Pink Plaster provides temporary relief
OK, I admit it. As I sat in the doctor’s office a couple weeks ago and watched the bright pink [...]
Sr. Katy and the Adventures of 30-land
Some days I have believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
1) Rabbits can be white. 2) Potions and cakes can make you grow and shrink. 3) Animals can talk. 4) Cats can disappear. 5) There’s always time for tea. 6) I am 30 … EEEEeeek.
You read that correctly, the big 3-0. I have crossed over into a new decade, how exciting! HELLO, 3-0! Ha cha cha! The truth is, my zealous embrace of being 30 didn’t happen overnight. I spent most of 29 (um … 28 and probably half of 27 also) quietly agonizing this transition. Thirty? Really? I can’t be 30 … yet. Didn’t I just graduate from high school? (12 years ago) Didn’t I just get back from England? (Nine years ago) Does one of my favorite literary sources section really have a column called “Twenty Somethings” which suddenly doesn’t apply to me? Argh … do I really have to change my blog title to adventures of a “30 something”?
There are a lot of perks to being a “young nun”; sympathy about turning 30 – not so much. How do you explain this cringy, squirmy “I-wanna-be-in-my-20’s-forever-because-it-seems-like-the-cool-decade-to-be” feeling to people? It’s not an I’m old thing (despite a “young person” recently saying to me, “Wow … I didn’t think you were that old.”). It’s more of a weird thing. I’ll admit it … the 30 angst set in. To put it mildly, I was freaking out. Then I had an encounter with Tim Burton and a feisty, stubborn, out-spoken, imaginative, energetic, ready-to-take-on-the-world, turning 20-years-old girl, named Katy … (did I type that?). Oops, I meant Alice.
Then … I was struck between my eyes (quite realistically, in magnificent 3-D, I might add) with an arrow of a Red Queen soldier. “Ready-to-take-on-the-world” Alice has begun to believe that her quest might be impossible. She is told she may not be the “right Alice.” In fact, she is not quite sure who she is or where she’s going, all despite the fact that this is her dream. The Mad Hatter looks at her intently and inquires: Who are you? You’ve changed. You’ve lost your “mustness.”
Well, 30 years minus 12 days me is sitting in the theater thinking … oh, that poor thing, how could she lose her mustness? HELLO, ALICE! Are you really going to come out of this Wonderland without your mustness? I don’t think so … feisty, imaginative, ready-to-take-on-the-world, 20-year-olds don’t become “mustness-less” 30-year-olds. Thankfully, I had a great zap from my friend the Holy Spirit (channeled through Tim Burton and apparently needing an extra dimension) which allowed me to tap my inner Alice and ask: “What about my questions of: Who am I, Where am I going, Am I the “right” Katy, Who’s directing this dream? What is the rating of my mustness on the spectrogram of life?” as I enter my 30’s. Am I going ahead with enough mustness? Get back on the hat, Alice, because we’re going for a ride; it’s high time we embrace the must factor.
Your most reliable relationship? It’s with God
About three weeks ago, a few friends and I went out for an evening on the town, something we’ve partaken [...]
Entrepreneur makes her mark in Milwaukee
Mara Brandli, 21, center, stands with a group of high school girls receiving one of five planning sessions to be facilitators for Brandli’s Heart to Heart retreat in late November 2009, for Casa Romero Renewal Center, a bilingual retreat center that seeks to bring the church’s spiritual mission to Milwaukee’s urban population. From left to right are high school sophomores who will lead the bimonthly, overnight retreats for teenage girls, Yessenia Gonzalez, Daniela Cortes, Lorena Coria, Karem Soto, and Brenda Rodriguez, program director at Casa Romero, and Amanda Wolff, Marquette University Manresa intern at Casa Romero. (Photo submitted courtesy of Mara Brandli)
And free time’s not something Mara Brandli, 21, has a lot of in between the many activities she scoops onto her already full plate as a Marquette University junior.
A member of Holy Family Parish in Fond du Lac, where her parents and brother live, Brandli attends Mass and serves as a lector and extraordinary minister of holy Communion at Marquette University’s Campus Ministry or goes to Mass at Gesu Parish, Milwaukee, when she’s at school working on her undergraduate major in social and political philosophy and minors in theology and Spanish. Ultimately, Brandli would like to “grow a mindset which constantly brings our human and spiritual nature into the forefront of international communication. I envision the role of my undergraduate major as material which will build my intellectual core,” she said in an e-mail interview with MyFaith, adding that she would like to work for the Jesuit Refugee Service after earning a master’s degree in social work.
Catholic perspective on responsible drinking
His father occasionally had a beer, but Marquette University senior Andrew Schueller, 22, was otherwise not raised around alcohol. College changed that.
“It was not until college that I really was exposed to alcohol, seeing my peers wanting to go out and coming back heavily under the influence,” Schueller said, in an e-mail interview with MyFaith. “I guess being raised Catholic, I knew it was wrong for me to drink before 21, so I tried to avoid it.”
His night job on the Marquette campus as a shuttle van driver also helped. When Schueller became a resident assistant, he said he had to deal with others’ abuse of alcohol and learned of the associated dangers.
“Being on a college campus, especially as a resident assistant, I see examples of residents who have (drunk) too much that they have passed out and sometimes even needed to be hospitalized,” Schueller said.
He’s also seen how peers regret some of their under-the-influence actions.
Even for the priority-challenged, time must be sacred
As a busy mom, friend, daughter and employee, I have an amazing web of support and responsibility. I know “they” [...]
Surviving the Breakup Game
They say that breaking up with someone can be one of the hardest things you will ever have to do [...]
Colorful Gospel for April 29, 2010
Based on the Gospel of John 13:31-33a, 34-35Love with a mission! While we continue celebrating the Easter Season, this [...]
Engagement Enrichment
Matt and I finally had the opportunity to spend the day at our engagement enrichment class, located at St. Lucy [...]
Catholics challenged to remain faithful
As we bask in the glory of Easter joy, we remind ourselves of our firm belief that Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen from the dead and is gloriously alive right now in heaven. Our focus, then, must center on how we live the mystery of the risen Christ among us here and now.
That causes us to consider how Jesus communicated himself to us and how he continues his living presence among us until he returns in glory, as he promised, at the end of the world. That, of course, calls our attention to his church (the people of God). The church, therefore, means something to us; it is important. As we reflect upon the church we must not necessarily be confined simply to the thought of an institution or an organization. The church is much bigger and more significant than that. We need to consider the church as the focus of the love of Jesus. She is personified, if you will, as the Bride of Christ (CCC 796).