Do it anyway...

A couple of days ago, a dear friend gave me this quote in a lovely frame.  She knows how much I love the Catholics and Mother Teresa.  In fact, this blog was originally inspired by a book I'd read about Mother Teresa, her philosophy in life was "let's do something that's beautiful for God".  Anyway, this is one of my favorite quotes and now I have it framed.

Enjoy, until next time.

Ciao.

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.


If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa

The most, the best, the greatest

I am fascinated by Mother Teresa. I'm not Catholic but I have great respect for the Catholics and every now and then I enjoy attending Mass.  Something that always rubs me the wrong way is when people say they aren't Christians (I can't stand that kind of division of the Body of Christ but that's a post for another day.)  With social justice, sometimes I want to laugh when someone will tell me about something "new" that's being done.   Don't get me wrong social justice is a great thing and if I didn't have kids at home I'd probably be out doing something about human trafficking.  What I want to say is "Ever heard of the Catholic church or Mother Teresa?"

Anyway, today I stumbled upon this and thought it was beautiful, and I'm always looking for something filled with beauty to inspire me.

Until next time....Ciao.

The most beautiful day: Today
The easiest thing: Equivocate
The biggest obstacle: Fear
The gravest error: give up, to despair
The root of all evils: Egoism
The most beautiful occupation: Work
The worst route to follow: Faintheartedness
The best teachers: Children
The first necessity: TO communicate
The greatest happiness: To be useful to others
The greatest mystery: Death
The worst defect: Bad temper
The most dangerous being: The liar
The most wretched feeling: The grudge
The most beautiful gift: Forgiveness
The most indispensable: home
The quickest way: The correct one
The most comfortable feeling: Interior peace
The most powerful weapon: The smile
The best remedy: Optimism
The greatest satisfaction: The duty done
The most powerful force: Faith
The most needed beings: The parents
The most beautiful of all: Love


Mother Teresa

The longest 10 days of my life...

First off, thank you for those who have prayed for us. It's been a V E R Y long 10 days.

As many of you know, my daughter Jade had a bit of a breakdown and was in the hospital. It's unclear at this point if she will return to school at LMU. Today was the beginning of the process...

I'm not sure I believe the quote by Mother Teresa "I know God won’t give me more than I can handle, I just wish He didn’t trust me so much!” It's one thing to go through things like this yourself but an entirely different thing to watch one of your kids go through it.

I know I need lots of prayer, grace and beauty to get through this, I just haven't found time yet for any of that. I'll keep you posted as to how we're doing.

Ciao.

Sometimes you have to offend the mind to expose the heart

This is probably a little out of character for me but I thought I'd share with you some of my inner ramblings. I'm a little tired of people talking about community. Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in community but what I'm tired of is the hypocrisy. I hear things like "let's be the church for the world" and "we're all in this together, shoulder to shoulder". Or my favorite, "I've got your back".

In reality what I see right now is most people fending for themselves. In this economy I see people hoarding instead of living open handedly. How can we ever "be the church for the world" if we can't be the church for our neighbor? I'm pretty sure Jesus meant it when he said "love your neighbor as yourself."

In my opinion, there will never be revival in America because of this attitude. It takes a natural disaster or something like 9/11 for American's to wake up and not be so selfish, independent and entitled. I mean really, look at what's going on in Haiti right now. The world comes together when there's an earthquake, but not when we have 10 million people unemployed.

Silence is a lousy communicator. I have a friend whose father recently died, and most people she knows have said nothing..."Not how ya doin?," "how can I help?"... nothing. It used to be that people would show up at your door-step with food or flowers, just to say "I'm sorry for your loss" or "can I sit with you while you grieve?" Not anymore.

I'm sure I sound judgmental. Hopefully this comes across as less than an accusation, and more of an observation. I'm the first to admit that I'm a little self-righteous in all this because I have done the hard thing. We lived in community with another family for over a year, and it was hard. We had our moments of good, bad and sometimes ugly. We can laugh about it now, mostly.


Sara Groves has a song called Every Minute, here's part of the lyrics:

And I can think of time when families all lived together • Four generations in one house • And the table was full of good food • And friends and neighbors • That's not how we like it now • Cause if you sit at home you're a loser • Couldn't you find anything better to do •

(she sings that as sort of a question, and the answer is this...)

• Well no I couldn't think of one thing • I would rather waste my time on than sitting here with you •

I'd like to challenge us to do the hard thing, to reach out when you don't have the energy. Forgive when you don't feel like it. Choose love, choose community. Maybe doing the hard thing is asking for help when you're in need. So ask.

Mother Teresa said "Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."

Thanks for reading my ramblings/rant.

Have a beauty-filled day.

Ciao.

Inspired

Recently I was inspired by a book about Mother Teresa, ‘To Find Hope’. She was always saying “lets do something beautiful for God’. That’s where the title for the blog came. I think there is beauty in many things (including food). Dostoevsky said “beauty will save the world” and He will, one day. Until then lets all do something that’s beautiful for God.

Have a beauty-filled day.

Ciao.