The season of Advent is coming. There was a package of purple and pink Advent candles at the craft store the other day, when I was rummaging the clearance rack. I bought them. I like candles. And I didn’t think about Advent again that day. Adrienne and I were on one of our drives recently, and we drove through downtown. There were the red and green wooden chalets set up for the annual Advent Market, a part of the beautiful... Read more
Hi, kids! This is your weird old Aunt Mary you can say anything to. I’m an elder Millennial– I was born all the way back in 1984. I have something to say about a recent TikTok trend. I know I’m not the kind of person you’d usually listen to about things that happen on TikTok and and Snapchat and Teddy Graham Gram and whatever other social media you’re using these days. But the topic involves something that deeply affected... Read more
We’ve been going for drives. Adrienne sits in the front seat so she can chat with me, and I drive up and down the back country roads, admiring nature. Fall is the loveliest season in Northern Appalachia. I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than a twisting road around a shale cliff, splashed with every shade of warm color under a piercing blue sky. But the fall is almost spent now, and most of the color is gone. There are leaves... Read more
Hey folks, I really, really hate posting the tip jar boilerplate, even more than you hate reading it. I cringe so hard when writing it that it takes longer than any other posts I write. try to write one only every three months or so and then post it on social media every day or so without thinking too much about it. It’s just that we’re in an awful jam so I have to write out a special one.... Read more
I have something to say that ought to be obvious. It’s so obvious it’s hard to put into words. It’s something that ought not to be controversial, but lately it is. When I was a sixteen-year-old homeschooler, the very conservative devout Catholics in our homeschool group would have ben surprised I even brought it up, but nowadays it’s fashionable to believe the opposite and pretend this has always been the good wholesome Catholic position. You’re going to see those people... Read more
The hen house blew away on Saturday night. A friend sent a small bale of straw and a little thermal cloth cat house to keep outside, in case Rhonda the neighborhood hen needed a place to stay at night. Adrienne and I had fun setting it up, but Rhonda would not go inside. Rhonda preferred to hunker down under bushes. On Saturday evening into Sunday morning, it was windy in LaBelle. The hiding trees which the landlord still hasn’t... Read more
Yes, I’ve heard about Bishop Strickland. For those of you who haven’t heard about Bishop Strickland: the erstwhile bishop of the Diocese Tyler, Texas, who looks uncannily like Mister Rogers but whose social media posts resemble an alt right troll account, has been removed from his position by the Vatican. I’ll let the journalist Brian Fraga tell you all about it. My only complaint about Fraga’s article is that the title calls Strickland a “firebrand.” As many have been... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.... Read more
After Sunday, the severe fatigue settled into ordinary exhaustion. Fatigue is different from exhaustion. Fatigue means your nervous system is trapped in a chamber of little ease where it is too restless to lie still but too tired to use up the energy. Exhaustion only means that you have no energy left. Fatigue means that no quantity of rest will lead to strength. Exhaustion means your strength is depleted, and rest will help eventually. Fatigue is like a coffee machine... Read more
Today is election day. Today, Election Day 2023, is the last day for Ohioans to vote on Issue One, which will make null any previous laws banning abortion up until viability (and also birth control, miscarriage care and fertility treatments); and also for Issue Two which will legalize cannabis with a nice fat sales tax. It’s about the most consequential state election I can remember. I don’t know when you’re reading this, but I’m not going to hit “publish” until... Read more
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