Beyond Peter and Maximus

Let's go beyond "With great power comes great responsibility" and "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

More inspiration for our times

Today, June 26, is the feast day of a holy man, one who spent his life guiding numerous men and women on the road of spiritual progress and helping them realize that heaven is not some unreachable goal but a destination meant for everyone who strives to live each moment and do each duty with Love.

Among the many words from him:

"Before God, no occupation is in itself great or small. Everything gains the value of the Love with which it is done."

"The fruit of our prayer today should be the conviction that our journey on earth, at all times and whatever the circumstances, is for God."

"Don't judge without having heard both sides. Even persons who think themselves virtuous very easily forget this elementary rule of prudence."

  
His writings are here

Nature at work on a Monday morning

Even without cameras to capture such a scene, one need not look far to see that beauty is all around...

And if you look close enough, you'll see glimpses of "before & after" even in tiny flowers such as the Dona Aurora. These pretty blooms of today...

... were merely buds yesterday.

These are indeed reminders of the gift of creation from the Creator, even if through such little creatures.

Paper trail

"Handwritten communication is still very much alive, primarily because advanced information technology is available only to a small segment of the population.

While Internet services in the United States and Europe have started becoming available to users for free, here most people head for Internet cafes for some cyber-exploration. If one’s pockets aren’t deep enough, exploration may be limited or done away with altogether."

I just checked out an old blog in which I kept some of my published work, and that one above is an excerpt from a story I wrote almost 15 years ago! Reading through it was pure nostalgia; it even reminded me of the stationery collection I kept as a child. Remembering the floppy and microfloppy diskettes I used extensively and have since discarded also gave me a slight emotional tug (ang drama).

Life definitely was radically different in pre-Internet days. No email, no "googling" and no online chatting; there was definitely more meaningful communication, relentless honest-to-goodness research, and patience borne out of the need for waiting (like I mentioned here). Man has benefited tremendously from the fruits of technological advancement. Now, if only man could catch up in terms of the practice of virtue amid all that advancement. You know, character-strengthening alongside each step on the road of material progress.

Anyway, the 1999-penned article for the Philippine Daily Inquirer shows just how lifestyles have been altered since that time. You can read it here.

If you fancy a light account of penpal adventures (as in pen & paper) or even just pictures of postmarked envelopes and colorful postcards, I shared my experience in another story, which is on a previous blog post.

Advice for the young at heart

No, the pieces of advice offered below to letter-writers who shared their concerns are not from Lucy Van Pelt. They're from Ate Ami, Tapat's advice columnist. Sound advice can go a long way so I'm sharing these -- we learn from the experience of others, after all, and that goes for advice pertaining to other people's problems, too.

Most of the text is in my native tongue of Filipino but how about giving the blog translator on the sidebar a try? Better yet, get a friend who understands Filipino to translate the following for you so you'll get to read the concerns and advice for a porn star wannabe, a teenaged daughter who feels suffocated by her dad's ways, and a guy who's intimidated by his rival for a lady's heart.

* * * * *

Dear Ate Ami,

Nalaman ko po sa kaibigan ko na pwedeng humingi sa inyo ng advice. I’m 27 and I’m a graphic designer. May kapatid ako (“Bea”) at ang pangarap niya ay lumabas sa FHM magazine. Alam kong tinatawag itong malaswang magazine pero dream na niya dati pa na maging model doon, kaya sinuporta ko siya. Anyway, dahil sa isang conversation namin ng isang kaibigan, na-konsensiya ako tungkol dito kaya nagpunta ako sa isang pari for spiritual advice. Marami siyang sinabi pero ang nakaka-bother sa akin ay yung sabi niyang bilang Ate, responsibilidad kong i-guide si Bea, hindi i-misguide tulad daw ng ginagawa kong pag-suporta sa pangarap na hindi disente. By the way, above 18 na ang kapatid ko. Anyway, undecided ako tungkol dito kasi of age na si Bea so she can decide on her own. I’m just supporting her as her big sister and appearing in this magazine can really open doors for her. At the same time, isang lesson na tinuro ko sa kanya ay to pursue her dreams and believe in herself no matter how others put her down. Hirap lang akong i-reconcile ang advice ko sa kanya at pakikinig sa sinabi ng pari. I hope you can help me out with your own advice.  – Swirl Girl

