It's the most wonderful time of the year!


You're Most Like The Season Autumn ...

You're warm, and the most approachable. You have
that gentle prescence about you. People can
relate to you, and find you easy company.
However it's likely you've been hurt in the
past and it has left you scarred so things can
become rather chilly with you at times. Being
the third Season in, you're mature, trustworthy
and loyal to your friends but prone to
depression and negative thinking.

Well done... You're the shy and sensitive season :)


?? Which Season Are You ??
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~*~

Right, now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's time for Emily's Epiphanies:

1) It is possible to make friends at work. It is possible to make friends outside of the third grade or college. This is a good thing. And friends slightly farther away are having a housewarming, and this is also good. But I am grateful, grateful to God for something a bit more daily. Makes one think of the Lord's Prayer, non?

2) I love singing into microphones. Although I have a tendency to pop my P's. I love it - I love it! The sense of resonance, the ease and grace, the >insert Tim Allen chortle< power of even the softest notes. It allows for dynamic. And to sing to accompaniment (sp? - too late at night! Oy!) of piano and violin! Heaven! Even if it is only for a rehearsal for mass, and I won't be the one belting into the mike at the actual mass. Which brings me to....

3) Mass with the new Archbishop Sean O'Malley (wooHOO! :D:D:D) on Monday. The Gloria chosen for us is all but unsingable, but everything else is faboo. Even the obligatory "kiddie" song - it has potential for descant and alto harmony to a Jamaican beat. Although >sniff sniff< I've lost two of my singers who are really good. Bah. Perhaps we can weasel them back.

4) We hates playing phone tag, precious.

5) Light peach-fuzz hair on arms reminds me of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. One wonders, if properly backlit, if they help with a "halo" effect on-camera?

6) Four-hour-long drama meetings for Pirates, no matter how convivial and necessary are nevertheless KILLERS on school nights. Slightly better are hour and a half pep rallies at the high school, where my Juniors SO deserved the Spirit Stick.

7) I need to get out more. I'm concerned that my Juniors were gypped of the Spirit Stick.

8) Fortunately, I'm whizzing down with Mom and Jules to Tarrytown, NY on Sunday to visit my 102 year old great aunt, Sister Mary Beata of Maryknoll. I'm so looking forward to seeing her! It's been two years for me. Not only is it wonderful to visit a living saint, but I love the motherhouse of Maryknoll. It's so peaceful and beautiful there. Why, why do we avoid making beautiful things in America? Gah.

9) My sister is being evil. She nearly made me delete this pst - HELP I"M BEIMNG ATTACKED! SHE IS TICKLING AND HUGGING EME AAAAAA! hrumph Julie is the devil. I cower / kl eeemily can't spell when she's in distress! hahahahahahaha! I am the Evil- ovenhead! FEAR ME!!!! MWA--HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! (Yeah, that'd be Julie typing with her NOSE! after the triple eeee's there. I've been spared by the arrival of Peter. NEENER!)

10) It is odd when one's worlds collide. Not the imaginary ones - those actually arrange themselves quite prettily when they collide, and make interesting bits on maps. I mean the real ones. At the pep rally, I'd forgotten that Trav would be there to support his sister until he came over as I was busy subduing (haha) Juniors (a losing battle ;). There was a moment of "sway" from both of us as we were about to hug - the way we've greeted each other - the way the cast of Bearskin has greeted each other - for the entire summer...and then a "sway" back as we realized that although we viewed each other as fellow Bearskin-ites, the Juniors behind me would be very surprised to see their Religion Teacher hugging the Senior Class President's younger brother. Gah. Rachel was there, too, and we suffered a similar "sway" moment. I'm not upset at the roles which exist for myself or for those with whom I've worked. It's good to be seen as the teacher, as the student. It's good to be seen as the director and as the friend. It's really the essence of "to everything, there is a season" (no pun intended re: the quiz! ...really...). But it IS odd to have a switch of roles without warning. I must put it in a book somewhere. It's already showing in Elspeth (le sigh, le swoon - "You confuse me, Elspeth!" Narf narf!). [Huh, that makes it sound like Elspeth's expecting. Tangent from tangent from tangent. Sometimes the Road Less Travelled is best left alone.]

11) Missing plugs make me frustrated. Searching around this area whilst trying to think and metal things are being pushed around by grumpy fathers makes me feel uncharitable. Ugh. Praise God for fathers willing to search for things! Shame on me for being so selfish.

12) Nipped in the bud (one hopes) any thoughts of my students that I, personally, am in charge of Judgement. I hope I've gotten it through their brain that I can't condemn anyone to hell. I can point out when they've sinned (if I know about the action), and encourage them to seek God's forgiveness by confession, but as for that final moment? Nope! This is in response to someone apparently saying that he (she?) had to be "let out of" receiving confirmation because "Miss Snyder said I'm going to Hell." GAAAAAAAAAAH! Well, hopefully we've cleared that up. And also talked (again and again and again) about God's mercy...AND about the four (or five, really) last things.

