What does Advent signify for me?

I have always thought of Advent only in terms of Christmas, but for some reason this year I was able to focus on the readings for Mass last Sunday and BINGO I got it. Advent is not just about Christmas - it is also about the Second Coming of Christ. We celebrate, of course, that God took on a human form and stepped into our time and place...however, we LOOK for the His return.

So the past couple of days I have tried to remember (when the Nephew acts like a spoiled 3 year old instead of a 20 year old almost-army-man) that my goal has to be to get to heaven. When LOM on The Hive starts up his drunken rantings and accusations, I can 'stand erect' as Jesus instructs me and say clearly, "Your accusations are WRONG and I will no longer engage in a discussion with you; however, you are in my prayers".

I can also report his mouthy butt to the powers-that-be; I am a Catholic but I am no longer an abused woman, afraid of upsetting a verbally abusive man in case he might take a swing at me. Now my feelings, after all these years, are more in line with, "I forgive you. I love you. Take one step closer and I will knock you into next week, you weasel".

I take comfort in knowing that Mother Angelica, when describing the humility of St Rita, once commented on that holy woman preparing dinner for her abusive husband and cleaning up the mess when he drunkenly dumped her hard work on the floor, remarked, "That's why I had to become a nun. Any husband of mine that pulled that sort of thing would be wearing his dinner on his head".

I think this is going to be my goal for the next year - no more acceptance of abuse. Instead, I will politely inform the person(s) in my life who call me names, accuse me of dark and sinister motives or demand that I not talk to certain people because they don't want me to talk to them, that they are loved, prayed for and no longer directly acknowledged. If they want to throw tantrums - either in person or on line - they will be playing to an empty room. I am not impressed and I will not engage.

What a great way to expand my ability to be a woman of grace and dignity - to be Catholic, OUT LOUD.

As we head into Advent

Let me bring you up-to-date, dear friend and reader, because stuff has been happening and not all of it is icky.

In fact, most of it is down right joyous!

First of all, CAL won Big Game against Stanford again this year and the Axe stays in Berkeley.

Second of all, the Niners won another game and are almost at a .500 season!

Best of all? Brother and Nephew are talking again after a fabulous Thanksgiving that was peaceful and hardly tense at all...ok, a little but I think that was me. I have that nagging tendency to pray like this: Thy will, not mine, be done O Lord..but I have some suggestions.

Anyway, while Nephew is not yet ready to go through the Rite of Acceptance and Welcome, he is continuing his instructions in RCIA and for that I am grateful.

I am back on the old Weight Watchers and will go into Advent determined to NOT put on 10 pounds...because my target date for quiting smoking is January 4, 2010..the date Nephew leaves for the Army.

I have had a pretty good couple of days - a little sore but that's to be expected with the weather weirdness we have had in the Central Valley. Rain, then hot, then some wind, then more fog...my joints are singing the Hallelujah Chorus and doing it off key.

It is interesting to me, as we head into the Advent Season, to think about the Coming of Christ. We prepare, with the early season readings at Mass, by focusing on the important coming - the one that's on its way, and I do not mean like the movie 2012 (John Cusack is fabulous in it, of course, but who am I to judge? I think the guy is great doing cartwheels in his pajamas, not that I have ever seen that but hell I'd buy a ticket and stand in line to do so). We are asked by Holy Mother Church to look upward and reflect on the Day of Judgement, urging us to meet Jesus by 'standing erect' because our salvation is at hand. I like that - we are to look up and stand up and be people of dignity because Our Lord and Savior, Creator and Father, Lord and Giver of Life is on His way...don't cower and wait to be 'left behind'..stand up and shout for joy...He is COMING!!!! YIPPEEE!!!

So, this season is not just about The Incarnation and Birth of Jesus (as wonderful as that was and continues to be). It is about being mature Catholics and knowing that we not only celebrate the historical reality that was God taking on a Human Nature for our sake, we also celebrate our Faith and dependence upon His return.

I'll bet it will be even better than John Cusack in pajamas.

Oh I am so disappointed

I am disappointed today.

Recently, someone posted on The Hive what seemed to be a heartfelt attempt to make amends for past wrongs.

Now it looks as though that was all a ruse of some sort.

*sigh*

Well...it does make for fun reading and I am toying with the idea of alerting the Dr Phil show about the goofy behavior of a few of the participants on that site.

