i thought this was apropos for the holidays~
Magnificat
All that I am
sings of the God
who brings his life
to birth in me.
My spirit soars
on the wings of my Lord.
He has smiled on me
and the blaze of his smile
no woman or man
shall ever forget.
My God is a gentle strength
who has caught me up
and carried me to greatness.
His love
space cannot hold
nor time age
and all quicken to his touch.
My God is a torrent of justice.
He takes the straight paths
in the minds of the proud
and twists them to labyrinth.
The boot of the oppressor
he pushes aside
and raises the lowly,
whom he loves,
from the ground.
With his own hands
he sets a table for the hungry
but the unfeeling rich
suffer the cold eye
of his judgment.
Our mothers and our fathers
he has held in his arms
and the future grows
like this child within me
for the God of whom I sing
bears us his son.
~John Shea
Source: Unknown
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
If ours is a piety that does not know how to laugh, a fierce humility that excludes the uninitiated, or even a consuming fire that burns but does not purify, then we have lost our way. We cannot have room for God if we do not have room for our neighbor.... Find space for spontaneity and a generous response. Find a place to welcome the stranger and to throw back your head and laugh with God.
Source: Thomas Hoffman, A Child in Winter
Source: Thomas Hoffman, A Child in Winter
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
"I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes"
~by Kaylin Haught
Source: Poetry 180 (selected by Billy Collins)
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes"
~by Kaylin Haught
Source: Poetry 180 (selected by Billy Collins)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
On Prayer
tis a good reminder...
Prayer clarifies our hope and intentions. It helps us discover our true aspirations, the pangs we ignore, the longings we forget. It is an act of self-purification.... It teaches us what to aspire to, implants in us the ideals we ought to cherish. Prayer is an invitation to God to intervene in our lives, to let God's will prevail in our affairs; it is the opening of a window to God in our will, an effort to make God the Lord of our soul. We submit our interests to God's concern, and seek to be allied with what is ultimately right.
~Abraham Joshua Heschel
Prayer clarifies our hope and intentions. It helps us discover our true aspirations, the pangs we ignore, the longings we forget. It is an act of self-purification.... It teaches us what to aspire to, implants in us the ideals we ought to cherish. Prayer is an invitation to God to intervene in our lives, to let God's will prevail in our affairs; it is the opening of a window to God in our will, an effort to make God the Lord of our soul. We submit our interests to God's concern, and seek to be allied with what is ultimately right.
~Abraham Joshua Heschel
Monday, July 12, 2010
an inspiring quote (and reminder) from the Dalai Lama...
"if we shift our focus from ourselves to others and to
the wider world and if we turn our attention to all
the crises in the world, all the difficulties and the
sufferings and so on, we will see that many of these
problems and direct and indirect consequences of
undisciplined negative states of mind. and where do
these come from? from this powerful combination of
self-centeredness and the belief in our independent
existence. by shifting our attention to the wider
world in this way, we begin to appreciate the
immensely destructive consequences of such
thinking..."
~Dalai Lama, 2000
the wider world and if we turn our attention to all
the crises in the world, all the difficulties and the
sufferings and so on, we will see that many of these
problems and direct and indirect consequences of
undisciplined negative states of mind. and where do
these come from? from this powerful combination of
self-centeredness and the belief in our independent
existence. by shifting our attention to the wider
world in this way, we begin to appreciate the
immensely destructive consequences of such
thinking..."
~Dalai Lama, 2000
came across an email that I had written in 2003..I was so much more eloquent back then!
---------
dear friends,
excuse my english. just had to put that disclaimer in
there. is it possible for one's english skills to
actually deteriorate? ummm..i'm thinking it might
very well be, as evidenced by my tongue-tied &
inarticulate state of being these past few days.
uh-oh. my citizenship interviews falls exactly two
weeks from now -_-;;
it feels otherworldly to be back in the suburbs of
buffalo grove...especially to see stretches of private
lawns. i miss the sense of a city gone berserk on
sensory overload a bit.
the first thing i'm going to do when i get over jetlag
is go for a long, head-clearing run. one of those
masochistic runs that make you want to never run again
because they hurt your sides so bad. then i'm driving
myself, with the windows rolled down and the pop
charts blaring, to the nearest giordano's. you know,
the stuffed kinds where one slice is equivalent to 2~3
regular slices. hmmmm, aren't they great? :)
twas a bittersweet departure from my motherland,
reexperienced all over since 13 years ago. yes, my
feelings on the place are ambivalent and depending on
which period of my stay you caught me, my descriptions
of the place swung from one extreme to the other.
importantly though, i'm leaving on a good note, thanks
to the warm farewells of the friends i was so blessed
to meet and know these past 10 incredibly...incredible
months.
