Real Life, Real People

We received a recent newsletter from St. Gianna's Maternity Home this week, and one of the articles caught my attention right away. It is a reprint of an article written by St. Gianna's husband, Pietro Molla, about how their family celebrated Christmas. It is very touching, particularly when he writes about their first Christmas without her. Pierluigi writes that St. Gianna loved Christmas and worked hard for many days to make it special for her family - food, decorations, visiting family, Mass. Even more beautiful is the photo accompanying it. St. Gianna is holding her oldest, who looks about 1 1/2 or 2 years old, and he has a huge grin on his face and is making a go for the little Christmas tree next to them. She is looking away, looks tired, and still has her bathrobe on. She doesn't have makeup on and doesn't have a Christmas smile on her face. Being a saint doesn't mean that one is perfect, but that one loves unconditionally. Every so often I feel like St. Gianna, my go-to saint, has forgotten about me. And then we get a picture in the mail, or a holy card, or a gentle reminder, that she is still there and still interceding for me.

And here's another favorite real person from real life - Michael pretending to be Blessed John Paul II. A curtain rod makes an excellent crosier and a yarmulke makes an excellent skullcap.

I finished the last project this morning for the class I took this semester. It was so exciting to hit "submit"! I'll be doing some school over break, but on my own time. I'll be doing my teaching practicum spring semester - I found a professor at the college who is gracious enough to be my preceptor, so I have a lot of brushing up to do on evidence-based practice before helping with her course on that topic. I'm so thankful - she is going to let me help mainly with the online section so I can do a lot of the work from home. I'll also get to work with the on-campus sections a bit, too, particularly with grading poster projects and revising some content. Still hasn't sunk in that this will be my last semester of school - wow! I also need to get my independent project rolling along. Clinical is done for the semester, and it will be really nice to have those hours to spend with the boys. I worked on 6th floor last weekend and again this weekend - good to put those skills to work again. Some things change (computer charting systems), other things don't (plenty of clean-up, endless blood sugars).

I think that's part of why the picture of St. Gianna struck me so strongly - although I love getting ready for Christmas and working on these projects, it can be very tiring, and I lose sight of the point of much of it. It's not about feeling holy while being a wife and mom (and student, and nurse, and teacher, and so on), but letting God into our tasks and bringing Him along with us in everything we do.

Heresy

has become my new favorite word. No one uses those good, old words anymore, like heresy, heathen, anathema...

I hope Michael will grow knowing how to smell out heretical things, and I intend to bring him up to analyze the culture for what it is (gradually, of course). He loves kids songs (you know, the sappy CDs with Jesus Loves Me, The Ants Go Marching, etc.), so we borrow quite a few from the library. I was kind of ignoring his songs the other day, when I realized they were singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", except with a twist. It went something like this...

"We've got the whole world, in our hands...

We've got the trees and the fishes, in our hands...

We've got the dolphins, in our hands..."

Seriously. I fully intend to teach my child the importance of caring for all living things through responsible living (yeah, how about another verse - "We've got the unborn babies, in our hands"?). I don't need some twisted kids song to teach my child for me. Nor do I need some singer independently deciding we can take the world out of God's hands now since He obviously can't care for it Himself. Heresy.