Honestly, it's so important to understand the nature of Purgatory (see here and here). It's so important to understand that Death and Judgement aren't pass/fail. Because if God were to be utter justice without mercy (which He isn't), then I can think of only two people within my living memory who ought to go to Heaven - Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II (well, and my great-aunt Sister Mary Beata!). All the rest of us, myself included - if God is strictly pass/fail - would deserve to go to Hell, most likely. But God gives us the opportunity to be purged of our sins even after death, should we throw ourselves on His mercy. Only when I understood this doctrine - somewhere in my Sophomore year of High School (I don't remember how I knew it; we didn't discuss death much in the house and my parents were still learning about the faith - or the DEFENSES of the faith more accurately) that I stopped fearing death. I hope my students will be able to understand that Christ's mercy extends even after death. But I hope more that they will strive to make this earth their purgatory, to make themselves clean HERE to be worthy to enter the throne room of Heaven, to hear the words from their Father, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." I hope they accept Christ's sacrificial graces. I hope I accept His graces!

Some days are easier than others. Sometimes the days that are the worst are the days I remember to throw myself on His goodness. Thursday, when I was accosted first period with the news that the phone call from the frantic parent had been made, I had ten minutes before my next class to run up to the Church and literally throw myself down before the Blessed Sacrament. Would that I remembered to do so always! Gah - one of the most wretched things about our fallen state is the ability to forget our good works and rely on good intentions. "I'll pray for you" is never accomplished. Night time prayers go vaguely mumbled. Ah, Lord! I need an infusion of You!

(But I'm going to vigil Mass tomorrow! Alleluia!)

13) On a completely different note, the tenth book of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket came out this week. Good stuff! The plot and mystery thicken and I'm only frustrated that there are only three more books and the mystery's not yet solved! Aaaaah! One hopes that Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) comes out with more interim books a la The Unauthorized Autobiography in order to flesh out his world more. I'm not entirely sure if I'd want him to reveal all of his plot or not - the detective, snoopy part of me says, "Spill it, Snicket" - but the artistic side says, "It would be more fitting to the series were some things to remain mysterious." We'll see what Snicket/Handler ends up doing. He's done a fair job of integrating the first four books into the mystery that really takes off in book five - esp. making reference to book two. However, it's my eddikatyd gest that he hadn't come up with the full mystery until book five and is now retrowriting. I don't mind. It's a fabulous series. And the latest book has terrific morals about turning the other cheek and doing what's right EVEN IN DESPERATE SITUATIONS. (HP, take note. ;) Must do up review. Will be glowing.

14) Aiden's story is coming along. I had thought it was going to be short, but now it's looking like it actually will be a novel after all (like I'd originally suspected). No fear - it's fun to dig into Liadan, and the heartless Aiden. (Or is that the heartless Liadan...?) I knew there was more when Eamonn, the Lord of Liadan, ended up having three children, and the youngest daughter decided to go all Morgan Le Fey a la Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on me. She still doesn't have a name. I don't think she'll give it until she creeps into Aiden's room that evening - a few scenes away from where I am at the moment. Anywho, in the nonce I'm whipping up a prose poetry "short story" form of Elena and Oisin. Turns out Elena refused to speak for years. That's interesting. However, I have to make sure that it all fits what's written about it already. Not too difficult - it was just wandering off a little in the last few paragraphs I was attempting this afternoon whilst babysitting another class during my >mumblegrumble, ahwell< free period. I'm doodling portraits of my characters in the margins. This is a good sign.

15) Gee, this is a long list! Did I mention Evanescence is fabulous? I'm enjoying putting on their CD and dancing about to the first few songs (after which I'm usually tuckered out and quit in favour of the computer and business). No, I'm not a choreographer! (Note to self: must strengthen right leg to lift/kick and left to support.) Now, if only my knees were better and I weren't quite as afraid to go down on them in the middle of a song. I wonder how limber I'll end up being when I've shed these miserable pounds?

16) Water is good. So are frosted covered animal crackers. Which I've eaten too much of. Keep limberness in mind. Go drink more water.

17) I am glad that Roc's Salon is so quick about walk-ins. I am fond of hot wax. I never thought I'd say that. But what oddness that we submit to pain for the sake of physical beauty...but not to suffering for the sake of spiritual perfection? Duh! Hmmm, I'll have to bring that up to the Seniors - we're doing suffering and Last Things with them next. Right after their Nicence Creed quiz on Monday - bwahahahhahah!

18) How quickly our thoughts go from the mundane to the eternal. One fellow on the CGF is trying to figure out how to combine the two in his writing. I guess I'm not entirely sure what to respond. That's what life IS. That's what the Incarnation was - the marriage in Jesus the Christ of the "mundane" - the common, the every day, the earthy - to the eternal, the divine, to God. So what's the question in writing about it? For the fantasy writer, this IS the one part where we "write from what we know."

19) I must procure a copy or three of Sean Forrest's book for myself and for a student or two. I lent Rome, Sweet Home to one of my students today - such an amazing book. It's been a real treat to read testimonies, esp. of converts - I understand my own faith so much more by reading about theirs. We are a story people. This is how God created us. So the stories we tell each other, the stories of the saints, the parables, and the Greatest Story of All inform us, build us, guide us, inspire us, goad us, heal us, and give us lasting hope.

20) Today is the Feast Day of Sts. Cosmos and Damien. Yee-HAW! St. Francis is just around the corner and St. Padre Pio was just this Tuesday. Woo-HOO, Franciscans all the way! >putting down my flag now and quietly backing away from the computer<

Bueno sera!

Mood: Complacent, quiet.
Music: Loreena McKennitt's The Visit
Thought: "How good it is to be here, Lord!"
Funny Link: Can you read the following paragraph?

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? "