Shared Letter to a Friend

Wrote the following in response to a reply from JS this morning. I'd shared the current Rose is Rose comic with her. Rose is Rose is created by Pat Brady and distributed by United Features Syndicate.

:-) You're welcome!

When I was a kid, I would sometimes stay overnight at the grandparent's house. They didn't have a fireplace either. We'd sleep under lots of covers, sometimes with hot water bottles at the bottom for our feet. In the morning, Grandmother would get up and hurry to light the large gas heater in the living room. When it was lit we'd all rush in there with our clothes to change in front of it. This stove was just wide enough for two to stand in front of comfortably. There would be 4 of us, so it was turned up high to spread the heat for this activity. There were no carpets in the dining room we had to pass through, so the wood floors were very cold on little feet. Sometimes we held our clothes in front of the heater to warm them up before putting them on. Even so this was a fun time for my sister and me because we started our mornings with two folk we loved better than just about anyone in the world and the morning chatter was fun. Then we'd help Grandmother make breakfast. :)

Sometimes I envy you all the wonderful family time you have. You are so blessed! Thank God! Please keep sharing the wonderful stories of your family times. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Friday I have a job interview. Tuesday I walked the 281/Henderson Pass shopping center and looked for help wanted signs in the windows. I brought home 2 paper applications and 2 cards that gave websites to apply on. Two hours after putting in the Radio Shack application online I got a call from the manager of the store in Rolling Oaks Mall and he wanted to set up an appointment time. So I'm to be there at 2:00. Please keep me in your prayers. If I get the job I'll be trained on all their products and will gladly work any hours they have as long as it doesn't interfere with my much needed church activities. The pay for a starting sales associate isn't much. About $7/hr plus occasional incentives for sales made, but they have benefits for full time employees and of course discounts on products. Even it I don't get full time work it will be some money coming in and I know you understand the importance of that. It would also go a long way towards making me feel useful again. Plus it would be working with the public which is something I need some experience with. I am both excited and nervous.

Did I tell you I took the Census employment exam? I did well on it. My raw score was 95 and with my 5 points veteran preference I should be getting a call from them the beginning of February when they start hiring. All jobs for that project last 5 to 10 weeks and pay 11.75/hr. I could work that job around the sales job and be bringing in some decent money for a little while. Prayers for that too would be appreciated. I'd rather work in the office than in the field. I'm directionally impaired and finding my way from place to place is very dicey. I'd do much better handling all the filing and data entry that is required for this huge project. Plus it is a government job and that looks good on the resume. So will the sales experience.

Sorry this is so long in the middle of your busy day.

Love you bunches and wish you were here to give me a comforting hug!

Super Heroes, Quizzes. & Research

Paschal of Murat11 tagged me to declare my super heroine persona. I wasn't sure what mine was and struggled with the idea for a while. There's an image that comes to mind, but she isn't a super heroine, unless you have a name for her that I don't know. The image that I'm thinking of is from a painting by Luis Royo called Seeds of Nothing. Here is what my personal image of strength looks like.


There she is in all her glory. She fought a long, hard battle. Nothing of those who opposed her remains, except corpses. She is wounded, tired beyond thought, but she knows she's done fighting. She came out on top. The battle is won. Not pretty is it? But sometimes strength comes from the bottom. From the seeds of nothing.

But I couldn't think of a name. I started researching other super heroes and stumbled across this quiz which seemed to fill the need for a super hero nicely. I took it. Here are my results. Do you think this is me?

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.


Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

I don't really feel this is me. She is someone I grew up with and read about as a child but I never saw her as me. Honest? Yes! Defender of the innocent? Well, yes, I suppose I would do that. It still doesn't feel like me. Strength came too easily for her.

Among the other super heroines I discovered, on my search for an identity, I came across one more that fascinated me. I discovered Dawn, a character in Sirius comics. Gorgeous, isn't she? From Wikipedia this is Dawn.

Dawn is the goddess of birth and rebirth. While her appearance depends on who is viewing her, she is generally depicted as a young, red-haired woman with three "tears" running from her left eye. Back during the witch hunt, witches were discovered to only cry from their left eyes. Dawn is the guardian of all the witches on Earth, the goddess they pray to. Gaia, Aurora, Mother Earth.

Dawn is shown in many different facets, many shapes, sizes and colors. Dawn is all women, and all women are goddesses. Joseph Micheal Linsner always stresses that all women are goddesses, that's why Dawn takes so many shapes. Because all shapes are beautiful, and so are all women.

