Vacations, July, 2015

I went for a short walk the other night mostly because I wanted to listen to a few new songs I had just purchased for my Ipod.  There’s nothing like some familiar songs to get you moving.

When I returned home I sat on the porch and listened a little longer.  I realized while sitting there that I do not do that a lot anymore.  Usually, when I listen to music, I am doing something along with it.

I mentioned this to my husband, recalling how when I was younger I could sit in my room for hours on end listening to the Beatles, Elton John or Anne Murray.  What did we do all that time while the record player was going? I don’t remember actually doing anything other than just sitting and listening. Maybe drawing?  I don’t recall. The most important thing seemed to be trying to get the words right and hit a few notes on key every now and then.

There is a lot of value in just sitting and doing nothing from time to time, but active adults don’t do much of that anymore.  We think we are too busy.  Besides, it probably feels too much like wasting time, something in our culture today that is akin to laziness.  I think that is really sad.

Scripture tells us that even Jesus, as busy as he was going from city to city, took the time to go up on the mountain to be with the Father.  Sometimes he gathered everybody together as well.  Maybe he sensed they needed a break from the tension going on around them and the work they had yet to do.  Maybe it was his way of saying, “Hey, you can’t do this if you don’t rest with me.”  I am sure there were a lot of things they could have been doing, but he showed them, quite clearly, that nothing was as important, at that moment, as spending time with him.

That evening on the porch melted into more quiet time in the house, where I relaxed and enjoyed the peace.  I definitely do not do that enough.  How can we “go on mission” (we are sent at the end of every Mass), if we do not spend some time being renewed?

Listening to my new music, which was actually quite old, (it was from my high school years), I was transported in time.  Friends from years ago came to mind and my travel to the 70s left me with this pervasive sentiment that I couldn’t quite grasp. 

It’s funny how music can immediately take you back to a place and time you haven’t thought about in awhile. It’s like the lyrics in the Styx song Come Sail Away:  “I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory, some happy, some sad, I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had.“

 

Maybe we should “waste” time more often.  I think a healthy pace in life is good for the soul, and that must include some down time.  But I don’t think it should just come in waves like once or twice a year in scheduled vacation time; it should be built into a regular part of our day or week. 

If we do this, then maybe it would help us avoid the idea that we can “bank” our resting time, in order to use it during that limited time off. This is not only impossible, but not particularly helpful to us during the rest of the year.

There is a tendency, from what I have seen, to want to pack too much into that short period of time known as a vacation, only to find ourselves coming back exhausted, rather than re-energized.  

Why not just plan a day or two, here and there, in order to play more throughout the year?

I must say, the last time my husband and I went away for a weekend, we gave ourselves permission to do nothing.  We didn’t plan our days at all.  We did whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it.  We had so much fun and came back so refreshed.  Admittedly, we didn’t go anywhere that could even remotely be considered exotic (Michigan doesn’t have those kinds of places), but the best part of all was that, when we returned, we didn’t feel like we needed another vacation in order to recover from the one we’d just had!

Now, I don’t want you to get the impression that I am somehow against amazing vacations in far-off lands, because those can be invigorating, too.  But if they include over-stuffed agendas (as they often do), I wouldn’t think that would be particularly relaxing.  Of course, maybe it’s just me.  I don’t survive in the crazy very long.  In fact, I am someone who can find spiritual retreats too busy at times!

When I was a kid, we always gathered with friends on the front porch and hung out.  Today, we would look rather idle, but back then, it was normal. Since we are fresh out of mountains around here, I think Jesus, would recommend more porch sitting. 

In fact, I can almost hear him singing a little Simon and Garfunkel, “Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you.”

Oh yeah, the words of the prophets are definitely “whispered in the sounds of silence.”  Have you been listening lately?

Envision a world without abortion, August, 2015

I watched a couple of the videos highlighting the questionable illegal practices of Planned Parenthood.  I think I missed the third and fourth videos and just recently watched the fifth. It was very gruesome.

Quite honestly, I have never been a supporter of shocking graphics, like those used so frequently on the signs of protestors. When my children were little, I did not think they needed to see graphic pictures in order to understand what abortion is.  We talked about abortion quite frequently and they grew up pro-life, sans pictures.

So, as you might assume, even today, I have to force myself to view the videos being made public by the fictitious Center for Medical Progress.  That is the cover organization for the citizens journalists who made the videos of “doctors” and others working for and with Planned Parenthood.  This was quite an extensive project.  I believe the video-recorded interviews were done over a two-year period, and there are several of them which continue to be released.

I watch them with dread, but as with everything, I like to hear what is actually being said versus what someone tells me is being said.  The debate, as you probably know, is about whether Planned Parenthood is actually making a profit selling fetal tissue/body parts.  I am sure the legality of all of this will be sorted out eventually.

Personally, I hope Planned Parenthood folds like a house of cards.  I’ve heard the accolades for all of the wonderful things they do, but from a moral perspective, they need to not be doing this.  When it comes to morality, even if the desired end result is good (like curing cancer for example), that does not justify the means used to attain it.

Anyway, with much angst, I sat down to watch the latest video.  I was watching it on my phone until I could no longer bear the graphics.  Covering up the image, I read the caption as I listened to the conversation.  It was unbelievably horrible. There are no words.

All I could think while listening and watching (as much as I could tolerate), was that they were talking about somebody’s baby.  Did the parents really know that their baby would end up like this?  Really?  

I have to think, as well, that some of the people working for the procurement companies, who deal with this every day, will surely be impacted mentally and emotionally when it all catches up with them.  You simply cannot deal in this kind of trade without it eventually destroying you.