in my last days in seoul, i took a solo walk in my
favorite part of seoul--Insadong, the traditional
market area. looked around a few art galleries, and
after scratching my head in front of the blobs of
paint on the canvas, i came across a poongmul
(farmer's traditional instrumental dance) performance,
held to gather public sympathy and support on the
plight of Iraqi war victims. it was essentially an
anti-war demonstration and an opposition against
dispatching of korean troops. the grim reality aside
(despite these demonstrations, south korea remains
very much dependent on the US), the accelerating and
decelerating pounding drowned out all the disquietude
for the time being...
anyhoo...hasn't it been a roller-coaster year of a
ride. in korea's case, first the elation of the world
cup games..then the inflammation of anti-american
sentiments. to be followed by the election of Roh Moo
Hyun, a former human rights lawyer and political
activist, and now the anti-war protests.
but even the lonely planet didn't prepare me for the
events that unfolded during our trip in china :p when
my friend tammy and i were in beijing, we heard of
SARS going around china (though chinese ppl we
encountered seemed not in the least phased). in
hangzhou, we found out that the war had begun when a
cab driver started gesturing with his fists and
repeated "Meiguo" and "Iraq."
at the end of the two weeks of packed sightseeing,
good company and good food, the rush of comfort (the
kind that you get upon seeing an old friend) when we
landed at Incheon and spotted the welcome signs in
korean struck and stayed with me a bit. we'd
withstood the frustrations of getting around on three
words of chinese, being harassed by sketchy cab
drivers, and staying at depressing hostels, but the
vulnerability invoked by a world rocked by a war...it
gets to you like none other. needless to say, it's
such a relief to be 'home', to be in the midst of our
loved ones, wherever that may be for each of us.
miss you all much.
love,
~sus
---------
dear friends,
excuse my english. just had to put that disclaimer in
there. is it possible for one's english skills to
actually deteriorate? ummm..i'm thinking it might
very well be, as evidenced by my tongue-tied &
inarticulate state of being these past few days.
uh-oh. my citizenship interviews falls exactly two
weeks from now -_-;;
it feels otherworldly to be back in the suburbs of
buffalo grove...especially to see stretches of private
lawns. i miss the sense of a city gone berserk on
sensory overload a bit.
the first thing i'm going to do when i get over jetlag
is go for a long, head-clearing run. one of those
masochistic runs that make you want to never run again
because they hurt your sides so bad. then i'm driving
myself, with the windows rolled down and the pop
charts blaring, to the nearest giordano's. you know,
the stuffed kinds where one slice is equivalent to 2~3
regular slices. hmmmm, aren't they great? :)
twas a bittersweet departure from my motherland,
reexperienced all over since 13 years ago. yes, my
feelings on the place are ambivalent and depending on
which period of my stay you caught me, my descriptions
of the place swung from one extreme to the other.
importantly though, i'm leaving on a good note, thanks
to the warm farewells of the friends i was so blessed
to meet and know these past 10 incredibly...incredible
months.
in my last days in seoul, i took a solo walk in my
favorite part of seoul--Insadong, the traditional
market area. looked around a few art galleries, and
after scratching my head in front of the blobs of
paint on the canvas, i came across a poongmul
(farmer's traditional instrumental dance) performance,
held to gather public sympathy and support on the
plight of Iraqi war victims. it was essentially an
anti-war demonstration and an opposition against
dispatching of korean troops. the grim reality aside
(despite these demonstrations, south korea remains
very much dependent on the US), the accelerating and
decelerating pounding drowned out all the disquietude
for the time being...
anyhoo...hasn't it been a roller-coaster year of a
ride. in korea's case, first the elation of the world
cup games..then the inflammation of anti-american
sentiments. to be followed by the election of Roh Moo
Hyun, a former human rights lawyer and political
activist, and now the anti-war protests.
but even the lonely planet didn't prepare me for the
events that unfolded during our trip in china :p when
my friend tammy and i were in beijing, we heard of
SARS going around china (though chinese ppl we
encountered seemed not in the least phased). in
hangzhou, we found out that the war had begun when a
cab driver started gesturing with his fists and
repeated "Meiguo" and "Iraq."
at the end of the two weeks of packed sightseeing,
good company and good food, the rush of comfort (the
kind that you get upon seeing an old friend) when we
landed at Incheon and spotted the welcome signs in
korean struck and stayed with me a bit. we'd
withstood the frustrations of getting around on three
words of chinese, being harassed by sketchy cab
drivers, and staying at depressing hostels, but the
vulnerability invoked by a world rocked by a war...it
gets to you like none other. needless to say, it's
such a relief to be 'home', to be in the midst of our
loved ones, wherever that may be for each of us.
miss you all much.
love,
~sus
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