Bubblegum for the Brain 6. Dance like no one is watching.

Daily Meditation Medication

The Thomas Merton Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude“

Pray Please

…a dear blog friend of many of us, Elena of My Domestic Church has just lost her mother. Please go along to Elena’s blog and offer your prayers and condolences.  I’m sure she would appreciate it if you did.

God Bless you!

Bubblegum for the Brain 5. It’s a Match

I felt totally gutted when i heard that Nadal would not be defending his title at Wimbledon this year due to health problems. This time last year my daughter was spending a few weeks with my parents in Wales and we were txting one another throughout the final as we both cheered on Nadal through our TV screens. To be sure,  i was quite literally sitting on the edge of my seat watching him and Federer battle it out… i was elated when Nadal won.  And this from a girl (me) who ‘don’t do sports’.

Now, apologies in advance to all Scottish readers, but i just don’t like Andy Murray. After his egotistical  and arrogant antics on the court last year I lost any enthusiasm I had previously, to will him to win. He made himself look foolish in my opinion and as for his  ‘I’m Scottish, not British‘ tagline, I believe he lost a lot of support from anyone south of the scottish border. I notice that now he wants the support of Brits he is saying he never meant it the way it sounded. Whatever.

Seriously, he could have given Mel Gibson a run for his money if they were competing for the role of William Wallace….but for all the wrong reasons.

Anyway. On a lighter note….since Wimbledon has now begun i thought it fitting to play around with my paint set again…this little offering goes entirely against the rules of the game of course, but in the words of one of Catherine Tate’s many characters….am I bovvered?

Daily Meditation Medication

God, our Father, we want to love you with all our strength, with all our soul. But you know that there can be resistances within us. Give us the boldness to leap over these walls, to dare to renew again and again the yes of the gift of our life.

Source

Bubblegum for the Brain 4. Life is a Balancing Act

This is how i feel every day.  Like i just might fall at any moment.  Life is a balancing act.

Daily Meditation Medication

“Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man’s entire relation to God and to his neighbor” ~ St Aelred of Rievaulx

New Scrapbook paper designs.

I can’t upload an image of each paper this time,  but will show here 1 paper from each new set i have uploaded on my Free Scrapbook and Card Making papers page.

Click any image below to go there.

Enjoy!

‘Star Spangled’ Paper set

‘A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever’ Paper set

‘Mini Hearts’ Paper Set

Happy Father’s Day!

I love this photo i took of Dad this afternoon before we had lunch. My fingers had hovered over the sentimental Father’s Day cards in the shop…but i knew i had to get him this particular funny one when i saw it…i was right, it gave Dad a good chuckle!

The card reads something like this : Remember when i was a baby and you looked at me, thinking those three little words….then inside it reads…..’Gonna be expensive!!!’

Seriously though, I have been greatly blessed to have a man so wonderful in so many ways, to be my Father.

My prayers and fondest thoughts go out to all whose Father’s have passed on. I pray too for all the priests throughout the world, and for the Holy Father.

May God look kindly upon them all.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s who read my blog also!

Bubblegum for the Brain – 3. Legless

Who knew that playing around with watercolours could be so very much fun? I haven’t enjoyed myself this much with a set of paints since i was at nursery school!

I get the feeling that i have really started something with the Bubblegum for the Brain Characters…(I don’t know what)…

I give you Mr. Magica. What a clever fellow he is…

9 out of ten cats laughed their heads off when they watched this…

A report in the newspaper this week declares that dogs are way more intelligent than cats…but looking at this video..well, it isn’t all that convincing…

(Almost) Daily Meditation Medication

Right Living and Right Speaking

To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God’s presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking. When we forgive our neighbours from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words.

When our words come too soon and we are not yet living what we are saying, we easily give double messages. Giving double messages – one with our words and another with our actions – makes us hypocrites. May our lives give us the right words and may our words lead us to the right life. ~ Henri Nouwen

Bubblegum for the Brain – 2. Not Fitting In.

Another ‘painting’.

I’m tempted to call these type of ‘paintings’  brain farts (eg; Brain Fart Friday), but i don’t want to be crude…(though it kind of fits what these are…)…so instead i’ll call these ‘Bubblegum for the Brain’ posts.

My daughter took one look at this and asked me why i had painted ‘dog biscuits’ all over planet earth…‘i doth protest….those aren’t dog biscuits, dear daughter!’, i exclaimed.

Do you know what’s going on in this painting?

Here’s a clue, the title kind of gives it away.

I’ll write more about it in the combox later.

I kind of like the ‘character’ i have created  in this…you may just see her again…and again and again…in one permeation or another…

The Year of the Priests

Please print off these prayer cards i have made in the hope of encouraging people to pray for priests…print these off yourselves and leave them in public places or give them to friends….and, if you are feeling especially kindly, consider mentioning this endeavour on your blog. Click the image below to go to my prayer card page where you can download these and print them off.

…and oh yeah don’t forget to ‘have a little priest’ before you leave Ukok’s Place!