Naku, Swirl Girl, ikaw ang nangangailangan ng guidance, in the first place, kaya take a hint from circumstances, iniimbitahan ka ng Panginoon na tahakin ang … ehem, daang maliwanag, hindi lamang matuwid.  The fact that nakonsiyensiya ka ng conversation mo with a friend, and you approached a priest for guidance, are already signs that the Lord is extending His hand to you—so that you can in turn extend your hand to others, like Bea.

Read the whole thing at Pangarap niyang maging porn star?


And now, from a young woman who feels suffocated by her dad's overprotective nature...

Dear Ate Ami,
Ano po ba gagawin ko tungkol sa tatay ko? Pinakikialaman po niya ako lagi, kung anong ginagawa ko, kung nag-aral na ba raw ako, kung sino mga kasama ko kapag may lakad kami ng barkada eh kakain lang naman po kami o kaya manonood ng basketbol sa barangay. Pati gamit ko po ay minsan hinalungkat niya. Ako lang naman po ang ginaganun niya, sabi ng mga kapatid ko dahil daw ako ang lapitin ng mga boys sa amin. Hindi naman po ako maarte at wala po akong ginagawang masama. Pinakaokey pong kasama barkada ko at puro kami babae. Pero nasasakal na ako sa kakabantay ng tatay ko, hindi na po ako bata. Ako po’y 19, taking up commerce.
- Beng
Dear Beng,

Una, huwag kang mainis.  Tatay mo yan eh, me karapatang makialam kahit 19 ka na, pagka’t nasa poder ka pa niya.  Natural lamang sa magulang ang “makialam”, pagka’t sa kanila, hindi pakikialam iyon kungdi “pag-aalaga.”

Read the whole thing at Walang humpay magbantay si Itay


And a young man in a not-so-unusual situation of feeling like he's second-best to a rival for the affections of the lady of his dreams...

Dear Ate Ami,
Ako po ay 26 years old at in love sa kaibigan ko. Siya ay isang high school teacher, at maganda po siya at mabait. Mga limang buwan na mula nung nagtapat ako sa kanya tungkol sa kagustuhan kong maging gf ko siya, at sinabi kong ang plano ko balang araw ay pakasalan siya. Dito rin po siya nakatira sa may amin at nung 2007 po kami nagkakilala (pero may bf po siya noon).

Paano ko po ba maipapakita sa kanyang mahal na mahal ko siya at malinis ang aking hangarin? Sigurado na po akong siya ang gusto kong maging kasama habang buhay kaya nagtatrabaho ako nang mabuti para maging handa akong bigyan siya at ang magiging pamilya namin ng magandang kinabukasan (network administration po ang linya ko). Pero kabado ako dahil may isa pa siyang manliligaw. Kahit ayaw kong aminin, parang mas angat po siya kaysa sa akin. Ang laking tuwa ko po siguro kung mawawala na lang sana siya! Pero tanggap ko na pong siya ang karibal ko, so mayroon po ba kayong maipapayo para lumakas ang loob ko kahit na pwedeng sa ibang lalaki mapunta ang minamahal ko? At para mapasaakin ang minamahal ko dahil mahal na mahal ko talaga siya.   - Romy

Hay naku, Romy, naduduling ka na yata sa pagkahumaling diyan sa “mahal” mo. Wala ka namang gasinong sinabi tungkol sa kanya except that “maganda siya at mabait”. So what? Ang ganda ay madaling makita ng mga mata, pero ang kabaitan, sinusubok iyan ng panahon. Paano mo nasabing “mabait” siya—nakita mo na ba siyang magalit? Ano ang mga ikinagagalit niya? How does she behave when she’s angry? Isa pa lang iyan. Ikalawa, paano siyang gumalang sa mga magulang niya? Masunurin ba siya o pasaway? Kapag napapagsabihan siya ng mga magulang, paano siya nangangatuwiran? O tumatahimik na lang ba siya pero gagawin din niya ang ipinagbabawal ng mga magulang niya? Pero dumako muna tayo sa tunay na problema mo.

