English Teachers' Humor

To Serve Man

It's been a part of my New Year's resolutions to try to post on here more often.  But...  Well, you can see how often I've added since January 1st.  Not a good start.  So, I had a post started for today, full of ideas and inspirations -- all about the virtue of service to God and our fellow man, and how our fallen human nature tends to fall into the same error as Lucifer and our First Parents, and say, "I will not serve!"

I wanted to talk about today's Gospel and Epistle and how they speak to that issue.  I had a plan to illustrate the point I've been trying (over and over and over) to make to my children about how important it is to serve -- to be of service.  There's so much whining and complaining when a job needs to be done around here. And, heaven forbid anyone do something he's not told specifically to do. And the children procrastinate and complain, too! (Har Har!  It's really all of us!)  Anyway, the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany's lessons were made to order for the problem.  We  see Jesus' and Mary's example of charity at the Wedding at Cana (John 2, 1-11) in the Gospel, and in the Epistle (Rom 12, 6-16), St. Paul tells us to "give in simplicity" and "love without pretense..." along with a lot of other really good recommendations for our behavior.  Lots of good antidotes in today's Mass for the churlishness and laziness that goes on around here.  I wanted to elaborate and elucidate and illustrate and....  Wax poetic...  But, it's not in me.  I just can not write these days.  No matter how good the material,  I just could. not. get. it. done.

 But, well... Hey look; check it out.  After fiddling fruitlessly with pictures and poorly worded paragraphs for over two hours, all I needed to do to finally get this post out (such as it is) was: walk away from the computer, eat some vinegar potato chips, have a glass of iced tea, text back and forth with number five son, Dominic a couple times...  then come back, delete the whole doggone muddy mess I'd started, and write out the whole basic idea  (sorta),  in what? Three or four run-on sentences?  And fifteen minutes.  (Can you tell?)  Anyway,  I think this may be a breakthrough for me.  Succinctness through laziness. Or frustration.  Or  because I really must go now; I can tarry no longer at the computer.  And I strongly suspect nobody is reading this, anyway.

So, sigh....

It's Sunday night.  Dan's back at his job in Nevada 'til Thursday; the children are in bed; the Sunday night dvd is done and there are pillows all over the rec room floor behind me; Paddy, the tailless cat has fled the back of my chair in search of cozier digs in somebody's bed and Sarah-dog is lying predictably right in front of the stairs -- but I'm gonna leap over her here in a minute to go to bed. I'll be serving God and family (and, incidentally, me!) by getting a good night's sleep.  We have a busy day tomorrow, and I'm pooped.

But, before I say goodnight...  I'm left with the odd fragment of randomness that keeps coming back to me as I ponder the virtue of serving.  Remember that Twilight Zone episode: To Serve Mankind?  Every time I say or write the words "to serve" I think of this:

"It's a COOKBOOK!"



(If you have a hankering  to see the whole episode, go here -- or you can find it on Netflix, I think...)

Nuh-night, y'all! And God bless.

Late Lies the Wintry Sun A-bed...

Sunrise over the old farm in east Colorado Winter Time

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed, A frosty, fiery sleepy-head; Blinks but an hour or two; and then, A blood-red orange, sets again. Before the stars have left the skies, At morning in the dark I rise; And shivering in my nakedness, By the cold candle, bathe and dress. Close by the jolly fire I sit, To warm my frozen bones a bit; Or with a reindeer-sled, explore The colder countries round the door. When to go out, my nurse doth wrap Me in my comforter and cap, The cold wind burns my face, and blows Its frosty pepper up my nose. Black are my steps on silver sod; Thick blows my frosty breath abroad; And tree and house, and hill and lake, Are frosted like a wedding-cake Last year near Ridgway, Colorado

Snow Days in Colorado

Sledding Day
Above Ouray

This was the week after Christmas, before Dominic had to go back to the seminary and Dan had to go back to work...  I stayed home for this field trip and let them bond, while I took the chance to clean the  Christmas-traumatized house (with noone there to immediately destroy it behind me)...

Here's a shot of the "amphitheater" above the tiny town of Ouray, Colorado.  The sledding gang actually headed to the hills behind the camera person, west of this shot...