Bubblegum for the Brain – 1. Cakes & Ladders

You know when i said that i was going to just try and create something spontaneous and less contrived?

Well i had that blank piece of paper in front of me one minute and a little while later I ended up with this….now then….let’s see  if you can tell what it’s all about…my daughter took one look at it and said ‘i think you have some unresolved issues’.

She may be right. Lol!

I’ll elaborate on what this’ is about in the combox, i just want to see what it ’says to you’ first.

click to enlarge picture…

Daily Meditation Medication

“It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction” ~ St. Edmund

Yellow Roses

I’m afraid that my painting of these yellow roses is terribly contrived. Still, this teaching-yourself-how-to-paint malarky isn’t the easiest thing to do.  I liked my drawing of the roses much more than i liked the painting (and the end result)….i started it with enthusiasm, i ended it badly…. hurrying the leaves, stems and background colour…took less than a couple of minutes to do them…still, it was either that or chuckin it away. There were some things i could have done to try to improve/save the picture, but i really didn’t want to give any more time to it than i already had.

So it is what it is. For a second attempt i don’t suppose it is that bad. I think i just try too hard….i need to let myself go a bit.

I’ve decided to give myself permission, henceforth,  to just have fun and create art from my head and from my heart….i only hope there is something in them both..a blank page would be so telling!

God Bless!

For dog lovers (not dogs *lover’s*…that’d be wierd) everywhere…

Because some people (like me) have way too much time on their hands….

I so wish my darling dog could say ‘i love my mamma’. It would be wierd. But nothing i couldn’t handle.

Daily Meditation Medication

Today, tell someone you love them.

Readers Prayer Requests

Sunsih writes….

Dear Lord,
please help to stop my friend evely prinz ortiz to not go out from the missin till december.
please Lord help me and ask ms.evely to stay till december.amen
I have complated my interview yesterday please lord open mr.alin,adrian and neva their heart mind to select for international post.amen

and

Dear God
Dear All,
Please pray for me my name is SUNISH KUMAR somebody from top management seating in top position promised to take for International staff as permanent staff during this month. Please pray for me so that GOD will open the heart and mind of Ms.Neva and Mr.Adrian to really-really take me for international post and really-really select him.
Thank GOD my Lord.

Katarina writes…

Please, support me in prayers for an urgent, difficult intention:

For my complete reconciliation with my loved one, ex fiance NEBOJSA

That Nebojsa DOES NOT GET INVOLVED INTO ANY NEW RELATIONSHIP, but that THAT HE BE DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH ME AND start CALLING ME, APOLOGIZE, that God with His QUICKENING SPIRIT work out peace between us, LEAD OUR FURTHER COMMUNICATION AND GIVE US WISDOM IN BEHAVIOUR TO EACH OTHER, COMPLETE RECONCILIATION and NEW BEGINNING!

THAT GOD DESTROY ALL DEVILS AND WEAPONS FORMED AGAINST OUR RELATIONSHIP IN THE NAME OF JESUS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, protect our love and future (that our relationship be stronger and successful one) and bring us to marriage as soon as possible!

God gives promises, and I know He is FAITHFUL!

I am sure when your prayers join mine will surely receive a miracle. I am praying with Faith and please help me in this.

Thank you very much. God bless you. I pray for you. Praise the Lord for He hear prayers and answer on it.

Katarina

The Book Meme

This  meme was doing the rounds on blogs a while back and I liked it so much that i thought i’d have a crack at it here.

1. What author do you own the most books by? In no order of preference….Scott Hahn, JPII, Pope Benedict XVI, C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, Henri Nouwen, Anne Rice, G.K. Chesterton and Thomas Merton.

2. What book do you own the most copies of? I have quite a few Bibles and i have a couple of copies of G.K Chesterton’s Orthodoxy – one copy fell apart within a matter of days and a copy was sent to me by Amazon as a good will gesture. I also have a couple of old copies of Wuthering heights. I will gladly give away one copy of the latter. Let me know in the combox if you want it. Why you would want it beats me. But you are more than welcome to it.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? I’d have to know what a preposition is, and since i don’t, this question bothers me more.

4. What fictional character(s) are you secretly in love with? Oh gosh, i hate being a so predictably and ‘hopelessly romantic’ about this, but there are three charaters that i am besotted with and they are… Mr Knightley (Emma), Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre) and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice). Like i said, i’m predictable.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life? The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blighton and The Holy Bible, particularly the New Testament.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old? The Enchanted Wood and the Bunty Annual.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? There are two. Wuthering Heights and Mansfield Park.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? To Kill a Mockingbird/Of Mice and Men/ Rebecca.

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? I would strenously recommend everyone read the Holy Bible at least once in their lives, more specifically perhaps, The New Testament.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? The Enchanted Wood, but it would have to be directed by someone like Chris Columbus or Tim Burton.

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? Mansfield Park.

12. What is your favorite book? There isn’t only one. Jane Austen’s books ‘Emma’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’, The Catechism of the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture.

