Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Secret to Life


Let me just give credit up front for this blog to my husband Slurpico. He sat on the couch today and in his college professor voice said to me, "I will share with you something I learned from the nuns in school." Here is the sum of this conversation.

You cannot chase success. You must be what it is that God intended you to be. If God intended you to be spinach, you are placed here as a spinach seed. It is up to you to figure out what your purpose is and seek the sunlight and nutrition to make it happen. If you do not know what that is, you must pray with fervor that God's will be done. It is a major tenet of the Lord's Prayer. If you pursue success for the sake of success, it will not happen. People who gain recognition did so because they have succeeded in becoming whom God designed them to be.

The roses that bloomed over the archway this year outside our back door were placed here for a specific purpose. They were meant to be roses, if only for a moment. A thousand years and one second are the same to God. The roses bloomed and satisfied God's destiny for them. They did what they were meant to do. It sounds simple but it makes total sense.
Johnny, congratulations and God Bless. You produced one heck of a crop of spinach.














Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Lullaby From A Saint


As far as I know, Johnny is Catholic. He respects many religions, but I believe his family is Catholic. He crosses himself frequently in competition. He seems to be connecting with his God. In honor of this I must share my own experience with this subject. You see, as crazy as it sounds, I have an angel attached to me. I am speaking of St. Therese of Lisieux. She is only one of three women in the two thousand year history of the church to have attained the honor of "Doctor of the Church." She entered a cloistered order at the age of fifteen and died of tuberculosis in 1897 at twenty four. She left behind many brilliant spiritual writings, and vowed to rain a shower a flowers on the earth upon her death.

When you say the following prayer to Therese, she will send you a rose. It can come from anywhere.
St. Therese, the Little Flower, please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden,
and send it to me with a message of love.
Ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore,
and tell him I love him each day more and more.

I have received magical roses. My favorite of these is a lullaby...a lullaby from a saint. I received it last winter. I was off work and cooped up in the house. I said to myself, "How can Therese send a rose? I never leave the living room, or even the couch for that matter."

My husband, Slurpico, unaware of my prayer, dug out some antique sheet music from the basement. He had purchased a huge box of it at a flea market twenty years before. Out of nowhere he dragged up a particular song. Lo and behold, it had a huge, beautiful blue rose on the cover. He set it up on the piano, five feet from my face as I reclined on the leather sofa.

I asked him what is was. He said he did not know. He was just looking for something new to play. Since Therese was French, I said, "It is French, you can be sure." So I looked it up. Not only was the composer French, he lived in the late 1800s, and died of TB also, around the same time she did. She was only uncloistered in the world for fifteen years and she would have heard this music. It is called Berceuse by composer Benjamin Godard. Unbelievably it means, "Angels Guard Thee." It is beautiful. Three million people visit her shrine each year. She must do this kind of thing often.

She is always with me and I am very devoted to her. Johnny, if you like flowers, Therese is waiting to hear from you.