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Love is Our Mission

10/28/2015

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At the end of September I had the honour of going to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia and attend the World Meeting of Families, a four day conference for Catholics from around the world.
 
With the glee of a child, I braced my friends and family on Facebook for what was coming: a barrage of Pope pictures, quotes, selfies with priests and video clips of mass chants – simply a celebration of the life religion brings to me and so many others.
 
I felt I had to brace them because religion has become a taboo word to many across the philosophical and political spectrums. While some subscribe to a faith, many see it is obsolete, cumbersome, or just down right false. Others don’t give it much thought at all but simply write it off as another hobby – as though it were a diet or a fad. They might find it fitting that last month I attended Yukomicon and now I was attending a conference for another equally obscure pastime.
 
I went with what is the natural enthusiasm of a Catholic holding to her faith in the time of “The People’s Pope”. Certainly, the Francis Effect is now well known to people of most countries and creeds. It’s easy to see why. He has reasserted the place of Catholicism and all peaceable religion in our world and preached endlessly of the place for mercy and understanding (“Who am I to judge?).
 
At the papal mass, the almost 1 million present (and countless others watching from home) demonstrated that religion has place in the family, in society and even in the state. Gasp.
 
The Pope chose the theme for the week - The Family Fully Alive: Love is our Mission. Well who can argue with that? And before you ask how exciting a conference could be with 17,000 people coming from the same traditional cookie-cutter families? Think again.
 
My husband and I had no idea what to expect for this week of “getting our Catholic Church on”. I began to explore the Catholic faith about 15 years ago (joined it a decade ago) and still sometimes forget whether I go right to left, or left to right when I do the sign of the cross. I married a divorced man who has been a catechumen (someone figuring out whether they want to become Catholic) for some time.  We love our parish community here in Whitehorse, Canada but just always assumed we are not the a-typical Catholic (almost Catholic) family.
 
As soon as we landed, we discovered that there is no a-typical Catholic family. I met many blended families, single people who choose to live in deliberate communities with others, and widowed women who have moved in together to support one another.
 
Someone cracked a joke that if you want cookie-cutter experience you should go to a Communist Congress. Okay, maybe not funny but you get the point.  There was a just a whole lot of unexpected diversity- and not just in the variations of Philly Cheesestakes available on every corner (which my husband made sure to sample).
 
Nuns attended the conference in abundance. I met single people, young people, priests, single parent families, and the elderly. There was a huge contingent from Asia and Africa. Mexicans were proudly present in numbers. What did we all have in common? We are all part of family. We all came into this world via la familia.
 
Even the city got into the spirit of things. There was a van parked down the street from our hotel selling “popesicles”.  Someone had plastered “CONFESSIONAL” over many of the porta-potties generously distributed around the city (I think there were more toilets than people when the papal mass finally rolled around). 
 
Buddhist monks lined up behind me for the security check entrance for the papal mass which I can only compare to a line-up at our local coffee shop on a Tuesday morning after a the long weekend.  A mother rallied her five children by telling them they could offer this wait up as sacrifice for others. Another family quietly whispered through the rosary – ten times – and we still had an hour left to wait.
 
Slightly less pious, a beauty salon reiterated the words of Pope Francis, “Have the courage to be truly happy”, but tacked, “and have beautiful hair”.
 
 A non-stop stream of bikes rode by our hotel on the morning of the mass in what I thought was just a good choice of bike route for some Philadelphians to get to the celebrations. No. It was a coordinated “PopeRide” that saw thousands, young and old, travel together to this epic event.
 
That helped me realize I better brush my teeth and get down to the papal mass.
 
Arriving at the entrance line four hours early still wasn’t enough to get me through on time. Security in Philly made perfectly clear that the U.S. was going to make sure that nothing happened to “The People’s Pope” on American soil.
 
But that’s ok.  I managed to see him drive by in the Popemobile when my family and I waited on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the Festival of Families – a diverse celebration that saw the Pope telling half a million people that “families have a citizenship that is divine” and Sister Sledge blasted out a rather tired version of “We are a family, I’ve got all my sisters with me.” (There certainly were a lot of nuns there).
 
