Lord, That I May See

happens when your kids discover a really cool "bridge" over a creek and are dying to cross it. Chicken Mom says in her head: "Oh my gosh, no. Not sturdy at all! Too far to fall. Water at the bottom. Broken bones, drowning, DEATH." The girls urge: "That's so cool, Mom!  We can do that!  We'll be careful! Ooh Mom!" The kid inside, way back from the eons before Chicken Mom was born (at the birth of Turtle!), nudges: "It's fun!  It's a challenge that takes courage!  The water's not above their waists. Every kid should have a chance to have woodsy adventures like this. You did, remember?" "Fine.  But crawl across!" Sunshine and Chicken Mom watch as Rosebud -- the fearless daredevil -- crosses the plank, then Turtle.  Chicken Mom tries to stay calm. Sunshine shivers and groans to herself: "ohhhhh, I am just scared of EVERYthing!" No kidding, child.  Me too. Eventually, all the ...

 Happy Easter!   I love this season.  I love how long it is, how deeply the Church invites us to enter in to the Risen Life of Christ and to ponder this greatest joy of our faith.  We have all these weeks to rejoice in the spring air, the budding flowers and the truth of Jesus Risen! I have been thinking of all the growth and the green around us and the reviving of the grayness of winter into such beauty and how it relates to Easter. During Lent in the Atrium, the children receive a presentation of what we call "The Mystery of Life and Death."  It is the way in which we present to the youngest children, ages 3-6, the fact of Jesus' death and resurrection.   In the Atrium we do not present the story of the Passion of Jesus, we reserve the details of that event for an older age.  Rather, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd "curriculum" (if you will), brings a specific line of Jesus' to the attention of the children.  These words of Jesus...

1.  Futile shopping trips.   This particular one involved three stops at different stores (in a blazing rush) none of which carried ties for little boys. 2.  Mouse poop in the Easter eggs.  Its definitely on the top of my "make me crazy" list to retrieve plastic Easter eggs from the attic (in for a major (for me) planning ahead moment of actually filling them before 11:30pm the night before Easter) and find that in addition to mouse poop , there are teeth marks on them and if I am to use them I must clean every single plastic piece. 3. A text from my husband: "Can you pick me up at the ____ police station in 2 hours?"* 4.  Immovable appointments for Daddy on Good Friday in the mid-afternoon.    Mommy and children must attend the Veneration of the Cross without him.  5.  Newly independent bike riders Sunshine: Skiiiiiid.  Crash!  Waaaa!  Oh, I'm okay.  Whoops!  CRASH!   Me: Did you hit...

Rainy weather Nice weather  at last and roller hockey! Sunshine has learned this month how to skate and how to ride her bike without training wheels! The girls finished up their winter gymnastics sessions.  This is Sunshine on the high beam Rosebud.  I wish I had a good picture of her on the uneven bars.  She is amazing on them! Rosebud and Turtle

1.  The Power of the Powerless: A Brother's Legacy of Love This book speaks to the heart of the "why?" one asks about the cross of brain-damaged or disabled people.  The author, Christopher de Vinck, tells the story of his own brother, whom some would call a "vegetable."  The book also includes other stories shared with the author of tragedy and sorrow, and yet of great importance and even triumph.  We need to hear these stories.  We so easily slip into seeing people in terms of economics: what use are they?  what can they do for the world or for me?  Christopher de Vinck gently and persuasively speaks of the value, the message, the power that these "powerless" have to change us, to show us what  really matters, to call us to real love. Here is the article  that made powerless Oliver de Vinck a nationally known figure and this is one of my favorite quotes from it: Even now, five years after his death from pneumonia on March 12, 1...

"Turtle!" he called her. "What?!" she snapped, sassy and sharp. He turned with firmness and said, "Don't say 'what' when you talk to me! Its not respectful! Say 'yes.'" She burst into tears.  "It's not fair!  It doesn't feel respectful to me, that you can say 'what' to me and I can't say 'what' to you!  I want to be respected too!" She is crying, yes.  But she speaks her heart bravely. I drew a deep breath from the kitchen and waited.  Often a parent doesn't like to be challenged, or doesn't know how to respond.  I could feel him bristling in the next room and a power struggle coming . . . For a while in the earlier years of our marriage there was tension in our household, in our parenting  and in ourselves when it came to the question of respect.    Years before I had children, I fell in love with Maria Montessori's observations about the child.  I came to believe whole-he...

We pile through the double doors into our landlord's bank.  It's rent day and, yes, here I am, that woman with the four children. The floors are gleaming, the pillars and desks and walls are shiny and sleek.  The light bounces off every polished surface. Every head on every well-groomed, suited and heeled body looks up.  We tumble in.  The girls are fighting again over whose turn it is to push the handicapped button that opens the door.  There are two buttons for two sets of doors, so any way you look at it there's a dilemma! I hiss and snap my fingers and gather them into the cordoned line. Thankfully there's only 1 person ahead of us. I take a breath, glance at Sparky's nose as he sits on my hip.  Good, I must have remembered to wipe it in the car. I look around at the girls. Sunshine is hanging on the cords and staring at everyone she can through her bedraggled hair. Okay, check, she's good. Nothing out of the ordinary here.  Yeah, stand...