Up near these craggy peaks.

So, it seems the gang (Dominic, Michelle, Theresa, Cathy, Anna,
Gabe,  William, and their Dad)  found an unused, uncleared road, near Box Canyon Falls....

"It was so much fun, Mommy!"  "It was perfectly safe, Mom!"  "It was a good spot, dear. Nothing to worry about."
Uhuh.

But, the facts of the field trip came out later, when they admitted it was probably a good thing I didn't go or they'd have ended up sledding on a lump at the playground.  As the details (and the pictures) downloaded, I learned that, for one thing,  there was a street with some traffic on it at the bottom of the hill.  See Dan waaaaay down there?  It was his job to stop the sled as it came flying down toward the road.  Brave man.  Nut.

And there was a steep drop off on one side with a frozen creek down at the bottom of it.  

But, it was all good, Mom!  See?  We made it out alive!
(See the snow-encrusted eyelashes?!  Crazy people!)

And now for your consideration, a wintery poem:

Snowball

by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head.
Then, last night it ran away.
But first -- it wet the bed.

(Heehee!)  Happy snow days, friends!
(This poem was 'specially for you, William and Gabe...)

Thoughts about the Feast of the Holy Family

This feast day is one of my favorites. Of course, I always say that, but, really ~ there is so much to think about when you contemplate the Holy Family.

I love the Church's placement of this feast day so closely following the Nativity. The Gospel this week recounts the story of the finding of twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple and then next week we read the Gospel of the Wedding at Cana. No accident, this. There is always perfect order and method to the Liturgical Year. Starting in Advent, and following through to Candlemas Day, our first thoughts are centered around the Holy Family. Isn't this the perfect reminder of our responsibilities to both our heavenly and our earthly families? The love and care of the family this week is followed next week with Our Lord's blessing on the sacrament of Matrimony by His first miracle. And then, we move on into His public ministry from there.

It's the perfect start to every new year. All our resolutions should begin here, with our homes and families and our responsibility to God as relates to them.

It's always such a wonderful consolation, too, to be reminded that the life journey of the Perfect Family was not perfect. Almost nothing, temporally, worked out very well for them. Living in a place and a time where they were under the rule of an oppressive dictatorship, they were constantly surrounded by turmoil and bitterness. They were poor. They were sometimes hungry, often tired, suffered sorrows and mishaps even before the greatest sorrow of the Passion.

Though there were likely others, the Bible documents just one of the trials of Jesus' hidden childhood ~ the separation of the Holy Family after the celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem. I can't help but think there was a heavenly reminder for all of us in that episode of His holy life. The very fact of the Holy Family's presence in Jerusalem teaches us duty to the customs of our Faith and the importance of its ceremonies. It was not necessary, or even standard, for women to take this journey to Jerusalem for the Passover, but Mary went. From her we learn faithfulness to Faith and Family. We can glean also, that as Jesus did, we must learn what it means to each of us to "be about Our Father's business," regardless of our station in life.

But, I always take one more lesson from the story of The Finding of Jesus in the Temple. In short, it's the knowlege that even the Perfect Family had communication lapses. It's both a consolation and a caution to me to know that. With a family our size, it wouldn't surprise many to hear we've "left a child behind" once or twice. In fact, on one occasion, we found ourselves in almost the exact situation of the Holy Family.

Here's the story: We had brought two cars to Mass one Sunday, and ended up afterward taking home two or three extra children for Sunday afternoon play time. Both cars, therefore, were packed with children. When we pulled out of the church parking lot, I just assumed that Dan had four-year-old Michelle in his car; he thought, of course, that she was in my car. Since this was before we had cell phones, we didn't find out until we got all the way home that little Shelly was not among the caravan at all. As soon as we realized what had happened, we called the church, found out she was ok, and upon racing back to get her, found her playing happily with another little friend in Father's office. We didn't live that one down for a while, but it did make us feel better to know that Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph were in Heaven looking down commiserating with us in our anxiety.

