all in terms of hand and life skills.

Of course, the economy was different back then. Rents must have been more affordable (though people were also willing to live in cold-water flats, eight-floor walkups, one or two rooms with a communal bathroom that served several families, etc.) and work abounded for unskilled labor so that people could save and move on to better circumstances. We actually manufactured and produced things in this country and America needed all the factory and menial laborers she could get, so the immigrants played a vital role in pushing all of society forward. If only we could actually do that again, we could stop printing funny money and cure all manner of ills.

So here we are today, with unfortunate people falling through the cracks of society, largely because they have not been made fit for the task of sustaining themselves. My Catholic Christian faith exhorts me to reach out my hands to the poor, to treat the least of us as if they were the Lord Jesus Himself, and to prefer others above myself.

This is what I truly wish to do, but I am frustrated by the well-meaning efforts that still seem to miss the mark because they do not address the underlying problems that people have. Most of the help that we give people is exactly like the food we hand out: it is filling for the moment but not truly satisfying. It is calorie-dense but nutritionally deficient, promoting perhaps the poor health that the poor suffer. That is to say that the help we give meets only part of the need, while in itself promotes more woe.

We are putting people up for a week in a hotel, or providing shelters and government subsidized housing where many are victimized by crime. So what is the answer? What is to be done? Who am I to be asking such huge questions?

I believe there is a learned helplessness and hopelessness pervasive in society today, due to the foregoing issues and the way media has taken over our time and preoccupation. We do not do much that isn't automatic and/or electronically enabled. Our minds are literally taught not to think. The poor are not the only ones in this sad shape. Just consider what you would do without running water, one or two weeks into a natural disaster. It could happen. Would you have thought about catching rainwater off a roof, then boiling and filtering it? I bet that wasn't a thought you would have come up with right away. Because when you turn the faucet on, water always comes out. Beyond that you have some bottled water stowed. But you would have to know what to do if you ran out. Did you also know that after a few days of a power outage, the sewers begin to back up into the toilet. Do you know how to prevent that from happening? What would you do with your own waste in a situation like that? Not very pretty to think about.

Here are some other questions. How much do you depend on your cell phone, the grocery store and the Walmart? What would you do if you lost your job for several months and your unemployment ran out? Or you found yourself without a car? How repugnant is the thought of having to keep your own meat animals, and therefore having to slaughter them and cut them up yourself?

My own children are sometimes put off just by eating food that I grow in the back yard, because knowing that your vegetables were grown in dirt you can see is somehow unappetizing. Another time at a school field trip to a local farm, the second graders were terrified when a couple of free-range chickens showed up at the picnic area. The children shrieked and jumped up on the tables, terrified of these strange "monsters". Seems the kids had no idea of what a chicken is, and probably do not know to this day that those chicken tenders they love are well, from chickens.

Are we so disconnected from reality that we think our food is made from combining the appropriate atoms in some sci-fi synthesizer? Well, the truth may be closer to this than I dare would have thought. Consider what went home in the "Beach Bags" from school.

Let us begin to think about our dependence and our own sustainability. Then let us consider how we might better serve those at the bottom of society, whose ability to sustain themselves is even less than ours. Those still functioning in society are increasingly called upon to be a lifeboat to those who aren't. We need to build bigger and stronger lifeboats, and to teach others how to build their own. Better yet, we need to find a safe harbor, and keep our feet on solid ground.

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"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." Matthew 7:24-25

I received the following in an e-mail today. I feel it is so worth sharing that I am putting it up on the blog:

It has been said the greatest volume of sheer brainpower in one place occurred when Jefferson dined alone...

HOW DID JEFFERSON KNOW??????

Especially read the last quote from 1802.





When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered..'



'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'
-Mark Twain

HOW SHOULD WE THEN EAT??

A low-fat diet versus natural food?

Before whoppers with cheese and Big Gulps, and also before most people had ever encountered a vegetarian, people used to eat smaller portions but more fried food and saturated fat. I was 19 when I tasted my first reduced-fat milk. I was in ninth grade when McDonald's came to town. So, for at least the first 14 years of my life I was fed whole foods. Even the junk foods of the 50's: Crisco, margarine, potato chips, Chef Boyardee and soda were not staples in our house. We didn't know these were really bad things, but we were cultivated to like more traditional food by our blue-collar, ethnic parents.

My mother, God rest her soul, was a wonderful cook and baker who considered working in the kitchen as therapeutic and calming. She expressed herself through cooking, and benefited by being raised in two very helpful cultural contexts. Her parents were straight-off-the-boat Italians, and she grew up in a town in Vermont, which until 1965 had more cows than people. So her papa had a grape arbor and grew phenomenal organic vegetables (even transferring Savoy cabbages to the dirt-floor cellar of the house in the Fall), her mama cooked and baked everything from scratch (even making her own cheese), and they were surrounded by a countryside abounding with wild berries and other edibles. As children, Mom, her siblings and friends would often rise before dawn in the summer and walk the five miles or so into the mountains and meadows to pick red and black raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. They would sell some door to door in town and keep the rest for the family. Nearby farms would deliver fresh, raw milk and eggs, and live chickens could be bought at the store around the corner.

As we were growing up, this way of living also continued to a large extent in our household. The main fats in my childhood home were butter and olive oil, with the addition of lard for pie crusts when the occasion arose for pie. We drank water from the vast artesian wells just outside of town (the city of Schenectady had what was considered the best municipal drinking water in the world), and milk delivered from the local dairy. Orange juice and the occasional bottle of ginger ale pretty much rounded things out for us. Dad had his red wine, often mixed with water at suppertime and they made coffee in the morning and late afternoon.

