by Mary | Feb 18, 2008 | family, Olivia, Original NSS, parenting
I’m the oldest child in my family, so I never really got the whole middle-child thing — until I had Chiara almost three years ago and Olivia was pushed into the middle slot. At the outset it didn’t seem like such a big deal. She got to be both a big sister and a little sister. She had someone to protect and someone to protect her. All in all, a nice place to be.
Then slowly, over the next year or two, the middle-child syndrome began to rear its ugly head. Actually, some of it started as second-child syndrome. You know, the seemingly universal phenomenon where the second child has less of everything the first child had — from scrapbooks to attention.
Where Noah has a library of photo albums lining the top shelf of his closet, Olivia has some bags and a few stray envelopes filled with undated, unordered photos. The sheer volume of Noah photos compared with Olivia photos is somewhat appalling. When Noah learned to crawl, we took so many pictures that if you put them all together and flip through them really fast, it looks like an animated film. (more…)
by Mary | Feb 17, 2008 | Original NSS, spirituality
I came across the painting above — Transfiguration by John Armstrong (1947) — by accident, but as soon as I saw it, I knew that, for me, it expressed the Transfiguration of Christ better than any of the more classical artistic representations I’ve seen. I find the dazzling Christ figured at once comforting and imposing, something that captures my somewhat conflicted feelings about today’s Gospel.
For a long time, the Transfiguration had not been a favorite reading of mine. I just didn’t “get” it, or at least what it was supposed to mean for me living in the world today. Then, a few years ago, I wrote a Scripture reflection on this very subject for Our Sunday Visitor, and the experience helped transfigure the Transfiguration for me. I thought I would print that essay here in its entirety in hopes that it might do the same for even one person:
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by Mary | Feb 15, 2008 | Lent, Original NSS
Today’s post is going to require a little work on your part. I want to hear back from you because otherwise my unofficial survey won’t be very official — or accurate. So here’s the million-dollar question of the day:
Do you keep your Lenten fast on Sundays?
Back when I was young, my family’s rule was that all fasting stopped on Sundays. If you gave up ice cream, grab the scooper. If you gave up eating in between meals, commence with the snacking.
When I first told Dennis about this “rule,” he was shocked. Why? he asked. If you give something up, you give it up for all 40 days. This was like a thunderbolt of angst hitting me square between the eyes. Wait a minute, I thought. Did my mother just make up this rule? Is there anything to support the Sunday free for all that I had assumed was Church-sanctioned? (more…)
by Mary | Feb 14, 2008 | Original NSS
Today being St. Valentine’s Day and this being a somewhat spiritually focused blog, you’re probably thinking I’m going to talk about interfaith marriages. Sorry. In my book, mixed marriages are not about your God vs. my God but about your food vs. my food. And, trust me, when you’ve got a dyed-in-the-wool carnivore on one side and a meat-turns-my-stomach former vegetarian on the other, every meal can become an opportunity for conversion — or a cause for consternation.
Although this is not a new topic in our house, the discussion was reignited yesterday when The New York Times ran a great piece on this subject, “I Love You, But You Love Meat,” just in time for the year’s most romantic holiday. Dennis and I live in such a mixed marriage, although I am no longer an orthodox vegetarian. I’m not even a reform vegetarian. I am a sometimes vegetarian. But let’s go back to the beginning, when my being a vegetarian was seen as charming and intriguing…
Fifteen years ago today, Dennis and I went out for Valentine’s Day for the first time — to the amazing Cloisters in New York City followed by an equally amazing dinner at Dominic’s in the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx. At the time I was midway way through my decade as a true vegetarian. I never ventured near vegan, but I was pretty hard core as a “lacto-ovo,” something that developed when I was studying yoga. (more…)
by Mary | Feb 13, 2008 | family, Original NSS, parenting
Let me start by saying this: Crafts were made. Popsicle sticks were used. (If you didn’t read this morning’s post, you’re probably a little confused by now.)
The funny thing is that I had nothing to do with the use of popsicle sticks in this craft project. Really. Olivia went and found a full package of sticks — multi-colored ones at that — in our old craft bin. And, you might not believe this because even I can hardly believe it, she crafted the sticks into a cross, of all things. I know you’re thinking I must have put her up to this. It’s all too perfect, but that’s how this day has gone. It’s been close to perfect. (more…)