If I had to pick a known super heroine who is as I believe, it might be Dawn. Rebirth both personal and spiritual is something I've experienced. The variety in women fascinates me. Yes, we're beautiful! I haven't thought of myself as a witch, but I tend towards the Episcopaganism that is so popular today. I have a totem animal. I've moved a scrying stone with my mind. And I believe I have a healing touch. Yes, Dawn could be me. And darn, I look good as a redhead! (G)

Fun bit of silliness

Spiderman3 has opened. While I couldn't make the midnight opening, I am a fan and hope to see it soon, but not before the lines have thinned a little. In the mean time, I got my dose of superhero trivia on beliefnet.com today. This website, about all kinds of faiths, has clips from the film, a review complete with spoilers, and a blog post on its pop culture & religious status. They also have a fun quiz on spirituality among the superheroes. I'm not a trivia know-it-all so I missed a few (got 7 out of 12 right). No surprise there, but I learned a fact or two taking the test. If you want to have some fun and take it yourself go here.

Hmmm...I wonder how my friends Susan and JSD would do? Tag!

Comics and Comfort

In an earlier post, Comics and Ritual, I mentioned reading comic strips to start my day. Usually it's 3 of my favorites: For Better or For Worse, Rose is Rose, and Luann. Lately, For Better or For Worse has been putting out a story in which Jim, the grandfather of the family, has had a stroke and how it is affecting everyone. This isn't a cheerful subject for a comic strip to write about but, one of the things I like about For Better or For Worse is that it gives me insights into family dynamics, feelings, and how these can interact. The story line today was about how April, the granddaughter who is still at home, was worrying about her grandfather all day while she was in school. She was constantly seeing pictures of him in her head. The closing frame expressed, in the loveliest way, how simple a prayer can be. And how meaningful.

If you've been keeping up with this blog then you'll know that my best friend, deby, recently passed on. Today's comic went a long way towards making me feel better about missing her so much and remembering her a lot. Knowing that my remembering her echoes the thoughts of her friends and family, and that these thoughts don't go unheard, is also very comforting. Spiritual reminders like this are another reason I choose to make a ritual of reading the funnies. Plus I keep learning from them and that makes me feel good too. To read today's comic on the official web page go here.

Comics and Ritual

When I was married I was blessed with a husband who had a really good sense of humor. Among the things we liked to do was share the daily comics. We each had our favorites and managed to work out a way where we could swap pages and not hog them. Occasionally I would cut one out and post it on the fridge as a weekly reminder of humor or the commentary it so jokingly gave on life.

Recently my church showed a series of tapes called "Discovering Everyday Spirituality". These tapes were narrated by Thomas Moore and were very good at reminding me of the things I loved as a child, which spoke of how good my world was back then. The tapes each had a topic. These were story, place, activity, and ritual. In each of these everyday things we can find peace, character, and value for our lives today. How I start my mornings has ritual. It has meaning to me. Until I considered it in light of these videos I had forgotten where I got some of those rituals.

When I was a child my grandmother and I used to sit and read the funny papers (50's lingo for comics) together. It was one of our rituals. Time spent in an activity that we both loved and felt richer for doing together. This was the basis for my sharing comics with my husband. It is the basis for my starting my day with 3 of my favorites online. It has meaning for me beyond the simple act of reading something amusing.

Today I was reading one of my favorites, Rose is Rose, and suddenly thought of that spirituality series. The funny showed Rose going out to find the bag of garbage her husband had been dutifully taking to the trashcan sitting on the ground. As she picked it up and completed the job you saw Jimbo headed off into one of what was no doubt a favorite activity. It was one of mine as a child. He was chasing fireflies. You almost never see these lovely reminders of nature's wonder anymore. The text read, "Fireflies account for almost three percent of 'garbage moment' interruptions." (chuckle) Suddenly I was catapulted back to the time when as a child my parents and grandparents would be sitting in lawn chairs watching my sister and I chase fireflies around the neighbor's yard. There was my place, activity, ritual and story. What a lovely reminder of the spirituality you can find in everyday things.

I took the liberty of printing off that comic to post on a wall I am building of things I want to do and be mindful of. If you have favorite comic strips I hope you get as much joy and history out of them as I do mine.

Peace, Joy and Hope!