18th
May 2013
Several years ago, when I was working on a community theatre project, I overheard two little girls having a conversation about wishes. They were clearly friends, perhaps seven or eight years old, and the conversation began somewhere along these lines: “When you see a falling star, you have to make a wish, and it will come true.” “My granny told me never to make wishes because they don’t come true.” At the time, I was pretty sure that this was the saddest thing ... (Continue reading)
One of the towns that my family frequently stays in is Alliance, Nebraska. It’s a relatively small town: population 8500. The first few times we stayed there we really hated it, but that turned out to be mainly because we were staying on the wrong side of town. Okay, technically you can still see the place we used to stay from the place we now prefer to stay, but those three blocks made a big difference in our perception of ... (Continue reading)
I don’t usually have much trouble figuring out things to write about. Every now and then, though, I wind up with a serious case of writer’s block. The most expedient antidote to this affliction is to pick something random and follow wherever it leads. Today, after several days of wrestling with this post, I had to go with my old standby method and pick a random book from the shelf to use for inspiration. And today’s book is My Side of ... (Continue reading)
Recently I came across quote from C. S. Lewis that said: "In a sense a child does not long for fairy land as a boy longs to be the hero...Does anyone suppose that he really and prosaically longs for all the dangers and discomfort of a fairy tale?—really wants dragons in contemporary England? It is not so. It would be much truer to say that fairy land arouses a longing for he knows not what. It stirs and troubles him...with the ... (Continue reading)
About two weeks ago, my family parked in a small town in Iowa. We chose this town because the church is within walking distance of the RV park. The first time I entered St. M’s church, I noticed that the Tabernacle was off to the side, entirely hidden behind the ambo. There was no crucifix in sight, only a cross with the risen Christ not nailed to it. In the center of the sanctuary, in the place where the tabernacle ought ... (Continue reading)
People like to know where they are going. They like to have directions, to know when and where they will arrive at the end of a journey. They like being in control of a situation, or at least knowing who is in charge and what the plan is. The funny thing is that, in real life, people almost never know any of these things. Not only that, but when human beings try to control things, those things usually end up ... (Continue reading)
In his short story “The Ambitious Guest,” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a lot of irony. A lot might actually be an understatement. The story is riddled with irony from the beginning to the rather awful ending. It is primarily a story about a young traveler who has great plans for his life. He believes that it is his destiny to become magnificent and incredibly important, and that when he dies the whole world will know him and remember him. Instead, by ... (Continue reading)
For the past week, a lot of my family's television watching has centered around EWTN and Raymond Arroyo’s coverage of what is going in Rome. (Side note: isn't it impressive that Raymond Arroyo looks exactly the same as he did eight years ago?) My youngest brother (he's ten) is constantly wondering who will be the new Pope. "It's such a big thing," he says. "We need to have our leader." So we watched ETWN and prayed and kept waiting. Shortly after ... (Continue reading)
Sometime after my family started traveling, my sister and her husband began traveling full time as well. They now travel with their two children, my two-year-old niece and my four-month-old nephew. My niece has spent a surprising amount of her life traveling from place to place. She handles moving pretty well, and seems to like it. It’s just a part of how her life works. Another part of how her life works is that from time to time we all end ... (Continue reading)
In the time that my family has been on the road, our journey has been predominantly dictated by where we my parents have to work, and since they work on railroad tracks, we usually end up in railroad towns. These are mostly small towns, but sometimes we end up in places that are actually still called villages—it says so on their garbage bins. One of the trickiest aspects of traveling through rural areas is finding a place to stay. In the ... (Continue reading)
Several years ago, when I was working on a community theatre project, I overheard two little girls having ...
My friend blogged the other day about how her boys, when allowed to have whatever they want for ...
He gently leads his dad down the aisle. Mass is about to begin and he knows it will ...
"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go ...
First, a clarification: All moms work, whether they stay at home or go out and earn a paycheque. ...
Several years ago, when I was working on a community theatre project, I overheard two ...
One of the towns that my family frequently stays in is Alliance, Nebraska. It’s a ...
I don’t usually have much trouble figuring out things to write about. Every now and ...
Recently I came across quote from C. S. Lewis that said: "In a sense a child ...
About two weeks ago, my family parked in a small town in Iowa. We chose ...
People like to know where they are going. They like to have directions, to know ...
In his short story “The Ambitious Guest,” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a lot of irony. A ...
For the past week, a lot of my family's television watching has centered around EWTN ...
Sometime after my family started traveling, my sister and her husband began traveling full time ...
In the time that my family has been on the road, our journey has been ...
About five years ago, my dad began working for a company that repairs railroad tracks. ...
Yesterday was the sort of day where curling up on the couch with a cup ...
The word altruism is defined as concern for another without regard for injury to oneself. ...
When the biggest of my little brothers read The Hunger Games his main complaint with ...
Yesterday I was sitting in a fairly uncomfortable chair in the dentist’s office with my ...