Hiatus

It turned out to be impossible to maintain any posts last weekend because of other priorities, so I think now is a good time to take a more formal hiatus. Those who read this are those that already know me and this blog seems to shed little more than I would in conversation or action, so until there is something that cannot be said otherwise, I wish you peace until I write again.

Perspective

One teacher lost her mother suddenly this week. Another lost her baby, 3-months old in the womb. Work goes on, but it forces us to stop and put things in perspective when we have become accustomed to constantly progressing. Real progress is measured differently than how the world typically sees it. It's not how much you do, but with how much love you do it.

Engaged Encounter

I went to an Engaged Encounter meeting last night and it made me appreciate what a great community Pittsburgh has. Engaged Encounter is an international organization that helps couples preparing for marriage. Since a weekend has all the same basic components no matter where you attend, there has to be uniform guidelines. The problem I see is that the national arm seems to force unnecessary change, which creates an undue burden on those volunteering relative to any benefit the couples receive.

Each volunteer couple writes about seven 20 minutes talks, but once those talks are completed, they can be used on every weekend the volunteer couples attend. However, there's a sense of relief when all that writing is over that makes one not want to start over. Secondly, there's a sense that those 140 minutes that you spent sharing with couples had not been helping them if all of the talks need fixed. Without any guarantee that these whims won't change with each new administrative team, a lot of volunteers may be lost, which would be ashame.

Fortunately, Pittsburgh is rightfully confident in the value their weekends provide and have such strong support for each other, like a family, that we don't seem to be showing the signs of stress that other local communities are experiencing. We speculate some of the catch phrases like "God doesn't make junk" may be updated, but the content of the talks will remain basically the same. The spirit of marriage hasn't changed in the last seven years since we were married because we went through this program and feel it was/is successful for us and would be for any couple. We pray those at the national level would have recognized those benefits and not feel a need to change an already successful program without justifying the cause.

Hay Day

I don't know how common Hay Day is in other parts of the country, and it's even a bit of a misnomer around here since there's no hay involved. It's just a day to go out to a country setting where there's lot of games and food for families to enjoy. I wish there was a way to measure the fun we have because I have to give up my usual time to write to go have fun. But I can write any time, like 4 o'clock in the morning, and Hay Day comes but once a year, so I know I'm making the right decision when I see the smiles on my family's faces.

The Long Haul

I understand a general rule of thumb is that people act according to their own self-interest, so if you want to predict what a person will do in a given situation, try to put yourself in that situation. The problem is that people define self-interest differently in the sense that some think short-term and some think long-term. So it is better to have nice things today than to see it invested today, but I feel it's better to watch investments grow than to see those nice things run down.

The same may go for spiritual matters. You may make a decision that seems to pay off in the moment like taking revenge on someone who slighted you in the past when the opportunity presents itself, but that may make your journey harder down the road. Let God take care of the score and do what will bring you and He closer and closer with each step you take on your journey.

Patience

I am actively looking for a way to get back to daily mass. Some days it seems like an opportunity isn't presenting itself soon enough and I consider creating my own opportunity. As patient as I am, I am glad I have a wife that is even more patient in waiting for the right time to back to daily mass (after I have done whatever I am supposed to do in my present job) and get out of debt to ourselves...we had some savings goals, which we were meeting, but things came up and we had to use a lot of it. Fortunately, it was enough to buy us time and adjust our budget, so we can start over where we are and move forward.