Read the whole thing at Kabadong manliligaw

State of the (same-sex) union matters

There was a time that the word "queer" was simply a synonym for "weird" and "strange" and meant nothing more. If I remember correctly, I first encountered the word in one of my Nancy Drew books (probably to describe a suspect the protagonist was trailing in one of her pursuits).

Language has a way of morphing so that new meanings are eventually attached to certain words -- like "queer." To this day I'm not certain whether or not this word is derogatory, for though it's been used in movie dialogues to insult characters with homosexual tendencies, it also seems to have the "approval" of the men concerned by way of show titles, as in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. So when referring to men or women who are attracted to members of the same sex, I simply say "people with same-sex attraction" (SSA) or same-sex couples.

Do you have friends with SSA? And have you been hearing of efforts to make it possible for two men or two women to get married? It's been going on for a few years now, and in the past decade, several countries and parts of the United States have given recognition to same-sex couples being part of a "marriage." Lately people have been talking about the notion of changing the definition of marriage. What do you think of that? If you aren't exactly raring to go there, at least you probably feel that you owe it to your friends to support them by advocating moves to legitimize their unions and to recognize their "right' to get married, just like any other couple who have the deepest affection for one another.

Well, regardless of where you stand on the issue right now, here's a short video I recommend. It's simple and presents the ideas surrounding the topic in "plain English". One line that struck me:

"They can respect Dan and Michael's lifestyle choice without affirming and embracing their lifestyle."

Another one:

"Changing the definition of marriage was a big deal and it could have some serious consequences, consequences that would affect not only their children but also their community."

Some of the figures/stats in there may be inaccurate since a lot has developed since the video came out (2008?). At the time, too, Proposition 8 was still being debated on in the US state of California. But everything else is pretty much the same no matter what decade you're in.

This blog has several entries under the "homosexuality" tag so feel free to explore that if you'd like a glimpse of other news, features and insights on the topic.





 

A word on words

Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Spanish -- his native language -- for the first time yesterday since February26 and "it feels good!" he said. In the homily he delivered in his native tongue, he delved on keeping our tongues in check. An excerpt from a news report about it:

Pope Francis continued: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important." This, he said, is "an ugly mechanism". Jesus, "with all the simplicity says: "Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another”. The Pope noted, "in the end we are all travelling on the same road", "we are all travelling on that road that will take us to the very end." Therefore "if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the person who insults and the insulted". The Pope noted that "if we are not able to keep our tongues in check, we lose”.

Read Pope at Mass: The grace not to speak ill of others

Watch a video report

Humor in black & white

If you'd like something that's not static, here's a silent film that is bound to give you a few laughs. Nearly 23 minutes of Buster Keaton comedy -- The Goat (1921):

Faking reality

I wonder if any scam artists read my blog. Well, if you happen to be one but refuse to admit it even to yourself, go get help. And think about this:


"People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on."


- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), novelist, screenwriter

Of spark plugs and nail color

I used to think of hardware stores as the most boring places on earth. I just think "hardware store" and images of a sea of gray come to mind. Gray, steel, metal, knobs, pipes, wires... and nothing much else besides maybe blacks, whites and some brown.

I still think hardware stores are boring, but at least they've taken on a more interesting character when I discovered decals and stumbled on some lovely and quirky decorative stickers that can embellish the plainest walls of a home.

I feel practically the same way about car service centers, and while there's a lot one can learn about the workings of a car engine within an hour or two as mechanics tinker with all that gray and black amid the maze-like environment under the hood, my eyes don't exactly light up in anticipation of getting better acquainted with spark plugs or suspension bushing.

I've told friends about this regard I have for the environment in auto detailing shops -- I find the way men huddle around a car's engine, as if it's the most interesting thing in the entire universe, simply fascinating. And the closest equivalent I could think of as far as women are concerned is the excitement that goes on at a makeup counter during a sale or when a new product has just been made available. That, or (since a lot of women do away with makeup) the clothing/shoe store setting during a sale (everybody needs clothes and footwear, after all).

