“I would love to live like a river flows….carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”
~ John O’Donohue
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/10/one-liner-wednesday-a-disco/
Category: religious/spiritual
Record likes
Here we are at the end of Just Jot It January 2016. I did a thank you post to Linda on Friday, hoping that I would have time to work on a long-delayed post for Sunday, but my brainpower had to be directed elsewhere.
The fun thing is that January 29 became a record-setting day here at Top of JC’s Mind with 66 likes on that day! My old record had been 59, set on October 13, 2015.
While the thank you post to Linda for Just Jot It January generated the most views, I was happy to have generated views that spread news on behalf of poet- and blogger-friends and a couple of re-blogs. There was a post of links to the recently published poems of Merrill Oliver Douglas on Eunoia Review and one spreading the news about the change in platform for OM. I re-blogged anagram haiku from Mathemagical and a wonderful post explaining the true meaning of jihad from Perfect-The-Days. There were also likes for a post I had written the day before which included the Saint Francis Peace Prayer.
I know that part of the reason for the record-setting day was having had an unusually high number of posts in a short amount of time, while part was having the built-in promotion of Just Jot It January for a couple of the posts.
Setting records is fun, but not as gratifying as the knowledge that people are connecting with one another through Top of JC’s Mind.
Sending out a big THANK YOU to all the visitors who made this record possible and all those who pop in on all the non-record-setting days, too!
~ Joanne
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This is my final post for Linda’s Just Jot It January 2016. It’s been a blast! http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/31/just-jot-it-january-31st-clumsy/
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What Is Truly Jihad?
Many people think that the word jihad means terrorism, violence, and killing, but that is a not its true meaning to Islam. Please read this excellent post from Amra Ismail to discover what jihad means and how it is lived daily by Muslims around the world.
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Saint Francis Prayer
Because I have been (somewhat uncharacteristically) posting every day this month as part of Linda’s Just Jot It January, I have been more proactive than usual in planning my posts. I had a topic picked out for today and had written most of the post in my head.
Then, today happened.
My mom asked me this morning if I could send her a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which a friend who recently passed away had chosen for her prayer card. I wrote a note to remind myself to do it and set out on a day of errands, a meeting, and an appointment.
I wasn’t expecting it, but it became a day when human needs for peace, love, compassion, healing, strength, and joy were placed before me again and again.
The best that I can hope to offer is to share the words of the Saint Francis Peace Prayer, which, while it is a Christian prayer, can also speak in large measure to people regardless of their belief system.
Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Shared for my mom, for Wilhelmina, and for all those in need of any of the gifts that Francis calls for in this prayer.
In peace,
Joanne
*****
To join Just Jot It January, visit here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/28/just-jot-it-january-28th-serendipity/
To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.
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One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: outsider
“The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.”
~ Richard Rohr
During this time of tensions, if not outright hostility, between some individuals and groups that they deem as “outsiders” due to differences of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, gender expression, etc., this quote is especially meaningful. It reminds me to show respect for everyone, even when disagreeing on fact or principle with their viewpoint.
~ JC
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/one-liner-wednesday-it-really-sucks/
This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Visit here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/just-jot-it-january-27th-mendaciloquent/
To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.
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#Blesstival on Love
My friend Jamie of Sophia’s Children has begun a blessing wave for 2016. It is called a Blessing Sadhana or Blesstival and this post is my contribution to the wave. Everyone is invited to join in! You can read more about it here: http://sophias-children.com/2015/12/23/blog-blesstival-add-your-blessing-to-start-the-new-year/
The blessing that I would like to share is Love.
Love with a capital L encompasses all that we love but extends beyond those we know to those we don’t know, to those who came before and those who will come after us, to all creatures, to the earth itself, to the universe.
From my religious tradition, I name this Love “Divine Love” or “God” but other cultures and traditions name Love in other ways, such as Great Spirit or the Universal. Secularists or scientists may speak of the Unified Field or Energy or simply the Universe.
Fans of Douglas Adams may know Love as the real answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Forty-two was just shorthand.
It is a profound sense of connection and unity that has been expressed by religious thinkers, philosophers, and scientists over the centuries.
One of the spiritual authors I have read in recent years is Richard Rohr. He writes an online series of daily meditations and his theme for 2016 is Love. Here is an example of a recent daily meditation by Richard Rohr on Love.
As I have been contemplating writing this blessing post, I have been noticing Love everywhere, including this piece from Ilia Delio, another favorite spiritual writer.
I have been thinking about the universality of Love more often since attending a conference on Interspirituality, where I was privileged to meet Jamie in person. Whether one comes to it from a spiritual, philosophical, scientific, or secular viewpoint, our connection to one another and to Creation as a whole is profound.
I wish everyone the blessing of Love for 2016 and beyond.
Signing off with Jamie’s usual closing,
Big Love,
Joanne
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I want to spread the Blesstival as far as possible, so this post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. You can find out more here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/26/just-jot-it-january-26th-oneness/
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“The Last Night” in Eunoia Review
I have a new poem published today in Eunoia Review.
It is entitled “The Last Night” and is about witnessing the death of a loved one. I wanted to warn people who may be in a vulnerable place regarding loss so that they can make an informed choice about whether or not they would like to read it.
I would like to thank Eunoia Review for publishing this poem and invite you all to follow them on WordPress. They publish two new poems or pieces of short fiction daily so you can always find something interesting there.
You can find “The Last Night” here: https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/the-last-night/
Please feel free to comment here or in the comment section on Eunoia Review.
With thanks,
Joanne
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/13/just-jot-it-january-13th-sacrifice/
To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.