You know what else? It helps me to know that even Jesus, God Himself, was a tiny bit of a trial in His adolescence. I can go to Mary and Joseph with my worries about my teenagers and know that their understanding is through human experience. Certainly, their troubles were different (not teenage "brain damage" related), but, still, things weren't always easy raising the Son of God.

We know it's a fact that the life of Jesus in the Perfect Home in Nazareth didn't move along without a hitch.

How difficult it must have been, for instance, for dear St. Joseph to have to beg food for his little family in Egypt (as St. Mary of Agreda tells us he did). How difficult must it have been for him to eke out a living for them as a carpenter in Nazareth. How Jesus' loving Mother must have wished she had more meat, more healthful food to nourish her little Boy. How constant must have been the labor in her little dirt-floor home. But, then, I know, even as I write this and feel sympathy for them in their poverty, they didn't feel the same sympathy for themselves. Their acceptance was perfect, their humility was real. Their love for one another, the purest light of heaven on earth.

That's what made them the perfect family. Their life on earth was not "perfect," but the way they lived it was.

And that's the lesson.

As my husband likes to say: Life is Messy.

But we don't have to be a mess.

* Repost from 2009

The Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow.

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

*Repost from 2011

Christmas Joys: The Family Creche, 2012

Kinda Korny.  And I hate the way my voice sounds....  Doesn't everybody? (Hate the way I sound,I mean.  gglggl)  But, anyway, here you find it, the Davis family nativity scene, recorded for posterity, and so we have something to go by next year -- not like we'll ever beat Dominic's amazing work this year, though!  The whole amazing thing: it was all him, concept, design, and direction of helper elves.

Dominic, you rock.

Yes, you do.

You do.

You really do!

(Love you!  Gonna miss you when you go back to the Seminary in the new year!)

Christmas Joys, continued...

December 25th, 2012

Gavin and "Uncle Bill."  (ONLY Gavin is allowed to call him Uncle Bill, however....)

Nina! (with ketchup)

Handsome Gavin ("Hiyeee!").

Theresa and Cathy (Giggle Snort)

Uncle Steve
This shot just as he received his "singing Christmas present," in which
he was musically gifted with a Powderhorn ski pass and ski rental --
Yes...  gifted musically.  It got sang to him...
Like many things that go on around here, it's kinda hard to explain.
You had to be here...

Michelle -- aka, Shelly -- aka, "Fluffy" --- aka, "Chicky"

 Michelle/Shelly/Fluffy/Chicky with Cathy/Cathy/Cathy/Cathy

Anna and Gabe
In a rare Kodak moment.

Grandma (Sharon), Gabe, Paul, and Nicole -- contemplating their next moves
in the traditional Christmas "Apples to Apples" game...

Michelle/Shelly/Fluffy/Chicky thanking William/Not Bill/Not Billy/Not Will/Not Willy
 for the great "KK" gift he gave her (Note the beanie... with gloves and chocolate!)

Gavin and his best pal, Grandpa

Gavin loves his Momma just a little...
So do we!

Dominic in front of his work of art -- this year's awesome
version of Bethlehem, which filled the whole music room.
(Video of Bethlehem coming later...)

Gavin, getting to know  Mr. Potato Head, inside and out...

Daddy/Dad/Dan, the "Master of Ceremonies" in the midst of the all-important
gift-distribution "ceremony."

Missing In Action:

Brother Philip (formerly Jonathan Charles)...
shown here at his quick visit home last summer for the dentist... Couldn't make it back for Christmas this year, as his"visitations" are limited in his first year at the seminary as a novitiate in the Religious life.   We did get to see him for a bit a couple weeks ago when we went to Omaha for the ordination of our good friend, Father Carlos Borja.  So... We feel deprived, but we'll live.  Maybe.

And then there's Kevin...

who was supposed to be here for Christmas, but got to attend his first Broncos game 

last week and chose an unfortunate place to park, whereafter his car was towed and, forthwith, there 

being a bizarre discrepaency at the DMV (their fault), he was unable to get his car out of impound

until the day after Christmas.... And therefore...  he was unable to get home for the Holiday.  And

we missed him very much (as did the choir). But, God Willing, we'll see him after his classes on Friday.