The best part really was participating in a shared week of reinvigoration of the Catholic faith, particularly as expressed through family life.
 
Pope Francis described the family as the ideal setting for finding our purpose, our ethics, our direction and meaning but did not idealize the reality; “In families, we argue; in families, sometimes the plates fly”.
 
He reflected, as many others did at this conference, that the first to suffer in the retreat of the family are the elderly and the young. The implication is that we often look to the state, school or any other institution to make up for what has been lost in the family, but ultimately what we must do, as the Holy Father pleaded, is “defend the family, because there, there, our future is at play”.
 
He also had words for any who would seek to marginalize the value of religion and impose an unnecessary uniformity, as well as for those who would use religion in a violent or oppressive way; “In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others.”
 
There are many who would call this Pope a hypocrite to at once preach about peace, tolerance and respect and moments later reemphasize the unique martial bond between a man and woman, a male priesthood or any number of other Catholic teachings that seem anachronistic in our society.
 
Our polarized and impassioned society is bewildered by such paradoxes. In recent days, it has emerged that he invited Kim Davis and a homosexual couple to meet with him on this U.S. visit (I imagine at separate times).  
 
While we are left scratching our heads, trying to interpret his actions, his most simple words echo in my ears. To the people of the Catholic faith and all those of good will who gathered to see him on this inaugural US visit, he simply redirects our focus – “All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful brings us to God. “
 
The sheer numbers present both at the World Meeting and the papal mass was a testament that God is not dead but vitally alive amongst the people of this earth. And it is through families, the ones we are born into and the ones we gather around us, that we find the beauty of God.
 
Pope Francis told a listening crowd –myself, my baby and my husband nestled among them – "Families have a citizenship that is divine. The identity card that they have is given to them by God so that within the heart of the family truth, goodness and beauty can truly grow."

A shorter version of this article was published as a commentary in the Yukon News on Wednesday, October 28th, 2015.
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#18 Yukon Kids Will Bear Crawl First

10/27/2015

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Xavier is 10 months tomorrow. He has yet to roll over. He likes to sit up and has been making some effort to get places. But its more of a Downward Dog move- or what Ian likes to name a Bear Crawl. This is kid is practically Tarzan. 
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If I had to pick one disney princess for Ysabeau to play make-believe with...it would be Belle. Although I am a big fan of the new live-action Cinderella. She has some good words to live by -"Be kind and have courage".
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Catholic update below. Here is Ysabeau pretending to be a priest at whatever chance she gets. Lifts up a Tomato- "The Blood of Christ". Lifts up a Shreddie -"The body of Christ". Talk about finding the sacredness in everyday life.
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Our new priest Father David brought us (actually carried Ysabeau) up a local hill for mass on the mountain. It was spectacular except it was hindered by the fear that one of my kids would fall off the cliff.
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Ian and I got married for the third time (its a charm now right?). A long story short- we were not able to get married in the Catholic Church six years ago but we had the pleasure of doing so at our local Maryhouse. It's a small chapel and a lay community resides there. Father Kieran has been a close friend and priest since we came up here. It made for a special day for us with friends.
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I am proud to be the single (god)-mom of this little peanut below - Catherine Caudle. She will be a force for beauty and goodness in this world like her name-saint. So far single parenting is going well -I don't have to do nights which is a good thing for me and for Catherine.
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Xavier's Halloween costume - baby Tron. I hope those rare earth magnets aren't killing his brain cells.
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I take Ysabeau to a drop-in preschool. She likes to dress up as "mommy" and go grocery shopping. I take that as a compliment because right now I have pajamas that second as street clothes so I can grocery shop in them and I assure you I have never owned sunglasses like that.
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Ysabeau now gets 15 minutes of book reading time on her own before bed. No matter the book it often starts with "Now run along and don't get into mischief or you will be put in a pie by Mr. McGregor!".
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​He won't roll but he will stand. No teeth yet but I imagine the red cheeks say they are coming soon!
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BFF
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​Lest we forget- he is still a wee baby.
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Ethan's Thanksgiving celebration at school. So glad we have him here with us. I am very blessed that this young man is the brother of my kids.
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#17 She Who Deals With The Stinky Stuff

10/6/2015

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Well, we just got back form our visit to see the Pope. (How often does one get to say that?). We are trying to let life return to normal and then I think about the crazy stuff that goes on under this roof and know that normal is certainly relative.
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Ysa lovin' Auntie Kristjaan!
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Ysa with Spencer, Auntie Rhi's boyfriend. He's a farm boy and Ysa clearly is not a farm girl!
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Ian is now on parental leave for 3 months and, for Ethan, it all ready feels more crowded in what he considered an already overpopulated house. He was asking why Ian gets to stay home from work and the topic of what "work" is came up.

