Mama-luia

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things  who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. — Wendell Berry

I first fell in love with St. Francis of Assisi when I was 16. I say "in love" because yes, in a girlish way, I think I actually had a crush on him. He struck me as such a romantic soul, and I could see myself like St. Clare whisking away at night and having my hair cut off and following him. Yes, I was a little weird as a teenager. No surprise there. I continued to be attracted to the idea of voluntary poverty well after it was clear God was calling me to marriage and not religious life. Yet I was plagued with "but how ?" (Funnily, I even wrote an email to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal asking how should married couples embrace holy poverty, while balancing the responsibility of actually providing a suitable home for one's family. The response I received was funny: "Ask any married person! The answer is in having kids!") Patrick, too, was drawn to voluntary poverty. We talked about it a lot during our first year of marriage, "How wi...

Well hello happy readers. Long time no see! I hope you are having a wonderful Easter. We sure are. I hope you didn't miss me too much over Lent. Here's a brief overview of what happened for us these past 40+ days: We ordered an 8th of cow, and it arrived the first Friday of Lent. Patrick and I thought that was so funny that we took a picture of all the delicious grass-fed beefy goodness. And tucked it away in our deep-freeze 'til the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Sigh. Speaking of which: We did the St. Joseph altar for the first time. There are three tiers representing the Holy Family, and of course the Blessed Trinity. Various feasting foods including fava bean salad (it's a tradition with the Sicilians in honour of St. Joseph blessing their fava crop after a time of serious drought), rolls in the shape of carpenter's tools, wine and of course the long-awaited steak from Getaway Farms. Yum. Oh yes, and cream puffs. So good. (In the interest of you r...