Coucoumellisms

... I might have more confidence in the power of my prayers. I'm not sure how prayers works, nor how it gets around obstacles like free will. But I imagine it is some kind of spiritual energy. We don't have power of thought like God does obviously. Maybe some people have learned to channel mind power to bend spoons, that remains to be seen. But that hardly compares to what God has done with creation. I imagine prayer is not limited to simple conversation with God. On the other hand, perhaps it is, and all God waits for is for someone to ask Him for a certain thing, in order for him to use his all-mighty thought to do it or suggest it. Either way, I used to be much more positive about prayer 15 years ago. I have grown cynical. Perhaps I am walking the desert. I know God exists, because I have felt His presence in my life, seen his influence in how things turned out, although I have a hard time seeing it now. I know He exists because of those signs from Heaven Sam and I...

Just wanted to link to another blog, where you can find the eulogy of an amazing person, Nellie Fairies, who passed away recently in Moose Factory, where I grew up. The eulogy was written by my brother and you can listen to a conversation he had with her last summer there too. http://thomaschurch.squarespace.com/saints/

I drove to Ottawa today, and had a lot of time on the road to think about things. As often happens while entertaining myself, I get on a subject, and have no idea how I got there, but suddenly I'm practically giving myself a university course in theology. I love chatting with myself. It can be so edifying. Okay, so maybe it was a chat with my guardian angel, and he's the one who is edifying. Sam is my guardian angel, and he and I have some very interesting conversations. Sam is short for something. I don't know what. I just call him Sam because I bet I wouldn't be able to pronounce whatever it is that it is short for. We got to talking about Catholicism and more specifically all the paranormal stuff that goes on within the Catholic Church. I mentioned that all those paranormal shows that Marc watches don't seem to be aware of this stuff, or else they are just ignoring it. "Proof," Sam told me, "that there is a special relationship between th...

Serrin M. Foster President Feminists for Life of America On the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, many will focus on the undeniable humanity of the unborn child now seen clearly by millions through sophisticated sonograms on Oprah as well as in Life and Newsweek cover stories. Meanwhile, I will be reflecting on the impact of the choice made by attorney Sarah Weddington in 1973. As her arguments for abortion before the Supreme Court made clear, Weddington saw the discrimination and other injustices faced by pregnant women. But she did not demand that these injustices be remedied. Instead, she demanded for women the “right” to submit to these injustices by destroying their pregnancies. Weddington rightly pointed out the unmet needs of students: “…there are many schools where a woman is forced to quit if she becomes pregnant.” But Weddington didn’t argue against pregnancy discrimination or even for alternate solutions for a pregnant student...

I believe that if I had a scale on my island, it would tell me that I have lost weight again this Christmas season, in spite of the fact that Gypsy Queen brought goodies with her. Nothing like a little seasonal depression to make one lose interest in food. It's the rainy season, and besides, Christmas with no family does tend to make one feel a bit lonely, and who wants to go fishing in a downpour?

I've gotten this too, from the endearing but clueless husband... That really does look like me though, when I go bolistic, for much the same reason.

This would be me... kinda... Except that I do know who and what I am, and the things I couldn't wait for are part of that... but I could use some extra time and space of my own... especially space... If there are any fairy godmothers out there, I could really use a studio ajacent to the house... If you could build a garage for my husband as well, right above that would be nice. A nice middle-sized room with lots of cupboards, counters and working space, that I could lock when it is not in use. It would have to come equipped with some kind of computer so I could also write in there and use msn and e-mail and play music. So it would need a decent set of speakers too. It would also need to have plenty of windows to let light in for painting, drawing, crafts and stuff. What I really need, is a winning lottery ticket... sigh... but I guess I would actually have to go out and buy one in order to win...

I do not understand a world which makes such a fuss over fleeting things. We are spiritual as well as physical beings but we have forgotten the spiritual. That emptiness, that void inside us, it cannot be filled with physical things. On one hand, I am a physical being. I take pleasure in simple things, coffee that tastes just right, raindrops on my nose, the sound of waves crashing on the beach, the feel of sand between my toes. On the other hand I am a spiritual being. I need spirit to spirit contact. Long talks with close friends, philosophy, a song whose lyrics mean something, a poem, a conversation with God. There is balance to be had. A life filled with carnal pleasure alone is a very lonely, empty life indeed. On the other hand, a life empty of carnal pleasure is a very sad, boring life. One cannot replace the other. In the same way, a mariage based on only one or the other of these two poles is an incomplete mariage. I wonder sometimes, just how does prayer work? How ca...

Probably one of the best compliments I have ever received in my life comes from a card written to me from my brother, just hours before he got married: ... you, as big sister, have always looked out for me, and in many things, you've been a role model, especially your resilient cheerfulness which I know is rooted in the faith we share,... I don't know about always having looked out for him, I seem to remember a bit of fighting back in the good old days. I also know that acting happy when one does not feel happy is by no means something that I have always done, nor do all the time now. But I came to realize quite a few years ago that people don't tend to enjoy being around a self-pitying person and have since then worked on at least seeming happy. And you know, when you joke about things that are going wrong, it makes them easier to deal with. So, if someone thinks that I have resilient cheerfulness, to me that is a great compliment and some kind of sign that yes, I am pe...