Tastes and preferences vary from person to person; there, too, are the masculine and feminine qualities to be considered. So I understand why men would feel perfectly at home in a talyer (car service center) and women would probably be bored out of their minds there, while men would pass up the chance to stay even minutes at the cosmetics counter or go around a shoe/clothing store trying out items with a friend, while women (in general) would find the experience of talking about colors and fabrics and trying on different shades and styles at the makeup counter or shoe/clothing store positively enjoyable.

I believe more than just the look of the place, the nature of the visit to the place, and the things one sees in the place, it's the quality of the talking that happens there which spells the difference between them.

Take your "typical" beauty salon (if there is such a thing), for example. The conversations that happen between client and mani-pedi specialist (or haircutter) can sometimes be superficial chitchat, but often they are an exchange of personal experiences and even a quasi-counseling session. Or it can be merely an exchange between a lady in need of a sounding board and her kind, accommodating manicurista. It's amazing how a children's book captures this observation from the point of view of a child: In this scene from Ang Makapangyarihang Kyutiks ni Mama, the little girl watches as her mother, a manicurist, works on the nails of one client, who, like all the others her mother calls on, is down in the dumps. Other ladies seem ill or exhausted or fresh from a good cry when she and her mother arrive with the bag containing the bottles of "medicine," the girl says.

What follows is a scene that has become familiar to the little one: as the women take their seats, one holds her fingers or toes in front of the mother, who goes about cleaning them while the two have a talk about things that the child doesn't understand.

She regards her mother as some kind of doctor because there is a complete transformation in the women afterwards.

"Ang galing ng mga kyutiks ng Mama ko. Nagpapabalik sila ng tuwa. Nagpapaalis sila ng galit at pagod. Nagbibigay sila ng ningning sa mga mata. (Mama's bottles of nail polish are extraordinary. They bring back happiness. They take away anger and weariness. They put a twinkle in anyone's eyes.)"

Getting a haircut or having one's nails painted sure can do wonders to lift the spirits. It works for some, not for all. And while it's the new look or the flash of bright color that serves as a pick-me-upper for some ladies, for others it is the conversation with the stylist -- the chance to talk about something -- that seems to be responsible for the transformation.

I'm wrestling with my own unresolved conflict these days, and while I've told myself it's one I have overcome, it seems what will put it to rest -- besides more prayers -- is my own version of a mani-pedi. I'm off to the salon!

What might be

 

Another hodgepodge post

Lifesaver, maternity, anonymous send-off, Francis.

That's just about all I'm providing to clue you in on the items you'll find below -- aside from excerpts from each, and a lovely photo.

"My mom taught me if someone needed help not to just stand there and not do anything, but to make an effort and try," he said.

Chicago Middle Schooler saves two lives in one week

* * * * *

Capturing mothers with their children around the world, I thought that the photos were beautiful, inspiring and definitely worth a share.

 

Universal beauty of motherhood

* * * * *

He was struck by how humbling it was to be present at that man’s burial even though he never knew him in life. “I believe fully that we’ll run into these people again someday in heaven.” 

Swint said taking part in the one of the Corporal Works of Mercy of burying the dead is “very important work,” especially for those who are unidentified. 

“The program exists to take care of these poor because in God’s eyes, we’re all the same,” he said.

Unknown dead buried with reverence at Catholic cemetery

* * * * *

Pope Francis went on to observe, "If you break a computer it is a tragedy, but poverty, the dramas, the needs of so many people end up becoming the norm... If in so many parts of the world there are children who have nothing to eat, that's not news either. It becomes the norm. But if the stock market drops 10 points it is a tragedy."

 

Are you ready to walk your talk, just like she has?

Diana Jimenez

"Courage is the fruit of conviction," said the university president in the article. Diana Jimenez, a senior nursing student, certainly demonstrated that, and is being treated unjustly by people in authority who apparently refuse to recognize her freedom to inform others about the truth.