Ethan asked, "Who works harder? You- who stays home with us? Or Dad- who goes to an
    office?
I employed socratic dialogue and asked a question about the question, "What do you    
       think?" (He is too young of a man to know this is a loaded question).
"Well," he began, "You don't get breaks and you have to deal with stinky stuff - so I
        think you work harder."
"I like the way your mind works Ethan."
Ysabeau is enjoying having her daddy home. On the way to see the Pope we left her with Poppa and Nana in Edmonton. Sleeping arrangments saw Ian sleeping with Ysabeau for one night.

I thought it best as we had to get up early and I didn’t want to be bothered by his snoring all night. Ysabeau kept poking her dad and telling him "to stop making all that noise!"
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Ysa and Auntie Rhi
​Dinner conversation at our house always causes me a bit of anxiety. The kids are at such different stages and we now outnumbered so it can get out of hand really quick.  Ethan is struggling with focus at school a little bit and this is becoming epically clear to us at the table. 
 
We will ask him how his day went and he will tell us about all the games he plays at recess, in particular his favorite “pine cone wars” but then tacks on a gem like this at the end: “What happens to God when the universe ends?”
 
I love philosophy so I don’t want to ignore him but Xavier has entered this high demand eating stage where if you don’t have the next spoonful loaded and ready, he goes red, practically chokes on what he already has in his mouth and begins to shake and scream.
 
In the midst of this we just hope Ysabeau hasn’t left the table to empty her personal little potty into the “big girl toilet” (her favorite ‘helpful’ thing to do right now). Which usually means nothing has made it to the toilet to flush because it’s all over the floor.
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Ysabeau is in the terrible 3s but that’s okay. She is allowed to be and do anything she wants after receiving with us with the best greeting ever after being gone for 10 days. It will wear off but basically even her tantrums seem adorable to me right now.
 
After one particular fit, I started calling her “Beau-dica” Warrior Queen.
She laughed and said “No mommy! Its not Beau-di-ca. Its Beau-di-COW.! MMMOOOOOOOO!”.

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Ysabeau sitting on Poppa's new hip!
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Torchic
Ethan is still into Pokemon but has taken to colouring three Pokemon characters at a time, putting them on the fridge, and then asking to me which one really “speaks” to me.
 
I told him to choose since he is the Aficionado. He choose Torchic – “because I can’t resist his cuteness”.

I am okay with Pokemon now though because he offered the sweetest of sacrifices for me. I lost our new upgraded ergo baby carrier, leaving it on one of our walks (don’t ask). In tears, I gathered the kids up in the car when I realized what I had done and went to see if it still might be on the side of a busy road where I left it. It wasn’t there.
 
Ethan couldn’t bear to see me sad.
“I have to do it,” he said.
“Do what?”
“I have to sell my Pokemon cards. I will see them for $1 each”
“Oh don’t worry. Anyway, I appreciate the gesture but even that wouldn’t cover the cost”.
“Okay – I will see them for $3 each”.
“I don’t think Holy Family allows extortion at school. But really Ethan, you don’t know what that means to me.

​This kid.
 
