Exhaling

Comment by JustMe

October 10, 2007 @ 6:25 pm

Precisely why I love so many kinds of poetry. One can hardly manufacture or garrote alleged criminals there, for most poetry comes straight from the left ventricle that only loves or dies. It is human honesty at its best. Silence may not be, even tho’ it is always pregnant; sometimes it only grows thorns. As with all sense-ual gifts, if we let poetry flower, it will do what God gave it to do: place us and others on the thrilling God-line.

I live to gasp with sudden joy of love that breaks through, of knowing what I don’t and can’t really know. We all do. It’s pretty much the only way one can go on to die with joy. Especially daily.

Comment by kathryntherese

October 11, 2007 @ 8:15 am

Well, JustMe has not given up on me!
Thanks for hanging in there during my absence.

Yes, poetry comes from deep within - it cannot come from any other place. Sometimes, what wells up and comes out surprises even the poet. I know something of that.

Love breaking through.

Comment by Ann

October 11, 2007 @ 10:28 am

‘ So let us strive to know the people God has put in our lives…’ It’s all too easy to forget at times that here and now is where God wants us to be and we are fulfilling His plan when we recognise Him in those around us. How many times have we ignored Him, walked past or avoided Him by crossing over to the other side of the street? We do it to them, we do it to Him.

Comment by kathryntherese

October 11, 2007 @ 11:16 am

Yes, Ann, it is too easy to subtly ignore the real needs of the people nearest to us, or to assume that those who “cross our paths” are not our responsibility. But the Good Samaritan shows us that every person we encounter is our neighbor, and we must meet their needs when we are able.

My husband and I have a lot of guests in this house. More often than not, they “invite themselves” in many ways (we find it amazing that people actually want to be around this much activity and noise, but it seems 7 children and Christ make an appealing ambience… Go figure. Only Christ can do that!). This costs us something, but we try to respond with open arms to whomever God puts in front of us; this is our way of saying YES to His will. It is not always easy but has become a way of life for us, so that we now call it (with a bit of tongue in cheek) “The Apostolate of the Open Door.” Sometimes, I think it needs to be a revolving door, for all the traffic, but that’s another tale.

The point I am making is that there are many ways to “be available” to people in their need, to help them without engaging in a counseling session or handing out money or preaching from a pulpit. Sometimes, we witness to the Word simply by allowing them into our life, into our milieu, and smiling.

JustMe knows something of that, I know.

Comment by JustMe

October 11, 2007 @ 3:26 pm

Me give up on you? I’d truly thought the opposite! Whenever I have heard, “Meanwhile, let us pray for one another,” it has been the KISS OF DEATH! Actually, I’ve only heard it twice, once from a Cenacle Sister in Ireland named Carmel (go figure!). I thought of your phrase often, with great dismay, then I thought, “Well, I can indeed pray for her. I am sure she is praying for us and ours as well.” I’m glad you have reappeared, and in such fine, fine form!

Oh Ann.. hindsight is always so 20/20, isn’t it? This is perhaps why I can never feel refreshed after Confession as I once did.. there’s so much water gone over the dam. What we could’ve done.. and might’ve easily done.. and did not. Did not.

“Sometimes, we witness to the Word simply by allowing them into our life, into our milieu, and smiling.” You’re likely referring to all the extra very ankled tube socks I unearthed in son’s customized basement room. Other kids ask, “Can we keep him, Mom?” but he (and much later, she) always asked, “Can he (she, they) stay with us for a while?” Thank God thank God not only for their concern for them, but for my marital and economic ability to always say “yes” to that.

But yes.. sometimes we allow some into our lives/milieu simply by replying to their question about our being on crutches with, “I broke it with a toilet seat.” What a Godsent phrase of an icebreaker, for they no more saw me as the successful woman at the desks of their ABE school, but saw someone who is truly kinda dumb. I didn’t mind at all. The mutual smiles and funny questions continued long after I put the crutches away.

Comment by kathryntherese

October 11, 2007 @ 4:35 pm

Well, I am here for now, though I confess I do not know if I will stay. I am questioning whether this is the right place to be, and what the point of posting here might be. And I don’t have an answer, except that I enjoy your company

So, thanks for inviting me into your milieu, and smiling.

Comment by JustMe

October 11, 2007 @ 11:52 pm

Same here, to all you said, kt. Last night, I thought to challenge the Zombie Bloghold, so I rented a DVD for myself, which is much like shopping for a new swimsuit. Well, perhaps not that weepably hard, but I don’t want gratuitous sex scenes, violence, mystery, sci-fi, nailbiting drama, nor documentaries– and they were closing in 10 minutes with 2 folks ahead of me, so I couldn’t peruse the subtitled section. That pretty much left Spongebob Squarepants. I’ve seen all of those, tho’, so I took a chance on The Painted Veil, and was pleasantly surprised. Adult content, but it bore some decent messages, gorgeous scenery, and a familiar face as the Mother Superior of an orphanage. One of her lines made me cover my face; I thought one could write a psalm around that line (wouldn’t it be grand if I could remember it). At any rate, Edward Norton is a bacteriologist in long ago Shanghai, tackling a cholera epidemic in a most primitive setting (with his wife, from whom he was estranged although they were newlyweds. Ha, the plot thickens!) But tonight, I shall read.