Then I think, "Oh heck...there has to be something more fun to do today than that".

We had a fun weekend...yes, the Niners lost to Green Bay (the bums) but CAL beat Stanfurd in Big Game!

Duffy went to the groomers and came back acting as though he had been tarred and feathered. Actually, he had been clipped and brushed and 'expressed' and shined up for the holidays...he looks like a cute little Scotty dog now instead of a bushy mess. Duffy would, however, have preferred to remain a bushy mess. In his mind, he was quite the handsome lad. Well, take it from me. He was cute but he had that Scotty aroma that can be a bit, uh, MUSKY...it was time for a bath, shave and haircut.

This Thanksgiving will be spent at my brother's house. He and the nephew are talking again - kind of - and I am glad. I did not want the nephew leaving for the army still estranged from his father. I do not agree with a lot of what my brother does, but he is my brother and he loves his children as best he can - and listen, as far as he is concerned I am a sanctimonious creep who thinks she knows everything. Well, I know it is tough being the little brother - even when you are 48 - and I am a know-it-all at times and have to watch that character defect. The reality is my brother is unhappy most of the time because he has shoved God and The Eucharist out of his life.

Mass this past weekend celebrated the Feast of Christ the King - and sitting there listening to the readings brought back memories of the fun we had growing up at our old parish. The name? Why Christ the King, of course - so it was a time for lots of singing and wearing your best dress to Mass and games and potlucks in the hall. It was a feast day, in the old fashioned sense of the word. Catholics know how to worship and we know how to celebrate too. I don't care if Marcus Grodi misses his covered dish suppers - unless you have chowed down on a combination plate of ravioli, torta, lumpia and German Chocolate cake at a Feast Day Potluck you have not lived.

So, maybe I won't be disappointed. Maybe, instead, I will take this opportunity to pray some more for that goof ball posting under about seven different names and pretending to be someone he is not. I cannot imagine the pain that drives that behavior.

And maybe I should be grateful to be handed still another reason to pray?

Yeah, I think that's a better attitude.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF.....

So, the holidays are about to pounce.

And I do mean 'pounce'.

The past two weeks were spent in a frenzy of activity trying to get the most important part of a project at work done before the deadline of November 15. I made it - with the help of a fantastic crew of clerks - and now have to start on the really tedious stuff (double checking, counting, faxing, copying....all the really cool 'clerky' stuff) and decided to reward the women with something very simple. Bagels, fruit and cream cheese. I mean, how simple is that?

And apparently I p'o'd the RD.

See, there is a fundamental disconnect between how I manage and supervise and how THEY manage and supervise. I am sure, in the grand scheme of things, they are more successful in the eyes of the world.

I am used to that: what the world values is toughness and mean spirited "that's what you get paid to do" management skills.

This is valued despite the fact that a myriad of research over the past 30 years has shown this to be the least effective way to manage people - especially people who are younger than the Baby Boomers (we still have a bit of our parents' values).

This is valued despite the thousands of dollars spent, by businesses and government, to send their employees to training that specifically tells them NOT to use that form of supervision.

So, I am once again in the dog house at work.

To tell the truth, I am thinking of painting and putting up pictures - the dog house is becoming pretty darn familiar, after all, so I might as well be comfortable.

Let me tell ya

This past Saturday I was priviliged to sit in on a lecture given by Father Mitch Pacwa of EWTN. A Jesuit Scholar and a holy priest, Father Mitch took about 600 of us through the Letter of St Paul to the Hebrews. Interestingly enough, Hebrews is the only place in Holy Scripture where St Paul writes extensively about Jesus Christ as the High Priest and links the Life, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord to the ancient story of Melchizadeck.

Did I spell that right? Probably not.

Anywho...it was a great day and I learned so much in such a short time. It makes me hunger for the time and the ability to devote myself to study. I don't have the time - and the ability costs money - but I hope to have it someday.

Interesting development on The Hive. LOM, or someone pretending to be LOM, posted what could be considered an attempt at an amends for the increasingly bad behavior over the past two years. The jury of his peers is out as to whether or not the post is real and the poster him; I, however, decided to treat the post as a real amends and act accordingly. I will also not be surprised if the calm manner in which LOM seems to be acting does not last. I may be naive and trusting - but I ain't stupid.