Every once in awhile, she comes up with a good one like this one... that says it all:

Du lecture du jour : Première lettre de saint Jean 4,11-18 (...) Dieu, personne ne l'a jamais vu. Mais si nous nous aimons les uns les autres, Dieu demeure en nous, et son amour atteint en nous sa perfection. (...) Dieu est amour : celui qui demeure dans l'amour demeure en Dieu, et Dieu en lui. (...) Il n'y a pas de crainte dans l'amour, l'amour parfait chasse la crainte ; car la crainte est liée au châtiment, et celui qui reste dans la crainte n'a pas atteint la perfection de l'amour. Pour recevoir l'Évangile au quotidien : http://www.levangileauquotidien.org/

The other day, I was at my neighbour's place and he gave me some old snowsuits of his son's for Nicolas. They were hanging on the doornob and he mentioned that one of the hangers was broken. His son said, "Yeah, but she can probably fix it." It's nice to know that someone has such a high opinion of my abilites.

Me gusta mucho esta cancion. Ricardo Arjona tiene un... perspectivo muy original. Letras de Canciones de Ricardo Arjona Artista: Ricardo Arjona Album: Santo Pecado Canción: El problema El Problema no fue hallarte El Problema es olvidarte El Problema no es tu ausencia El Problema es que te espero El Problema no es Problema El Problema es que me duele El Problema no es que mientas El Problema es que te creo.. El Problema no es que juegues El Problema es que es conmigo Si me gustaste por ser libre Quien soy yo para cambiarte Si me quede queriendo solo Como hacer para obligarte El problema no es quererte es que tu no sientas lo mismo.. Y como deshacerme de ti si no te tengo Como alejarme de ti si estás tan lejos Como encontrarle una pestaña A lo que nunca tuvo ojos Como encontrarle plataformas A lo que siempre fue un barranco Como encontrar en la alacena Los besos que no me diste Y como deshacerme de ti si no te tengo Como alejarme de ti si estás tan lejos Y es que el problema no es cambi...

There's a meeting happening in Brampton, Ontario today - a meeting involving the leaders of a number of religious faiths including Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Sikhs. The meeting is to formulate a response to a plan by the City of Brampton to start levying property taxes on places of worship. A study done by the City of Brampton last summer recommended some major changes to the way churches, temples, and mosques are treated by the municipal government. Right now all of those properties are exempt from property taxes. The City of Brampton, on the western edge of Toronto, wants to change that, leaving only the worship space itself as tax exempt. That means, in the case of Christian churches, that the floor space occupied by a sanctuary would be tax exempt. But even the stage or pulpit area might not be. And certainly the church offices, fellowship hall, kitchen, or nursery space would become taxable........ The City also wants to impose some severe restricti...

Asunción, Paraguay, Viernes 04 de Enero de 2008 Interior SEGUN EXPERTA, ES UN MBOI JAGUA EN VIA DE EXTINCION “Pescaron” una anaconda de siete metros y 90 kilos Una anaconda de siete metros y 90 kilos fue capturada por un grupo de pescadores en el río Aguaray Guazú, en la colonia Jaguarete Forest, departamento de San Pedro. Una experta afirma que se trata de un ejemplar de mbói jagua (en vía de extinción), de la especie de las boas. Sus captores la pusieron en venta. La anaconda tiene siete metros y 90 kilos. Los pescadores que la hallaron quieren venderla por G. 15 millones. En la Seam aseguran que rescatarán al animal. COLONIA JAGUARETE FOREST, Santa Rosa del Aguaray (Sergio Escobar Rober, corresponsal). La enorme anaconda, de la especie de las boas (Boidae), pertenece a la misma familia de la curiyú. Fue capturada por pescadores de la colonia Yaguareté Forest, ubicada en la Calle 3.000 de esta jurisdicción. El animal, a 22 días de su captura, aparenta estar en buen estado de salud...

If you are listening, I would like to talk to you about the weather we have been having. Do you remember back when I was young and I thought I would like to live in a place that had milder winters? I was wrong. I want a real winter again. Please don't get me wrong. I do appreciate mild weather every once in awhile, but God, I don't know if you have noticed, but I have this pond in front of my house that I have been shovelling off everytime you send a big load of snow, which has been a lot recently, but I have never once yet this season been able to skate on it. I shovelled for 2 or 3 hours just before Christmas, right before it rained, to get that dumpload off the ice just in time for it to rain. I knew it was going to rain, and I was glad, because that was going to make the uneven ice smooth, so I could skate on it. It rained, and then it was really mild, and then it froze. For one whole day. I was looking forward to the next day, when it would be frozen enough to skate...

It has been three years now since that boating accident that took the life of my husband and stuck me on this island. I still miss him, in spite of enjoying the solitude. One does not care for a person and forget them so easily. It was on New Years Day three years ago that I ended up here, the result of a carribean holiday gone wrong. It is funny how a person can be lonely, yet not alone and then turn around and be alone but not lonely. Perhaps it is because in my solitude I feel the presence of God even more and I am never alone. When life is reduced to the basics, gathering food, making shelter, getting fire, it puts life into perspective. Everyting else is superfluous. I have become more effective in gather food in the past years and now I have time to dedicate to such things as weaving. I have tried weaving different grasses, and I have gotten so good that I have invented different patterns of weaving. The floor of my hut is full of grass mats. It is art, it is creative, b...