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SoCS: The Sound of Music
One of the first movies I can remember seeing in a theater was The Sound of Music. I was probably four or five at the time. The movie had an overture and an intermission. The intermission happened right after the wedding scene and my Dad thought the movie was over. Fortunately, there was music for the intermission and we did stay for the rest of the movie.
We had the cast album – on 33 1/3 rpm vinyl, of course – and could sing all the songs. When I was a senior in high school, our school play was The Sound of Music and I was Sister Sophia, one of the “Big 4” nuns who sings “How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?” I only had a couple of spoken lines, but we got to wear habits borrowed from a convent, which apparently had kept some of the pre-Vatican II habits around. Because I was Catholic, I also got to coach some of the chorus of nuns on things like how to cross yourself and genuflect. It was also interesting because we used the original Broadway script and score, so some of the songs were new to me. For instance, “Something Good” was written for the movie; I actually prefer “An Ordinary Couple” which was the Broadway song for that scene.
The sound of music is also pertinent to my own life. I have been singing since I was young. I am in my 34th season singing with the Binghamton University Chorus, which I joined after singing my way through elementary, high school, and college. I can’t imagine giving it up.
I also played piano from the time I was seven, then studied organ so that I could play at my tiny Catholic parish. I subbed for three years and then took over as organist when our prior organist went to college. My last three years of high school were spent playing organ every weekend at church, along with holidays and often a couple of weeknight masses.
I played organ and sang throughout college and worked in the church music field before my children were born, continuing on a volunteer basis as they got older. Unfortunately, an orthopedic problem intervened so I no longer play on a regular basis, but I do still sing.
It is odd, though, that I don’t like to have music playing in the background. I find it too distracting. If there is the sound of music, I want to be either making it or listening attentively.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays! The prompt this week was…ummm…complicated and involves using a movie title. You can read about it here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-916/
This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January! http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/09/just-jot-it-january-9th-title-socs/
To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.
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Catching up on the twelve days of Christmas
Today, Catholics celebrate Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the magi to the infant Jesus. Technically, it should be celebrated on Jan. 6th, bringing to a close the famed twelve days of Christmas, but Epiphany gets moved to a Sunday in the modern liturgical calendar. Also, the liturgical season of Christmas extends through the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord the following Sunday. (Can you tell I spent many years serving in liturgical and music ministry?)
I posted about our Christmas Eve and Day, but haven’t filled in much of the rest of our Christmas observance. We do try as much as possible to observe Advent as a time of waiting and preparation, even though culturally in the US, most of December is packed with Christmas festivities which end on Christmas Day rather than begin there.
One of the things that helps us extend our celebration of Christmas is the arrival of my sisters and their families after Christmas. This year, they arrived on Dec. 26. We met at my parents’ apartment for food, fun, Christmas cookies, and gift exchange that afternoon and evening, followed by a big dinner at our house on the 27th.
We inherited the making of family dinners when my parents first moved to an apartment about ten years ago. Part of the inheritance came in the form of the electric rotisserie that I remember from my childhood, on which we made a traditional rolled beef rib roast. We served mashed potatoes, gravy, popovers, rutabaga which my parents prepared, baked onions, Aussie-style bread which our son-in-law made, and fall vegetable chili, which is made with carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, onion, tomato, and red and white kidney beans.
For dessert, we had four pies: apple, pumpkin, apple blackberry, and cranberry meringue, an addition to our pie repertoire made by our older daughter and her husband. Four pies may seem like a lot for fourteen people, but we always want to have some left over for breakfast the next morning!
Unfortunately, work schedules and threatening weather intervened and both sisters and family had to return home on the 28th. That left us two days with our older daughter E and son-in-law L before they had to fly home to Honolulu. We went out to lunch at a couple of our favorite local eateries, spent time with the grandparents, and enjoyed quiet times at home.
On the morning of the 29th, we were all up at 4 AM to get ready to bring E and L to the airport for a 6 AM flight to Newark and then on to Honolulu. We wished they could have stayed longer, but were very grateful to have them with us for a week.
I did write about our (sedate) New Year’s Eve and Day, although I did have the excitement of a new poem coming out on Silver Birch Press.
Epiphany is traditionally the day that we take down our Christmas tree, although we were late putting it up this year and it isn’t dropping needles, so maybe we will wait until next weekend. B returns to work on Monday and next week’s calendar is filled with appointments, so it is back to reality, or at least what passes for routine, tomorrow.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s JusJoJan initiative. Join us! Read more about it here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/03/just-jot-it-january-3rd-frozen/
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Welcome, 2016!
Happy New Year, everyone! We began our celebration toasting at midnight GMT, also known as 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, as I write about in my new poem on Silver Birch Press. We drank the very bottle of sparkling apple cranberry juice that I used in the photo, along with the wine glasses pictured. I did use some poetic license in the poem, as we do still have daughter T here celebrating with us this year.
I woke up early this morning with part of the middle of a poem for the collection I am working on this year swirling about in my head, so I got up to type it into google docs before I lost it. I’m hoping it is a good omen for my poetic work this year to start January first by drafting new work for my first ever collection.
Later this morning, we will head up to GSV, the senior community where our elder generation live, to pick up Nana for 10 AM Mass. January 1st is a holy day in the Catholic Church, dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. After church, we will have brunch at GSV with Nana, Paco, Grandma, and Grandma’s neighbor Ann.
There aren’t plans for the rest of the day, although I expect it will be low-key. As you can see, we are not the wild and crazy types!
I wish everyone the gifts of peace, joy, and contentment in 2016!
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Visit this link for more info: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/01/just-jot-it-january-1st-persnickety/
Joanne Corey 