Diana reminds me of the nurses practicing in the United States who stick to their life-affirming convictions amid serious difficulties to be faithful to their principles. But Diana is still a student, and this early she is meeting opposition and threats for being true to the vocation of health professionals. She needs our support.

An excerpt from the article:

Associate Dean Hooper followed up Diana’s second infraction with a letter threatening that if showed her signs a third time the consequences for “rebelling against authority” would be she couldn’t participate in commencement and would be banned from campus.

Meanwhile, Nurse Ratcheds exist in more than movies. Diana’s dean of nursing decided to take matters into her own hands and mete her own consequence. On May 22, Dr. Susan Elliott wrote a letter to all nursing faculty barring them from writing a letter of employment reference for Diana.

The rest of the story is here:

Christian university retaliates against pro-life student for showing graphic reality of abortion

Extending a hand

"When a person is down in the world, 

an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching."

-- Edward G. Bullwer-Lytton (1803-1873), novelist & playwright

Despicable me? Wonderful us!

Well, here's one way to spread your angst if you're angry at the world and want to pull everyone else on a downward spiral with you. Do what you can to warp young minds with self-focused ideas in the hopes of ingraining in them a "me, me and totally me-first" mindset. In other words, have them believe that the world owes them, that the world revolves around them, that everything unfortunate that happens to them is other people's fault, and that life is about them, their wants and needs -- which is what this woman seems to believe based on the keynote address she gave to an audience of teens.

An excerpt from the article:

In her disjointed keynote address, she set out to illustrate how “reproductive justice” must be couched in terms of human rights. She said that the LGBTQ movement is a civil rights movement, while adding that the fight for marriage by lesbians and gays is one she questions, because “I’m not quite sure why we are fighting for the right to be equally miserable. Seems like a crazy demand to me.” She continued, “It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, trust me. But, you know, you’ve got a right to be as messed up as the rest of us.”

Taking the use of base vernacular to a new level while addressing teens, she let the teens know in no uncertain terms that she is a pissed off black woman, a pissed off feminist, she was a pissed off teen, and she is still so pissed off about what happened to her when she was 15 that she will fight the rest of her life to rectify it. In fact, she is pissed off “to the heights of pissivity,” she said. And if you are not pissed off, you are not paying attention, she told the youth.

Read Abstinence impossible, abortion a right: 'pissed feminist' to teens at Planned Parenthood-led event

Fortunately, most women are not out to infect their surroundings with ideas that would throw the world into chaos. And while some members of the fairer sex do have reason to treat men as enemies -- owing probably to traumatic experiences that are yet to be processed -- and tend to be noisy about this adversarial regard of men, the rest live in harmony with them, or at least with the quiet assurance that the sexes are meant to complement one another.

Never mind that men and women are sometimes pitted against each other. Anyway, how we go about relating with one another is up to us. The following may help; it's an excerpt from a booklet (Scepter Publishers, 1991) by the late Dr. Jutta Burggraf  which I acquired years ago:

 Whether man or woman, if we are honest, we feel not only advantages but also certain shortcomings within ourselves. Men may pride themselves in generally thinking more matter-of-factly and judging more objectively than women. But how often does mere reason misguide them towards heartlessness and rigidity! And women might well enjoy being guided by feelings and intuition, but very often relying on these alone leads women into confusion and injustice. Male and female nature both need a strong touch of the other sex's characteristics to enhance harmony and balance within a single human person.

Petals and wings up close

A couple of days ago, it rained quite a bit (hurray!). As the humidity had been nearly unbearable on some days, the downpour was most welcome. Then came a flash of lightning and a startlingly booming clap of thunder, the kind that sends everyone flashing facial expressions that would be great to capture on camera to see the different demonstrations of a stunned face.

Anyway, moments later I noticed that my net connection was down. The lightning must have hit whatever it was I needed to be able to go online. Till the next day I was blaming my ISP for this tragedy that had befallen me.. then I got to talk to a DSL repair technician over the phone.

"May ilaw ho ba ang router niyo?" was his query. I checked. No lights on the little rectangles that were normally red. So the culprit was the router, and I had to have it repaired or else purchase a new one.