He really was offering to sell everything he has for me. (He doesn’t have all his toys here in Canada and most are at his other home).
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Above is a sweet picture of a tea party Ethan helped Ysabeau to set up. Most eclectic gathering of stuffies I ever saw:
 
That’s MerSheep (Ethan claims the sheep is part mermaid)
Pope Francis
An Ent (LOTR)
Lucy (Elephant who paints from Edmonton Zoo stuffy)
Xochitl (Indigenous Mexican doll)
Assorted others

Below is Ysa's minature tea set which is she equally loves. Sometimes she puts her little peg saints on the chairs. I can just imagine the table discussion: Best Marian Appartion. Go!
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And Xav. What a guy. I think this is his 9th consecutive month in stripes. He wears it so well. I accidently put the 10th month sticker on and had to redo the photo shoot. You really do stop counting with the second kid.
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#16 Not Yo Mama's Cul-de-Sac

9/18/2015

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The biggest blessing about living in Whitehorse has been the friends and neighbours we have made.  You can usually count on making some friends (one hopes) but neighbours – you just never now how that is going to turn out.

I’ll be posting more about our friends later but now is a perfect time to write about the two families we are sandwiched in between – literally- in our Takhini neighbourhood.

Bruce and Koreen are refreshingly down-to-earth people. They are on the other side of our duplex and we think that we are just going to build a cat flap between out two houses (between the joining wall instead of to outside) so that our kids can play in the winter at eachother’s homes without ever having to get their boots on.

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Bruce and Koreen
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Their kids are Logan and Ember who feel know like cousins to my own. Ember and Ysabeau get a long pretty well considering they are both incredibly feisty girls and Logan keeps a mellow head during play time so things generally work out. The girls run around in dress-up clothes terrorizing the cul-de-sac with Logan corralling them on his bike.
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Koreen is one of the truly kindest people I have ever met. She is a true caretaker and comes next door with a home-made hot chocolate when I’m not feeling well. She took care of Ysabeau in her home when I went back to work for a while and I couldn’t imagine a better person to entrust my kid to.
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The fabulous four
Bruce is Koreen’s equal in terms of kindness. He is a carpenter with ADD (just kidding- I think). Basically he is always working on some kind of project, or keen to help out so he always is there to guide and help us in our home improvements.  A pretty-darn devoted father who enjoys scotch and a cigar - the front doorstep between our two houses is the scene of many a dad’s night out for him and Ian.

This couple has always been there for our kids and us. In fact, they will be taking care of Ethan while we are off on our pilgrimage to see the Pope. I’ll have to bring them back a Bobblehead Francis.

On the other side, is Bryan and Kathryn. Plain and simple- they inspire me. They have been top notch neighbours from day one whenNurse Kathryn moved - and in a matter of months and her super-handy, gentle and amazing-with-kids boyfriend moved to the North to be with her.  

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Last year Bryan and Kathryn took Ethan on a canoe trip when Ian and I both had to work. He was pretty pumped!
Bryan is also handy and applies his care for the earth and avoiding waste to so many of his projects around home. Together they make a spectacular gardening team and their generosity knows no bounds.  Its couldn’t have gotten any better but then they announced they are getting married. Super great! 

So basically they are sticking around for the long haul. Maybe one day we might even tie the knot as neighbours and get chickens together. (I know this neighbour edition is getting ridiculously sappy).

They actually lowered fences between our houses so we could enjoy eachother’s company more and built a small kid-sized fence between their house and ours and never complained about the suspiciously smaller crop of strawberries they had this year (thanks to Ysabeau). They practice what they preach about living lightly on this early and I am always amazed that despite their duplex being the mirror image of hours, their electricity bill is for sure $100 less. Clearly, I need to learn more from them!


They are headed off for an 8th month tour of Europe and other far off places – and on bikes no less. I can’t wait to hear about their adventures. Ysabeau will miss Kathryn and Bryan who are top of her list when she lists the people she loves.  Top of mine too.

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Kathryn and Bryan's driveway turned to garden, with kid sized gate!
Our cul-de-sac is also the home of Jon and Odette and little Max (and soon another coming). They are always looking out for our kids too. As you can see below, there is a lot of beard going on in this little Takhini circle. Something in the water? 

There are also triplets in the cul-de-sac about Ysa’s age so I am hoping when winter really starts to feel long, we all just commit to sending this gang of kids out to the giant snow hill the street plower makes and hope for the best.

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John and Max
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Just to bring the cuteness factor of this post off the charts.
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My Short Tour of Pope Francis' Encyclical on the Environment.