God Willing, and the mountains don't blizzard.  Etc. Because we have a bunch of presents waiting for him here...  and need help eating all the cookies the girls baked last week.  

** Please forgive the terrible picture quality...  Trust me: it's making me crazy, these horrible pics -- but we had a bizarre accident with my camera, and have not recovered from it yet...  As soon as I get my good lens repaired, I'll hopefully be able to improve the pics -- in spite of my amateur-ness.  A good camera can make even a hack's work presentable....

Christmas Joys!

Mary of Christmas

I know not how, dear Lady love,

To offer you my praise,

I cannot fashion as I wish

The words that I world raise.

You stand afar, celestial Queen,

The stars are in your crown,

They spangle at each gesture's path

And dust upon your gown.

Perhaps I might recall the night

You knelt beside the crib,

The night when doors and casements shut

And left a mountain's rib,

Alone, exposed, to hoard you close

Beside the new-born Child

And seek in Joseph's kindly eyes

For something worldly-mild.

To counteract such mundane chill

I hereby set my heart,

Dim mirror of an Infant's warmth,

Its flaming but a part,

A small, sad part of Endless Love

That came on Christmas day

To show a mother wonder-bright

To guide us on our way.

--Anonymous

The paper whites in the above photo we found blooming on Christmas morning!  I'd picked them up less than a month before Christmas, not expecting them to sprout and bloom in time for the big day...  It usually takes longer.  Such a sweet and wonderful little surprise for us! And as there are no accidents in the universe, we're grateful for them as a gift -- not to us but to the dear Mother of the Infant Jesus.

Guess Who's Two?

Gavin James!!

Our beautiful, sweet grandbaby isn't a baby any more.

I can't believe two years have already passed since he came into our lives!

We can't imagine life without him!

Happy, happy birthday, Gavin!

We love you to infinity

And Beyond!

XOXOXOXOXO

From:

Dandad

Mommom

Uncle Kevvy

Uncle Brother Phil

Uncle Nominic

Aunt Chicky

Aunt Seesa

Aunt Sassy

Aunt Nanna

Uncle Gabey

and

Uncle Bill

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

The Lord possessed me

In the beginning of His ways,

Before He made anything

From the beginning.

I was set up from eternity, and of old,

Before the earth was made.

The depths were not as yet,

and I was already conceived;

Neither had the fountains of waters

 as yet sprung out;

The mountains with their huge bulk

had not as yet been established:

Before the hills I was brought forth;

He had not yet made the earth,

Nor the rivers,

Nor the poles of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was present;

When with a certain law and compass

 He enclosed the depths;

When He established the sky above,

And poised the fountains of waters;

When He compassed the sea with its bounds,

And set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits;

When He balanced the foundations of the earth;

I was with Him forming all things;

And was delighted every day,

Playing before Him at all times;

Playing in the world:

And my delight is to be with the children of men.

Now, therefore ye children, hear me:

Blessed are they who keep my ways.

Hear instruction, and be wise,

And refuse it not.

Blessed is the man who hears me,

Who watches daily at my gates,

And waits at the posts of my doors.

He who shall find me shall find life,

and shall have salvation from the Lord.

Proverbs 8, 22-35 and the Epistle for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

* Congratulations to all those who today were Consecrated to the Blessed Mother according to the method of St. Louis DeMontfort:  Our friends, Erin and Jan Marie, and our family members, whose very special devotions to the Blessed Mother are now under these titles:

Daniel Mark of Mary, Ark of the Covenant
Theresa Philomena of Mary, the Ivory Tower
Catherine Cecilia of Our Lady, House of Gold
Anna Germaine of Mary, Cause of our Joy
Gabriel Joseph of Mary, Queen of Apostles

...and William who is too young to be consecrated, but who insists that he is now William Thomas of Our Lady, Queen of Peace.  (Which is a very good devotion for him, indeed, so I'm not arguing.)

And my title of devotion for the Blessed Mother is Lisa Bernadette, of the Immaculate Conception.

Our BestWishes for a Happy, Holy

Feast of the Immaculate Conception!