Joy!
Everything is pink around here!
The wisteria is blooming…
The cherry blossoms are blooming…
The azaleas are blooming…
and my allergies are blooming…
time for another Quick Takes Friday!
Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary.
–1–
I spent last weekend in New Orleans for a forum on Learning Support and Student Success. That translates to a bunch of college professors sitting around discussing what we can do to help adult students get up to speed on the skills they need for success in college (dare I say, in life?). It ain’t easy, let me tell you. I don’t make it any easier by saying ain’t, now do I? This is the part where I say that I worked hard while I was there. By that, I mean I was where I was supposed to be during the day. I played the rest of the time, but more on that later. This topic of college-level remediation is an important one, as I see myself kind of drifting into the direction of teaching more and more learning support classes. It’s a kind of ministry, really. Really .
–2–
Did I say I was in New Orleans? Yes?
YES! I had lunch with the delightful Catholic Foodie himself, Jeff Young, and the even more delightful Char Young!
We had our V-8!
–3–
And then I took a little bite of heaven at Cafe du Monde
–4–
Ate this ginormous mufaletta sandwich. Oh heaven, again.
–5–
Finally, really trying to get to heaven, visited the beautiful cathedral for Mass before leaving.
–6–
Had another little ole poem posted at Catholic Lane. You can read it here. Tickles me to no end to be doing this…it’s like having a little cherry plopped on top of my week.
–7–
And finally, joined the Son Rise Morning Show brackets for March madness. I’m doing okay, though you can tell that I’m doing better in the East.
mothers, miscarriage, and a voice
I often use this blog to post silly videos and random by-the-seat-of-my-pants entries to laugh a little at life. It’s a good outlet for me, and while I’m not necessarily interested in growing a huge readership, I know that I have a nice little group of stalwart followers (thanks, y’all!).
Every once in a while, though, I do get serious, and it’s always about something that’s close to my heart. If there’s one thing that my vocation as a teacher has exposed me to, and that I’ve taken absolutely to heart, is that each of us has a story that’s yearning to be told. Our lives are unique — filled with many joys, but also pains. They go hand in hand with this thing we call the human condition.
Bloggers are sometimes guilty of always presenting the best side of our lives. It’s lovely to share photos of family get-togethers that look like Norman Rockwell paintings, and I’ve been guilty a time or two (ha!) of taking a picture that is cropped just right so you don’t see the laundry basket or the pile of papers that gets moved from the table to the counter, and back to the table. It’s all about illusion, isn’t it?
While I love to get hilarious comments from readers over fun posts, it’s actually the serious disclosures, like this one, that get feedback. Why? Because we are all suffering in some way. Each of us, and we so often miss opportunities to connect with others and share these hurts. We can find much healing in the simple act of sharing and discovering that we are not alone in our suffering. Both empathy and sympathy are gifts.
Karen Edmisten, author of After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman’s Companion to Healing and Hope talks with Pat Gohn this week on a special two-part edition of Among Women Podcast on a subject that is dear to my own heart. I experienced two miscarriages early in my marriage. Twenty-five years ago, the subject was not brought up in polite company. The doctors were horrible to me … one dismissed my second, very early miscarriage, as nothing more than a chemical pregnancy. I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean. Needless to say, the scars from such an experience go beyond grieving for a lost child.
Pat and Karen discuss this topic with tenderness and honesty, two essential qualities that go a long way in helping women heal, connect, and hope. I hope you pass this along to other women. If we haven’t experienced miscarriage first-hand, the odds are very high that someone close to us has. Share it.