9/11/2015

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Pope Francis' latest encyclical, Laudato Si' (Care for Our Common home) is his teaching document on how we are to interact with the earth. In it, he defines the roles of the key players in our earth: Humankind, the built environment, technology, creatures and critters and nature. It makes for a fascinating read - that I only finally finished the other day.

The media wants to love Pope Francis and I see why but in many ways they miss much of his message (not just on the Environment).

I have always been a great lover of spaces on earth where the built environment intersects with nature. The Wild has its own allure but what does it for me are places we have interacted with the nature in a special way (farms, structures, homes, etc). I have included some pictures from Yukon, but also from my travels over the past 15 years. 

Here are some of my favourite passages from Pope Francis' text.
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The woodland behind Yukon College
"But humanity has changed profoundly, and the accumulation of constant novelties exalts a superficiality which pulls us in one direction. …Let us refuse to resign ourselves to this, and continue to wonder about the purpose and meaning of everything. Otherwise we would simply legitimate the present situation and need new forms of escapism to help us endure the emptiness " (113).
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"There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology… A misguided anthropocentrism need not necessarily yield to “biocentrism”, for that would entail adding yet another imbalance, failing to solve present problems and adding new ones" (118).

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At a National Trust Home in England. This is a walled garden.
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The yard in a hostel I stayed at in Scotland in 2000
"Our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God. Otherwise, it would be nothing more than romantic individualism dressed up in ecological garb, locking us into a stifling immanence" (119).
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Skellig Michael. If you want to go to a place in Ireland that will blow your mind. This is it.
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Dunluce Castle ruins on the coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
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A get-away in Atlin, BC.
"We make every effort to adapt to our environment, but when it is disorderly, chaotic or saturated with noise and ugliness, such overstimulation makes it difficult to find ourselves integrated and happy… For example, in some places, where the façades of buildings are derelict, people show great care for the interior of their homes, or find contentment in the kindness and friendliness of others. A wholesome social life can light up a seemingly undesirable environment… In this way, any place can turn from being a hell on earth into the setting for a dignified life…." (147.148.149)
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Ian gets up early for another day on the hunt.
"The extreme poverty experienced in areas lacking harmony, open spaces or potential for integration, can lead to incidents of brutality and to exploitation by criminal organizations. In the unstable neighbourhoods of mega-cities, the daily experience of overcrowding and social anonymity can create a sense of uprootedness which spawns antisocial behaviour and violence. Nonetheless, I wish to insist that love always proves more powerful. Many people in these conditions are able to weave bonds of belonging and togetherness which convert overcrowding into an experience of community in which the walls of the ego are torn down and the barriers of selfishness overcome. This experience of a communitarian salvation often generates creative ideas for the improvement of a building or a neighbourhood" (117).

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Wells, England. Where Ian went to school. Sigh.
"Men and women of our postmodern world run the risk of rampant individualism, and many problems of society are connected with today’s self-centred culture of instant gratification" (162).
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A ruined monastery somewhere in England.
"A strategy for real change calls for rethinking processes in their entirety, for it is not enough to include a few superficial ecological considerations while failing to question the logic which underlies present-day culture" (197).
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The land of Beatrix Potter. Lake Country.
"If a mistaken understanding of our own principles has at times led us to justify mistreating nature, to exercise tyranny over creation, to engage in war, injustice and acts of violence, we believers should acknowledge that by so doing we were not faithful to the treasures of wisdom which we have been called to protect and preserve" (200). 
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Yukon Grain Farm.
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Common land for walkers to pass through countryside through "private property" in England.
"It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack…

Such sobriety, when lived freely and consciously, is liberating. It is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity. On the contrary, it is a way of living life to the full. In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have. They experience what it means to appreciate each person and each thing, learning familiarity with the simplest things and how to enjoy them…. 

Even living on little, they can live a lot, above all when they cultivate other pleasures and find satisfaction in fraternal encounters, in service, in developing their gifts, in music and art, in contact with nature, in prayer. Happiness means knowing how to limit some needs which only diminish us, and being open to the many different possibilities which life can offer" (222-223).
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Pretty sure this is Sienna, Italy.
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    Wife, mother, and many other things when the occasion arises. Needed a place to collect my thoughts on family, God, Catholicism and time. (Read More)

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