We also had our eggs delivered from a farm, and even had baked goods brought to the door once a week by the Freihofer man. Freihofer was a huge bakery in town that made all kinds of bread and sweets, and get this, had guys come around to the homes once a week in horse-drawn buggies. They switched over to regular trucks somewhere around 1960, but still showed up with their huge, unfolding case of baked goods every week. And their stuff was natural and delicious. Wow.

We had homemade tomato sauce (usually twice a week), and soups, stews, big green salads with pure olive oil and wine vinegar, local honey, seafood on Fridays, baked eggplant, roasted meats, pancakes with real maple syrup (always), beans and greens, nuts, omelets, old-fashioned oatmeal and cream of wheat, and all manner of fresh, home made food. We always ate fresh fruit every day at lunch, and often in the morning cut up on cereal or as grapefruit. We ate apples as a snack at night or mom would sit down in the living room and cut up pears or other fruit and hand them out to us, piece by piece.

For his part, Dad was a forager, and loved to walk out to the woods or fields and gather berries, nuts, mushrooms, apples and fiddle ferns. I particularly enjoyed accompanying him on these missions. My brother loved to fish, and he and Dad brought home a fair amount of trout, bass, perch and bullheads. They occasionally went hunting for small game and deer. Between what they got and what my uncles would give us, I remember eating rabbit, game birds and venison as a child.

I can honestly say that I do not know anyone in our extended family or among my parents' friends, who died young. A couple of the heavy smokers and/or drinkers died between their mid-sixties and seventies, but nobody died before that or was debilitated in any discernible way for the most part up until their 80's. And so many of them were pretty hale and hearty until within a week, and often a day, of their getting pneumonia or having a cardiovascular event which caused them to pass.

Another striking difference is that they took very little, and mostly not any, prescription drugs. These are the kind of people who just kept puttering around the house and garden, going to Sunday mass (on foot mostly), laughing, cussing, and going to parties until the end. They really lived until they died.

How could they have eaten all this saturated fat, not had the statin drugs or many other meds, and not been obese or chronically ill? Many of them were born during the first world war, and/or the Spanish flu epidemic (Dad was born in the middle of one of the first waves, in November 1918), lived through the Depression and World War II, and seemed curiously to not be physically, mentally or emotionally damaged by all of that.

When I think of all of the improvements made in health care, technology and supposed advanced knowledge in nutrition and biochemistry, all the food choices and advocacy of low-fat diets, I have to wonder:

Why is everybody so sick? And with ADHD? And fat? And bi-polar, and diabetic, and addicted, and filled with arterial plaque in their 40's and 50's, and infertile, and stressed, and depressed, autistic, and chronically ill and dying young?

What has changed, and what has to be changed back, or at least thought-through a bit more wholistically? Not only do I ask, how should we then eat, but to borrow the late Francis Shaeffer's book title, How Should We Then Live?????????????????????

More to come............

HOW SHOULD WE THEN EAT? (as women who are wise enough not to take their health for granted)

Does anyone really drink enough liquids? Can anyone actually find pure water? I have made an investment over the summer of a water filtration system called the Berkey Light. It consists of two chambers, two black filter elements that filter out everything but fluoride, and two more filters that filter the fluoride. The whole thing cost $209 brand new on e-bay, with shipping included. The black filters get replaced once a year and the fluoride filters twice a year, based on filtering 2 and a half gallons a day. This thing is so powerful that it even filtered out the blue food coloring I put into my first "test" batch of water. Now I just need to make sure I drink enough of this wonderful water each day. I used to buy spring water from Walmart for about 90 cents a gallon, so in the long run I imagine this thing pays for itself. Anyone with any kind of vascular issues, and I submit, anyone with veins and arteries should not drink water that contains much sodium or phosphorus, which is in abundance in our city water.

So I have done better with this the last few days. But something else I drink has become problematic of late, and no, its not alcohol! I don't know how many people have this problem but on certain days, my heart will pound and kind of flip flop (palpitate). This can leave me exhausted. You know,its funny how the Lord allows consequences in His loving way in order to get us to change for the better. These palpitations finally caused me to stop all the distractions and think about what I have been doing to myself. It seems that the palpitations occur with a vengeance when I drink too much coffee. And I drink too much coffee when I am not being mindful of my body and what it really needs at that point. Probably what I have needed is a glass of water or some herbal tea or a simple time out that allows me to sit and close my eyes for a couple of minutes. So this one is relatively easy; I had a cup yesterday morning, and a half cup later in the day. I avoided the huge withdrawal headache and felt better.

The other two things that play into these "wild heart" episodes are overeating big, heavy food, and being mentally and emotionally stressed. As I write about this, it is helping me to see how simple it is to just back off a bit, and eventually a lot, on these things. Back off on being stressed? I include being stressed as a choice, as well, because I do it to myself for the most part. It is a problem of not trusting, of trying to take on too much, and of involving myself in worldly affairs while neglecting the very real work that God has specifically given to me to do.

Just like mental/emotional stress, overeating stresses me physically and leads to some heavy (pun intended) consequences. I am talking about all this because I think other ladies might be able to relate. Overeating is another way of substituting one thing for another. When we overeat we are probably in a hurry and not letting our brains catch up and send us the signal that we have eaten enough. Sometimes, again, we do this because we are actually thirsty, tired, sad or angry. In other words, we need something else.

So as I start off another day, I will offer it to the Lord, and ask Him to guide me through it, balancing the food, the drink, the work and the times of rest. We all know He has a plan for each of us, and it includes slowing down and being quiet enough to listen to what He has to say.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will begin to scratch the surface of the "what foods are best" issue, particularly for folks who are past 40. As I have said, my dear Bob is now on about a dozen medications, and some of them could be reduced in dosage if not eliminated altogether if he quits smoking, and loses weight. I would appreciate prayers for him, that he may be successful at these, and that I might persevere in my efforts to help him.