Category: Stream of Consciousness Saturday

SoCS: the meaning of names

On Wednesday, I went to hear my friend Pat Raube and Martha Spong  of RevGalBlogPals read from their new book, There’s a Woman in the Pulpit. It’s one of those rare times when a publisher offered a book deal because of a blog.  It was great to be able to attend the reading and get my book signed.

Pat’s reading included a reference to her daughter’s name – Joan – and for whom she was named. I immediately thought of a welcome ceremony that Pat’s soul-sisters of Sarah’s Circle had held for Joan as an infant, which featured a coat of many colors that Pat had made for Joan.  It also included a personal blessing from each person in attendance, given verbally at the time and recorded in a book which Pat gave to Joan when she turned sixteen.

When we had a bite to eat together after the reading, the Sarah’s Circle members in attendance were reminiscing about that day and telling stories about names and their meanings and how we came to be called what we are called.

Even though Joan is about to graduate from Oberlin later this month – with Michelle Obama as commencement speaker! – I remember that I had written my blessing to her about the origin of our name. Joan (and Joanne) come from a Hebrew root and I have heard them translated as “God is gracious” or “gift of God” or my favorite “God’s gracious gift.” The last is the one I chose to incorporate into my blessing for Joan.

When I was a first year at Smith thirty-six years ago, I studied Latin with Professor Skulsky. One day she went through the class and told us all the origin of our names, although she was disappointed that none of us had names with Latin roots, like Amanda, which means “the woman who ought to be loved.”

Years later, there was a rise in popularity of Amanda as a name for new babies. My younger daughter had a number of same age Amandas in her class. I wonder if they knew the meaning of their name…

[Update: This post now has a postscript.]
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is: “name.”  Please join us! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/05/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-915/

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Badge by Doobster @Mindful Digressions

SoCS: Accepting compliments

It seems that it should be the easiest thing in the word to graciously accept compliments. Someone says something nice about you or something you have done and you smile and say thank you.

Somehow though, if you tend to be the self-deprecating, or perfectionistic, or even the humble sort, it can be difficult not to go on with a “but” … it was really a team effort, or I made a mistake in the third movement, or it was just a little something – or it was nothing at all.

Sometimes, we don’t feel worthy of the compliment. It may help to look from the point of view of the complimenter instead of reflexively rejecting the substance of the compliment.

Next time, maybe, it will be just “Thank you.”  With maybe an extension of the gratitude, like, “I’m so glad you liked it.”  “It means so much to me to hear you say that.”

A gracious acceptance of the compliment with no “but”s.
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The prompt for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is: “compliment/complement.”  Anyone can join in!  Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/05/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-215/

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SoCS: very, very, very

I am very, very, very tired so this is likely to be very short.

I am also very, very, very behind on posting – and most everything else. My mom was in the hospital for blood transfusions this week; there is a backstory there, which I’ll get to tell at some point. And also a story about my poetry appearing in print. And about half a dozen other things I’ve been meaning to write.

Part of my brain fatigue is that I attended the first two sessions of this conference today. (Sorry – writing on Friday evening and scheduling for Saturday again.) It is fascinating but takes concentration, which is very tiring and came on top of not a lot of sleep this week. Two more sessions on Saturday and maybe a church service on Sunday, which would be in addition to early Mass. If I’m not too tired….  And I’ll try to write about the conference at some point, too. If I can wrap my head around everything enough to be cogent…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is vary/very. Join us! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/04/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-2515/ .

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SoCS: peace through justice

I’ve recently joined a new organization, the Catholic Peace Community of the Southern Tier. There are people from several different parishes and we are hoping to build peace through working on different social justice areas.

Our first activities are dealing with the environment and climate change. One of the main tenets of Catholic social justice teaching is care of creation. Also involved are other tenets, such as the protection of the most vulnerable. Those who are living in poverty are much more likely to be subjected to pollutants and also more likely to be impacted by severe weather and sea level rise, as they live in vulnerable areas without strong shelter and do not have the means to relocate out of harm’s way.

We are looking forward to Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical on the environment and will study the document when it is released in the late spring or early summer. Then we hope to get the word out about the encyclical not only to Catholic parishes but also to the general public in advance of the Paris climate summit in December.

Our first public event is on the 25th of this month when we will have a table at EarthFest.  Pope Paul VI said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” We hope to build peace by working on various justice issues, but I am glad that we are starting with this timely work for ecojustice.
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness this Saturday is: “piece/peace.” To join in the fun, visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/04/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-1815/

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SoCS: crisis du jour

OK – this is another one of those weeks where I am writing on Friday morning and scheduling the post for publication tomorrow. The weekend is going to be busy as there will be open mic poetry tonight – my second time reading, if I make it – you can read about the first here.  Saturday morning we will scoot up to Syrcause to pick up our younger daughter to bring her home in time for my dad’s rescheduled 90th birthday dinner. There will be a post about why it had to be re-scheduled eventually. Have I mentioned yet how I’m sort of behind on posting?

At any rate, my sisters and families will be coming up for the festivities which will be at a local Mediterranean restaurant, so there will be much yumminess and laughter and storytelling and dessert.

Provided things don’t get derailed by the crisis du jour.