On the latest video, they actually take you into the room where the aborted fetuses are kept, at least what is left of them.  Then, since the journalists wanted to see a “specimen,” the lab people take one out of a bag and lay it on a table, extracting the parts being discussed.  That’s when I had to avert my eyes.  This innocent child, this gift of God, this human being, I hate to say, looked like something you would find at your local butcher shop during processing. It was beyond appalling.

What also struck me was the terminology they used, over and over again when referring to these babies.  In the latest one I heard a new phrase.  They referred to the aborted fetus as “the product of conception.”

This, in fact, is a perfect description of how they view our innocent children. Of course, this is not acceptable language to us, but to them, they are nothing more than a product in an industry without any sense of respect for human life.

There is a question about whether these children are, at times, born alive and then killed, in an effort to keep them as a suitable “specimen” to supply the needs of those doing research.  But again, no matter the desired outcome of their research, to use our little babies to accomplish it is barbaric.  How can this be legal? I can’t count the number of times I have asked myself this question over the years.

How can we, in this country, allow this practice to be legal?  Are we really any better than those who performed child sacrifices throughout history? If these videos are any indication, this is what is happening every day, in our country, in the land of the free.

Naturally, the rhetoric that got us into this spot in the first place continues today.  I recently received an automated reply from a U.S. Congresswoman who rang the praises of the “important primary care and cancer screenings” done in these “women’s health clinics.”

Give me a break.  Does anyone actually believe this stuff anymore? The manipulative advertising that promoted abortion as a choice, a right, family planning and protection for the health of a mother was powerful and effective at one time, but hopefully will one day be seen as the worn out, superficial argument it was/is.

I am not sure what their upcoming videos will contain, and I am not even sure I will be able to watch them, but one thing’s for sure, abortion will no longer be able to remain behind closed doors as an abstraction.  If those who previously bought into the rhetoric can now see they were duped, perhaps they will now become a force for change. 

It is time to envision this world differently.  One without abortion.  Are you willing to move this vision forward?

 

Vacations, July 2015

I went for a short walk the other night mostly because I wanted to listen to a few new songs I had just purchased for my Ipod.  There’s nothing like some familiar songs to get you moving.

When I returned home I sat on the porch and listened a little longer.  I realized while sitting there that I do not do that a lot anymore.  Usually, when I listen to music, I am doing something along with it.

I mentioned this to my husband, recalling how when I was younger I could sit in my room for hours on end listening to the Beatles, Elton John or Anne Murray.  What did we do all that time while the record player was going? I don’t remember actually doing anything other than just sitting and listening. Maybe drawing?  I don’t recall. The most important thing seemed to be trying to get the words right and hit a few notes on key every now and then.

There is a lot of value in just sitting and doing nothing from time to time, but active adults don’t do much of that anymore.  We think we are too busy.  Besides, it probably feels too much like wasting time, something in our culture today that is akin to laziness.  I think that is really sad.

Scripture tells us that even Jesus, as busy as he was going from city to city, took the time to go up on the mountain to be with the Father.  Sometimes he gathered everybody together as well.  Maybe he sensed they needed a break from the tension going on around them and the work they had yet to do.  Maybe it was his way of saying, “Hey, you can’t do this if you don’t rest with me.”  I am sure there were a lot of things they could have been doing, but he showed them, quite clearly, that nothing was as important, at that moment, as spending time with him.

That evening on the porch melted into more quiet time in the house, where I relaxed and enjoyed the peace.  I definitely do not do that enough.  How can we “go on mission” (we are sent at the end of every Mass), if we do not spend some time being renewed?

Listening to my new music, which was actually quite old, (it was from my high school years), I was transported in time.  Friends from years ago came to mind and my travel to the 70s left me with this pervasive sentiment that I couldn’t quite grasp. 

It’s funny how music can immediately take you back to a place and time you haven’t thought about in awhile. It’s like the lyrics in the Styx song Come Sail Away:  “I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory, some happy, some sad, I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had.“

 

Maybe we should “waste” time more often.  I think a healthy pace in life is good for the soul, and that must include some down time.  But I don’t think it should just come in waves like once or twice a year in scheduled vacation time; it should be built into a regular part of our day or week. 

If we do this, then maybe it would help us avoid the idea that we can “bank” our resting time, in order to use it during that limited time off. This is not only impossible, but not particularly helpful to us during the rest of the year.

There is a tendency, from what I have seen, to want to pack too much into that short period of time known as a vacation, only to find ourselves coming back exhausted, rather than re-energized.  

Why not just plan a day or two, here and there, in order to play more throughout the year?

I must say, the last time my husband and I went away for a weekend, we gave ourselves permission to do nothing.  We didn’t plan our days at all.  We did whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it.  We had so much fun and came back so refreshed.  Admittedly, we didn’t go anywhere that could even remotely be considered exotic (Michigan doesn’t have those kinds of places), but the best part of all was that, when we returned, we didn’t feel like we needed another vacation in order to recover from the one we’d just had!

Now, I don’t want you to get the impression that I am somehow against amazing vacations in far-off lands, because those can be invigorating, too.  But if they include over-stuffed agendas (as they often do), I wouldn’t think that would be particularly relaxing.  Of course, maybe it’s just me.  I don’t survive in the crazy very long.  In fact, I am someone who can find spiritual retreats too busy at times!

When I was a kid, we always gathered with friends on the front porch and hung out.  Today, we would look rather idle, but back then, it was normal. Since we are fresh out of mountains around here, I think Jesus, would recommend more porch sitting. 

In fact, I can almost hear him singing a little Simon and Garfunkel, “Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you.”

Oh yeah, the words of the prophets are definitely “whispered in the sounds of silence.”  Have you been listening lately?