A Mystery In The Garden

This flower has appeared in my garden. It looks like a tiny daisy on a delicate stem, and it is growing on a plant that is about three feet high. It is one of the 3 mystery plants that have popped up, literally, in my flower beds. I love how suuny and happy it looks but it makes me wonder. What is it? Where did it come from? How did it get into my flower bed?

I'm not a zealous weeder. Or even a dedicated weeder. Or even a weeder, really. I kind of admire the lush growth of June and July, the exuberant will to grow and live that plants display in the summer. I have a hard time bringing myself to rip them out just because they took root in my yard. Especially if they are as pretty as this one.

Still, I would like to know what it is. If anyone has any ideas, or suggestions about how to figure out what it is, please leave me a comment. Tomorrow and the next day I'll post pictures of the other two mysterious plants who've shown up to live at our house. One of which is 6 feet tall and referred to affectionately by the kids as "our weed".

Riding the Range Once More

The kitchen range, that is.

The bread baking is going along nicely. I'm starting to get a handle on how much we need each week. It seems like making a loaf every other day is about right for now. The breakfast foods are still a work in progress. I still need to figure out when to start the bagel dough. It seems like right before bed, which, of course, is just about right after I've cleaned the kitchen from dinner. I'm starting to understand why bakers are early risers. Even if the dough is ready when you get up, you're still almost an hour away from bread or bagels. Biscuits are definitely the quickest way to go!

In other baking departments, we're having more success. I've never been one to buy a lot of packaged sweets, and now that school is out I'm avoiding packaged snacks almost entirely. As a result, I've been trying to bake the occassional treat a little more reliably. I'm aiming to serve dessert on Sundays, and I'm letting the kids do some baking too. So, desserts are moving right along. In fact, now that the summer's in full swing, I'm trying my hand at making pies! This week I chose to make this.





If you opened it up, inside you'd see it looks like this.







If I'd been quicker with the camera, I could have shown you a picture of how it looked when it was baked. But, the pie knife was quicker than the camera in our kitchen Monday night, so you'll just have to imagine how delicious warm peach pie with vanilla ice cream was.

The Good Samaritan and Me

This past Sunday at mass, we had the gospel reading of the Good Samaritan, from Luke 10:25-37. I've been thinking about it and working on this post ever since. I've got the first part of what I want to share written and up on the blog. Part II is a work in progress.

Anyway, on to the Good Samaritan.

Here's how it opens.

'"There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it? He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He repiied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" '

To answer that question, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. We learn that our neighbor is not just the person like us, but any person. We are to love everyone as we love ourselves. But what about the other part of the law, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind?" The scholar doesn't ask how to do that part, and Jesus doesn't address it.

This passage in Luke's Gospel is not the only time we hear of this law. In Matthew 22:35-40 we find Jesus with the Pharisees and "one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' " And so here we have what for Catholics is the Great Commandment.

Jesus tells us in the parable of the Good Samaritan who our neighbor is. We can look to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy to guide us in our dealings with our neighbor. But what of the first part of the greatest commandment? How do we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of all strength?

I don't know if Jesus answers that question anywhere in the Bible. I do know that I have been trying to answer it for myself for many many years. In fact, trying to answer it has been one of the driving forces in my spiritual life.

I am not a trained theologian. I am a Catholic woman, and wife, and mother. I experienced a great conversion to the faith I was born into while I was in my twenties. Up until that point, I had been a faithful Catholic. I believed in my faith and it meant a great deal to me. But I didn't think deeply about it, and I certainly didn't try and learn anything about it. In fact, I foolishly believed that because I went to all my CCD and confirmation classes (in the eighth grade!) and was subsequently confirmed I had been taught all there was to know about Catholicsm.

I knew, for example, that I was supposed to love God with my whole heart, mind and soul, and love my neighbor as myself. I just never knew how , exactly, I was supposed to do that. By going to mass and trying to do good and avoid sin, I figured. But was that loving God, really? Wasn't it just loving my neighbor? And, frankly, although I felt like I loved God, it wasn't taking up my whole mind or soul or heart. Moreover, it seemed like my experience of God was confined to weekly mass and saying my prayers. Most of life was taken up with, well, living. Taking classes, buying groceries, doing homework, I didn't see a place for God in my daily decisions and actions, beyond trying to live as a good person.

Somehow, though, I started to think, "Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there is a way to love God with your whole heart and mind and soul, and I just don't know how. Maybe only people who have vocations to religious life know how." And since my vocation was to the married state, religious life was not to be in my future. I didn't know it then, but that little glimmer of a question, "how do I do this?", was pointing me in a new direction. In graduate school I was blessed with an experience that woke me up and sent me on my journey.

I had started attending daily mass and one day a visiting priest giving his homily mentioned St. Francis de Sales and his book Introduction to the Devout Life. Somehow, I knew I had to read it. Right after mass I went to the bookstore and bought it. I read it and was captivated. It was as if St. Francis de Sales reached his hand out to me across the centuries and said "I understand what you are looking for and can teach you how to find it".

Home Again Home Again

Whew! We've had a busy 3 weeks around here. Since my last post we've happily thrown our annual summer party (complete with tiki torches and cotton candy machine), bought a new minivan, traveled to a conference (my DH and me) visited one grandmother for a week (the kids and the van), visited another grandmother and grandfather (me and the kids, and on the 4th of July my husband too) for a week, gone whitewater rafting (my husband on one son), and had 5 days of tennis lessons, at two hours a lesson, for my younger son and older daughter.

Now we are back and trying to settle into a summer routine. The luandry is under control, the house no longer looks like a tornado struck it, and we've even manged to get a homemade dinner on the table every night for the last 4 nights.
My goal for today is to make a menu for the week and then go to the grocery store. And just maybe download some music onto my ipod to jumpstart my rowing routine. If anyone has some great workout titles to share, I'd love to hear them from you.

I hope you all are having a good summer too. Now that I'm home I will be tending this little blog more faithfully!