It’s become a bit of a standing joke with me that I can’t make a plan because something will intervene. I wrote about the most dramatic of these events here. Long post but the condensed version is that my parents unexpectedly wound up in the hospital for two days at the same time with two totally unrelated problems.

Right now, I am waiting to hear back from my mother-in-law to see if we need to get her to her doc or to get an X-ray to investigate why her back pain has ramped up – after we thought we finally had her pain meds adjusted properly. I admit I’m operating on not a lot of sleep, mostly because I was worried about what is going on.

Right now, I’m trying to breathe and not make something into a crisis before its time. Maybe it’s just a pulled muscle from PT. Not really crisis du jour.

Please?

[Update from Friday night:  My mother-in-law’s doctor decided to just let things ride for the weekend and she improved through the day today. So fingers crossed that we make it through the weekend crisis-free, awaiting a previously scheduled Monday afternoon doctor’s appointment.]
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “-jour-“: add a prefix or suffix to complete it or use it as the French word for “day.”

Please join us!  Details on how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/04/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-1115/

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SoCS: delightfully short

I should be delighted that the SoCS prompt is so open this week. It was sweet of Linda to take into account people who are doing the A-Z challenge so that they can double-dip with the letter D and SoCS. Of course, I am not disciplined enough to do those every day kind of things, but more power to all those who are participating!

I guess I could ramble on SoCing with whatever is Top of JC’s Mind, but I should work on some of the backlog of posts I need to write. Well, at least the Holy Saturday post which expires today…

The prompt from Linda for Stream of Consciousness Saturday: use a word, anywhere in your post, that begins with the prefix “de-.” Extra points if your word ends with “ed”! It’s all about the fun – have some!

http://lindaghill.com/2015/04/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-415/  Anyone can join in!  Just go to the link above for the rules, which include linking back to that post so others can find your contribution.

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SoCS: Girl Scouts

When I was in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, I was a Junior Girl Scout in a new troop in the next town over. Troop 356. Hard to believe I actually remember that…

It was still a thing in those days to learn to tie knots. Lots of kinds of knots, so that we could lash together branches and such.

I don’t remember how to tie most of them, but I do remember slip knots. And square knots. “Right over left and left over right makes a knot neat and tidy and tight.” I do make square knots sometimes. I’m not sure if that is why I still remember them or because there was a rhyme that taught us how to tie it properly.

Do Girl Scouts today still learn to tie knots?
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This week’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “naught/knot/not.”  Come join us! Details here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/03/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-2815/

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Badge by Doobster @MindfulDigressions

SoCS: eyedrops

Last night, I watched my mother put in her prescription eyedrops. In the ER. Before we saw the doctor. After she had been there several hours. Before they decided to admit her.

I usually try to read the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda on Friday. If my Saturday is supposed to be busy, I will write it on Friday and schedule the post to appear on Saturday. Friday afternoon when I read:  Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “I/eye/aye.”  Use one, use ‘em all – just make it yours. And have fun! I fully expected to be leisurely writing my SoCS post Saturday morning before setting out on other tasks or just puttering about the house. No big plans.

Instead a Friday night call from the ER sent me over to the hospital, where I stayed until after midnight. I spent a good chunk of the day there today and will be back at the hospital tomorrow morning while my mom has a test. If things go well, she should be released tomorrow afternoon.

I hope. We all hope.
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This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday.  Please join in!  Details here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/03/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-2115/  Badge by Doobster@Mindful Digressions

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SoCS: putting in “put”

My Saturday is going to be busy, so I am writing this Friday night – late after everyone else is in bed.

Ironically, I spent a lot of time today with the word “put.” The Binghamton University Chorus, in which I have sung for 33 seasons, is preparing Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang for our concert in May, but we are singing it in English rather than the original German.

In movement seven, our scores used the following text, “let us gird on the armour of light,” over and over and over. Unfortunately, the word “gird” is very difficult to sing prettily, especially when the notes are high in our ranges, as they are in this movement. So the hunt was on for a different translation that used less difficult sounds.

After comparing several Biblical translations, our director chose to change “let us gird on” to “and put on us” which is easier to sing and to understand from the audience’s perspective.  So, I spent a bunch of time today writing the text change into my score.

I admit that I only wrote it in for the soprano part, which is the part I sing. Fingers crossed that the other parts write their own changes!

The tricky part comes on Monday – when my mind needs to forget the weeks of singing “gird” and put “put” in there instead.

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This is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Join us!  Find the prompt and the rules here:   http://lindaghill.com/2015/03/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-1415/

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SoCS: field trip

My daugher T was scheduled to go to Dominica for ten days to do field work with her tropical ecology class. They were scheduled to leave Syracuse early Thursday morning to fly to Newark, the first of four legs to get them to the island. Because of the storm hitting the coast, the flight was cancelled Wednesday evening. The professors told them to stay tuned and the travel agents went to work to try to rebook. Unfortunately, the earliest that they could re-book the group was Wednesday, so the trip had to be cancelled. It was a major bummer, given that they spent the first half of the semester learning about the ecology there and prepping for the trip, including things like getting immunized for typhoid fever.

The silver lining for us is that T is now home for spring break. It’s nice for us and for her grandparents, who have been battling various maladies this winter.

And we are sure that T won’t contract typhus…

This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. This week’s prompt is “go.”  Join us! Visit this link for rules:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/03/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-715/

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