13. What is your favorite play? That would have to be the school Christmas play that my son featured in when he was about 8 or 9 years old. I have it on dvd and watch it every Christmas. He isn’t seen for much of it, but i love it when he says his couple of lines. So sweet. The days before his voice broke and he developed a face full of fuzz.

14. Favourite poem? When I Am Dead My Dearest by Christina Rossetti…

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

15. Favourite essay? Something by Hillaire Belloc or G.K. Chesterton. Probably Chesterton’s letter to Frances Blogg before they were married.

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Stephen Dawkins

17. What is your desert island book? Something like the ‘How to survive on a desert island’ book, if one should exist.

18. And . . . what are you reading right now? I’m currently reading a few different books. 1) a book about the life of St. Katharine Drexel 2) A book called ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ by Nicky Scott 3) The Jesus, Mary, Joseph Novena Manual that Alexa sent me a while back 4) The Emotional Cook  by Clare Mckeon. A sample page is this…Food for when you are feeling drained…has a quote atop the page which reads ‘Life is just one damned thing after another’ ~ Elbert Hubbard…there follows recipes for ‘Life-Saving Soup’ and ‘Creamy Dreamy Porrige’ a restorative food to fortify one to weather the ’storms’ of life.

I don’t know if i will ever cook from this book but it is an enjoyable read.

One last quip…

‘Food for one in a jovial mood’….with the quote…’never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level – it’s cheaper’ ~ Quentin Crisp.

(Almost) Daily Meditation Medication

From todays Gosepl reading:

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

Ain’t that the truth?

Anyone can love likeable people, family and friends….but what of those who we dislike? As Christians we are called to live by Christ’s example. Loving those who wrong us, who frighten us, who repulse us…

G.K Chesterton. What’s not to love?

My friend wrote a great blog post about Chesterton today. (Go read it!)

G.K. Chesterton is my kind of man.

For a start, he loved his food.

Second, he loved his woman.

3rd any man who knows and loves the Catholic Church is alright in my book. In fact, the more ardent his passion for God, the more appealing the man..in my humble opinion.

This evening i was reading Chesterton’s letter to Frances, before they were man and wife.  As i read it i just knew that i would have got on with him had we met.

… it doesn’t escape my notice that his wifes maiden name was ‘Blogg’.

Gosh darn it.

Blogg.

Blog.

Get it?

Got it?

Good.

In his letter to his Frances, Chesterton  wrote of a place where i myself spent many of my summers as a child, (in Ipswich and) Felixstowe, in Suffolk. I had no idea that I had quite literally walked in the great G.K Chesterton’s footsteps during so many of my summer holidays!

The great man wrote…

“When we set up a house, darling (honeysuckle porch, yew clipt hedge, bees, poetry and eight shillings a week), I think you will have to do the shopping. Particularly at Felixstowe.”

…and what woman wouldn’t fall for a man who wrote of his love for her in such a way as this…

… By all means let us have bad things in our dwelling and make them good things. I shall offer no objection to your having an occasional dragon to dinner, or a penitent Griffin to sleep in the spare bed. The image of you taking a sunday school of little Devils is pleasing. They will look up, first in savage wonder, then in vague respect; they will see the most glorious and noble lady that ever lived since their prince tempted Eve, with a halo of hair and great heavenly eyes that seem to make the good at the heart of things almost too terribly simple and naked for the sons of flesh: and as they gaze, their tails will drop off, and their wings will sprout: and they will become Angels in six lessons….

and oh, just excuse me while i swoon….y’see he wrote this of first seeing Frances…

“If I had anything to do with this girl I should go on my knees to her…”

A man who knows what he wants and who he wants.

G.K. Chesterton.

What’s not to love?

‘I kissed a girl and i liked it’….

To be sung to the tune of ‘i kissed a girl and i like it’…

‘I deleted 269 unread facebook messages today and i liked it”

or

‘I left 48 facebook groups who bombard me with spam every day, and i liked it’

or

‘i’m thinking about deleting all non-real-friends/non-blog-friends who i don’t know in one way or another…and i’ll like it’

okay, so the last sentence can’t be sung to the tune of ‘i kissed a girl and i like it’ but i don’t care.

Do i really need 500 facebook friends, many of whom are people i don’t actually know?

Does it validate me to have hundreds of friends i have never so much as even had an msn conversation with?

Is this some kind of popularity contest? Having the most friends (who aren’t really friends) = Mr/Mrs Popular ?

Do i need to know who got it together/broke up with whoever/ bought a vegetable for someone’s cyber vegetable garden/stopped being friends with someone/grant a friend request only to have the person delete me (game player huh. thought so. you should know better) discover that i have 5 secret admirers whose names will be revealed to me if i only click the blahblahblah application button/that someone sent me a dancing mushroom plant gift…

and that whole ’see who visits your profile page most’ application sucks big time ;-)

I’m just saying.

I think i’m f(acebook) (m)axed out.

Daily Meditation Medication

The response of the Responsorial Psalm for today is:

“To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise”.

Let us be silent for a moment, stop what we are doing for a moment,block out all the noise and the traffic and the distractions around us and. just. praise. God. today. (and every day!).