Comment by Gabrielle

October 12, 2007 @ 10:59 am

But kt, there’s no way of getting around the hidden, interior aspects of our real work, our real progress, is there? Even though our hearts “will not be content to remain hidden”? Sometimes I think that this inability to be truly known creates a kind of “loneliness” that brings us closer and closer to Him, because He’s the only one who really knows us, and then it becomes something different from loneliness, but I don’t know how to describe it.

Comment by kathryntherese

October 12, 2007 @ 11:11 am

You are right, Gabrielle - we come to a point, I think, where we realize we can’t even fully know ourselves, that we are hidden from our own eyes, and then we realize that only HE can fully know us.

Our “loneliness” of not being truly understood or truly known by any other human being (even those that know us quite well, even those to whom we confide our every secret) does indeed bring us closer and closer to Him. It becomes our “secret” with Him alone, and we trust Him more and more because we sense more and more that He alone can know us.

But even though we are hidden from ourselves, still what we ARE shines out. Holy people attract us, even if they are unaware of their own holiness. Evil people repel us, even if they deny their own darkness. Dogs know this

Comment by JustMe

October 12, 2007 @ 12:36 pm

Yes. Maybe when He cried out in a loud voice just before we all kneel as one, He was reiterating that He knows each of us– from womb to tomb, and beyond. This Unique knowing of us is both thrilling and dismaying. It necessarily separates, until it unites. Or so it seems to me. I recall looking out over the shoreline, waves and skelligs under a cloud-diffused powerful sun in Ireland with a mountain at my back and friends on all sides.. God’s most incredibly majestic beauty of so many kinds ahead of and behind and all around us. We might have burst from such amplitude.. yet we remained outside of all, in that God-breathed hush, even outside of our own forefathers. Being on the outside of all but Him is when our exile brings on our most excruciating keening.

But He knows that.

Comment by Ann

October 13, 2007 @ 7:42 am

Gabrille’s current post has reminded me of just how lovely and meaningful your poetry is, KT.
I know it’s hard to balance everything and you say yourself you question the whole blogging thing from time to time, but I sincerely hope you will continue to supply your readers with your wonderful insights and inspirational poems.
In a world where many no longer go to church and the world and his mother seem to have internet connections I think it’s important for each of us to use the gifts God has given, to witness to our faith and his love. We will never know of course if we have made a difference but God knows, and that is enough.
So please, when you find time, keep hammering away, Kt, don’t place your light under a bushel, or let it fall sideways into a ditch on a dark boreen on a windy night. Exhale, KT, Exhale!! And special thanks to Gabrielle for her loving and timely reminder. And Justme who always cheers us up.

Comment by Gabrielle

October 13, 2007 @ 1:52 pm

Well, here’s a bit of trivia that I just discovered this morning. If you go on Google Images, and type in ocds, guess who pops up on the bottom of page 2? KT and family! How cool is that?

Comment by Pia

October 13, 2007 @ 6:21 pm

“Well, I am here for now, though I confess I do not know if I will stay.”

My thoughts exactly, but then, when I read posts and comments like this, I realize that there is a lot out on the net for me to delve into and ponder. I don’t have much to offer at my place lately…but I really enjoy stopping in here and at all your places. La cosprirazione vive! Viva la cospirazione!

Comment by JustMe

October 14, 2007 @ 12:39 am

Ahmen.

Comment by Ann

October 14, 2007 @ 4:52 am

Pia, I visit your blog every day, understanding that if there is nothing new, there is still plenty of archive, and living with the hope and expectation that you will reach a decision to keep on blogging. I know I go on a bit about it, but I strongly believe in the universality of the Church and God using each of us, His way, for the common good. So whether it’s Italy, Canada, USA, Ireland or wherever we are still one, through Him, with Him and in Him.

Comment by Pia

October 14, 2007 @ 5:52 am

Thanks so much, Ann.

Comment by kathryntherese

October 14, 2007 @ 8:58 pm

Well, this is a pleasant welcome after a wet weekend of camping. Friends chatting about the real stuff, carrying on the conversation and reviving the cospirazione.

Funny, but Pia’s comment referring to the “conspiracy” sparked something in me that I’d almost forgotten, and Ann’s reminder not to hide our light under a bushel pricked my conscience, and Gabrielle and JustMe’s refusal to abandon this blog made it seem wrong to abandon it myself.

So I’m still here, until God makes clear that I should not be.

I wonder if I might impose myself on your prayers… You are great pray-ers, I know, and I’d like to ask you to mention to St. Therese that it would be nice if she’d clarify something for me. Because when any two of us agree to pray for something, God will hear it.

Grazie mille, for this and for everything.

Comment by JustMe

October 15, 2007 @ 12:14 am

Comment by Pia

October 15, 2007 @ 9:10 am

Sarà fatto. Ciao!

Comment by Pia

October 15, 2007 @ 9:12 am

Ooops, that comment makes it look like I made a snide remark about Sara’s physical appearance!
For those who do not understand Italian, it means “It (what you have asked) will be done”.

Comment by JustaSmile

October 15, 2007 @ 6:24 pm

Hope no one minds if I just smile now and then. Believe it or not, I actually often have nothing earth-rattling to say, but do want to add a smile unto the total sum of someone’s sun.

(And I dunno, Pia.. KT probably knew, but it might be more fun if you just let those of us who have no grasp of the Italian language, guess, lol.)

Hey.. happy Feast Day, KT and other Carmelites reading this.

May God sustain you.

Comment by gabrielle

October 16, 2007 @ 11:51 am

Prayers to St. Thérèse have gone up; may petals of clarity descend.