So here I am, feeling somewhat nostalgic about carrying on my pre-wifi routine of working on my computer beside the telephone and modem. If I wanted to go online, I'd walk over to this desk. If it was time for bed, no bringing the laptop with me to catch a few minutes of whatever I fancied on YouTube. I had the same view in front of me, to my left and to my right whenever I worked online at home.

This is what I see in front of me each time I have to use the internet at home:

Cute huh? Brown wall embellished by dainty bird cages, with vines climbing around them, giving the cages and the winged creatures a kind of  "let nature take its course" charm. Only, there's nothing natural about it since they're mere stickers, meant to beautify an otherwise plain surface. They really are lovely and make a wonderful substitute for framed photos or paintings.

But then step out of the front door and you'll be greeted by the real thing. We don't have bird cages, but birds do have a habit of whizzing by often -- probably due to the luxuriant foliage in some parts of the garden. Many times when we can't see them through the living room window, we simply enjoy their endless chirping. It's amazing to live in the city -- and a polluted one at that -- and realize that birds still thrive in this environment.

Yesterday morning I was inspecting the lantana and a las cuatro beauties outside the front door, as I have grown accustomed to doing each morning; I even took a few shots -- for what, I didn't really know. I used to do that a lot when I was still on Facebook, then I'd share one or two photos if they turned out okay. Now that I had taken a break from it, I seemed to take shots with my phone with less enthusiasm though the practice, obviously, wasn't eliminated altogether.

Here's one I like because it shows the lantana with a slightly different color scheme. It's the first time I'm seeing the blooms with red-orange instead of fuschia:

It's amazing how you can feast your eyes on the same area of blooms day after day for months and see the same things, and yet one day you'll be surprised by something new.

However, as I checked out the colorful blossoms, little did I know that I was in for yet another surprise, a surprise that would allow me to see another wonder of nature up close -- well, not really up close, but the closest so far that I had gotten to seeing a tiny creature doing what it's supposed to do in any garden.

Neat huh? Too bad my phone's zoom feature acted up and wouldn't work, so this was the closest shot I could get. Seconds later, the butterfly flew away.

But what do you know -- 24 hours later it was back, hovering over the little flowers  again! I think it was the same creature as the black and white prints on its wings looked the same. What do you think?

As I later studied the photos I took, I noticed another winged creature in the background that just happened to fly by as I took this shot. Great timing for the little one to be passing by over our hedges!

One thing's for sure -- the dainty bird cages and vines decorating our wall sure are pretty, but nothing can beat the real thing in any garden.


P.S.  This has more photos of other flowers found in our garden, along with interesting quotes and proverbs about flowers.

Bravado

When I think of Home...

A little over a week ago, Yahoo -- one of my dogs -- bit me. It happened when the vet was cutting off some hair on Yahoo's tail so she could scrape off a sample of the skin that was infected and have a lab test determine what was wrong. Yahoo didn't like it and -- coupled with the stress of unfamiliar surroundings -- manifested her protest by biting my hand, as I was the one holding her down.

The bite wasn't that bad that it would require stitches, but it sure was painful. And though the vet assured me that a little delay in the dog's rabies shots was nothing to worry about (Yahoo and Perdita's shots were due in January -- four months ago), I was nonetheless a bit concerned. I knew of two cases in which the persons -- a 5-year-old boy and an elderly man -- bitten by rabid dogs eventually died, so that was at the back of my mind despite reassurances from at least two doctors.

The notion of observing Yahoo for two weeks to see if she becomes rabid and dies -- and thereby sealing my fate -- did momentarily have an effect on me. Well, what if Yahoo turned out to be rabid and I failed to get anti-rabies shots on time? For about two days, I tried to live as if I had only two weeks left on earth. Have you ever done that? It's amazing how simplified things become.

But then, it was short-lived. My wound healed faster than I expected, and in less than a week, the swelling had subsided and I could feel only a slight pain around the wound. A plaster facilitated the closing up of the wound in a week's time (I still put a plaster daily till now to avoid the possibility of anything hitting the wound or my hand making sudden movements that may result in the wound's opening up again). Obviously, I no longer feel like I'm a "dead woman walking."

