I've made a million!

(over my working life, that is...)

I got that annual Social Security Statement of Earnings that they mail (when did that start?) and a quick eyeball addition of the wages I've made since 1973 ($726 that year) total well over $1.2 million dollars. Goodness gracious, so THIS is what a million looks like - a condo and a ten-year-old car and a little moolah in the bank.

It furnishes food for thought: if I'd tithed 10% of it over the years, I'd have given about $100K to charity. If I'd saved another 10% over the years, I'd have $100K in the bank. IF IF IF. Neither of those happened in any consistent way, and I wonder if I'd have ever missed the 10% of either, since I do more than that now, and have a comfortable cash flow.

Too bad we can't see other totals of our working life or adult life or sex life. How many lies? How many kisses? How many apologies? How many good deeds? How many filthy thoughts? How many gossipy unkind asides? How many Holy Communions? Or the facetious ones: how many Quarter Pounders? How many margaritas? How many episodes of Dick Van Dyke?

Or think of what you can count up on one hand: how many martinis (3)? How many skiing attempts (1)? How many car accidents (3? 4?)? How many Star Wars movies (0)?

While you perhaps ponder those big and little numbers in your own life a moment, I think I'm changing my mind mid-post about whether it IS too bad we can't have that measure set before our eyes.

What I think of Amy Welborn

She's the best. That's not just a flowery buttering-up compliment. When you ask someone in the Catholic blog-world which bloggers they read, they will give you a selection of some of the great variety of sterling writers and commenters online, and then will inevitably finish up with " . . . and, of course, Amy Welborn."

So I jumped up at the chance to hear her speak at a local parish. It didn't matter to me what her topic was. Her writing has a pithy incisiveness that I hoped would be reflected in her speech.

It was. As I menioned in my comment on Amy's post, she was "engaging, energetic, witty, with an unerring eye for the true and the ridiculous and the ability to tell them apart." Unlike some others who also believe fervently in what they are saying, she offered her listeners more than just worthwhile information or contagious fervor. She structured her talk about Decoding DaVinci in a way that not only explained the key issues of the book, but also equipped us for intelligent conversation with those for whom the plaintive cry, "It's only fiction!" is not protecting them from changing their worldview in response to Dan Brown's work of non-scholarship. And she's amusingly engaging. Excellent combo.

It was simply great to meet her and her delightful family. I wish I had met the other bloggers in the room, but we'll just have to look for another opportunity.

Okay, how powerful is this guy anyway?

My house has been on the market for 8 or 9 months now. It's getting down to the wire, because my dear fiancé and I had decided to go ahead and buy our new family home in faith that the Lord would find us a buyer for our houses. I haven't been anxious, but I've been a bit -- let's say, concerned.

On Wednesday, I never got around to opening the mail, even though it contained an interesting, knobby little parcel from my aunt. Back to that later.

Thursday morning, Henry and I were at the closing for our new house. Our realtor stepped out to take a cell call and returned to tell us that an offer would be coming over that day on my house. We reviewed it and accepted it that afternoon. So, amazingly enough, in all the 2,912 two-hour periods since I listed the house, God chose that one to bring me an acceptable offer to purchase my own. I love it when God reminds me that he's in charge.

Back to the knobby little parcel: It turns out my aunt had been concerned about the failure of the house to sell, so she sent me a little statue of St. Joseph to bury in my front yard. I'm quite fond of St. Joseph, though it never seemed particularly respectful to me to bury a representation of him upside down anywhere for any reason; I certainly had been happy to ask him to pray for me. Now I find out that he's such a powerful guy that, no sooner does he cross the threshold of my house, it sells like a hotcake.

I certainly feel well looked-after.

Adoration and Understanding

Since I'm so silent here lately, at least I can post the article I wrote for my parish bulletin. I put in a little squib once each month to announce our 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration on First Fridays. Thinking up one paragraph to place among the school announcements, lecter schedules and wedding announcements to catch the attention of the fence-sitter is a fun challenge each time.

C. S. Lewis wrote “The instruction, after all, is to ‘Take. Eat.’ It was not ‘Take. Understand.’” Part of the power of Adoration in the heart and mind is that you cannot reach the end of God! There is always something to learn, by reading the Bibles and books put out for your use, or in simply presenting your concerns to God, for a mutual review. Or, finally, just sitting quietly and being in the presence of Love Incarnate.

I so wish people would give a few minutes of their time to the simple prayer of Adoration, on the way to work, on the way home, at lunch, before a date, after a date (what a test!).... It's not scary, there's no rules (other than silence), nobody can tell if you're "doing it wrong," and you can't do it wrong!

Why Therese Z hasn't been around much, either

Actually, no excuse. Just no worthwhile bloggable thoughts, tapped out, only a bunch of harumphs, as in "Harumph. If all the rosaries strung over the rear view mirrors of cars were actually used in prayer and meditation on Christ's love for us, peace would already reign in the US!" And "Harumph. If people would just come to church for three months, say, without complaining, their lives would change, and they'd stop complaining to me!" See how fruitless?

Hope your Lent is a time of holiness, and your Spring is as exciting as Roz's.