Nothing out of the ordinary can be observed of Yahoo as well, so that's that.

However, four people we knew died in the past three weeks. My best friend's mother passed away less than two months ago. And an online acquaintance's daughter also met a fatal accident days ago, I was told. Needless to say, I have been reminded of the reality of death more often lately. "Morbid" is how some people regard dwelling on things pertaining to one's inevitable death, but for me such an attitude simply shows a lack of supernatural perspective and perhaps an excessive attachment to the things that preoccupy us in our day-to-day affairs.

I was once more reminded of the inevitability of being taken Home at some point when I visited Barbara Curtis's blog a couple of days ago. She was one blogger I felt a particular closeness to even though we were not personally acquainted. It's probably because she was quite open about her life, her struggles, triumphs and things and people she held dear -- and was also so generous in her advice to readers who sought her help -- that it's hard not to feel that one knew her already by just reading her blog regularly. Barbara died unexpectedly in October 2012, leaving behind her spouse and children, four of whom have Down Syndrome and therefore depended more on her. Her husband, Tripp, continued the blog and in one post related the difficulty of marking Mother's Day for the first time without the mother who kept the family together. In that post, however, was a line that struck me:

"Grief blocks my ability to see God, but I shouldn't conclude He is absent." 

Is this not relevant to other situations we've found ourselves grappling with? It doesn't need to be the death of a loved one, but anything deeply upsetting that has caused us much pain. I know I've felt as if God left me to fend for myself and deal with suffering on my own. And during those times, sayings such as "Every cloud has a silver lining" sometimes don't make a dent at all. But for some reason, that statement above sounds comforting. I'll be sure to memorize it and take it to heart, for I know it will be needed at one time or another. If not by me, then by friends or family who could use the assurance that spiritually cloudy days don't mean the Son isn't shining.

What in the world is going on?

Good things, too, apparently. I must admit that with all the atrocious developments happening especially in matters concerning life and family, it can be a struggle to pay attention to the things worth celebrating. I did a brief search of the goings-on for the month of May to get a fresh perspective of the bigger picture -- we were quite busy and preoccupied with election issues in my country after all, what with Filipinos trooping to the polls on May 13 and the more actively engaged ones spending a lot of time on the campaign trail weeks prior to that as well.

Tens of thousands gather for the May 12 Italian March for Life

So outside the Philippines, the gay lobby has been increasingly active lately, and thereby the legions firmly upholding traditional marriage have been making their stand known more intensely, too -- particularly in France. There are a couple of news items on that below, along with a thought-provoking analysis on the way media has been treating the issue. You'll also get to read about the effect of the Gosnell trial on one formerly pro-abortion reporter covering the case, and the continued closing down of abortion facilities, this time in California because “we just didn’t have enough patients,” according to a receptionist at one of the facilities. And, some 30,000 life advocates who staged an Italian March for Life got the wonderful surprise of having the Pope suddenly show up during the event. Then there's the horrific "butchering" of an off-duty soldier in Woolwich, England, but as the man lay dying on the pavement and with a crowd looking on from afar (frightened, as the weapon-wielding assailant was meters away), two women came forward and let courage quietly lead the way.

So, read up on those below to get a better idea of the positive developments which took place last month!

One of many protests against same-sex 'marriage' in France bring together hundreds of thousands, May 26

France’s youth ready for more teargas: Demonstrations against same-sex ‘marriage’ continue

by Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent

Tue May 07, 2013

Pro-choice reporter covering Gosnell trial changes mind on abortion

by John Jalsevac

Wed May 08, 2013

Tens of thousands march for life in Rome

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service 

Chain of six Northern CA late-term abortion clinics CLOSED

 from Jill Stanek's blog

 

Humanity amongst the horror of Woolwich attack

Tamara Rajakariar | 25 May 2013

Paris, France - Nearly 1 Million French Gay Marriage Opponents Stage Big Paris March

Published on: May 26, 2013