Imaginary Football Throwback

It was a brisk autumn day a few years ago when I took the Pre-K children out for morning recess. Colored leaved flew through the chilly air – alongside the imaginary footballs.

I was reminded of this story last night when a friend told another friend that she was recently hired at my school to teach Pre-K (I now teach first grade). The other friend joked that she could ride down the slide with her kids. Well…that’s not really possible given that the school’s “play equipment” is a parking lot.

So, it was fall and football was in season. The children had tired of chasing leaves and each other and they gave me the “I’m bored/cold/miserable” eyes like it was time to go back inside. No way.

We needed at least 10 more minutes of fresh air and energy release time. (Too little of this and the teacher and her students go crazy).

At that very point of near gloom, the Holy Spirit inspired an invention: the pretend football. The boys spread out and I threw it to one. He “caught” it and scored a touchdown. Praise the Lord for this miraculously simple game!

It was a little difficult at times to discover who actually held the ball, so at one point I might have had as many as six balls out there. The girls had joined as well.

I almost spoiled the game when one child whined, “So-and-so’s not giving me the ball!”

My lip was clenched in humorous self- control between my teeth…“Oh, no?” Hmm, that’s strange….I can’t even SEE the ball!

Another ball was tossed into the game and I went to talk with a prospective parent who had casually observed the whole encounter.

She was actually mid-discernment and wondered if she should send her child to our school; I would have been his teacher.

I joyfully greeted her with windblown hair, rosy cheeks, and hands dirty from playing “football.”

“Do you have any questions for me,” I asked.

“Actually I do,” she replied. “Do you ever play with real balls?”

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I might have mentioned that if she donated some, we’d happily play with them…

Unfortunately that child never joined our class…which is a pity because we could really have used a seventh wide receiver. (Apparently, the maximum allowed on the field is five?)

Today's Plates

FXF: Father, explain forgiveness.

JLS: Jesus loves sinners.

The license plate Truth.

Waterslide

I woke up this morning and God gave me a miracle. Wisdom to start the day :)

Then I went to Mass and school, and a woman there said I could stay at her house for the next two weeks if I take care of her cats. Another place to stay until I find permanent housing. Miracle.

In the afternoon, I swam laps (another no impact exercise) and went down a water slide--with children-- for free. I told the woman who invited me that it was a miracle. She said, "Let us be your miracle again on Thursday. The kids like to stay at the pool longer when you're here."

People can be miracles for each other. Amazing.

At night, I got to go to a concert (the musician's name is Joe--because St. Joseph keeps showing up during this novena) and have dinner with a friend who shared a story about God's miracles in her life--she learned that she can be vulnerable --and it's the ticket to love-- through the cross. More miracles. And tomorrow I get to meet a newborn. Incredible.

I'm little bit homeless, and God loves me up when I'm a little bit poor.
Amen. Thank you, Jesus.

I Believe in Miracles

"We are miracles. You are a miracle. Your spouse is a miracle. Your children are miracles. The priest is a miracle. 'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle,'" an Irish priest in Rome personalized Albert Einstein’s quote.

“If we look with the eyes of our hearts, not human eyes, we see miracles all around us,” he added.

Today I held a baby. I went to an early Mass. I had a conversation with a philosopher who stopped mid-sentence to behold a majestic view of sunshine on grass. I rode a friend’s bike; she doesn’t even know I can’t do weight bearing exercise. I went to adoration.

I saw a friend weed her garden, and she invited me to visit. We sat on her front porch which has a cross on one side and a Barrel of Monkeys monkey hanging from the light on the other side. She gave me water after my bike ride and shared ideas for new growth at our school. 

Her son came out during our visit and I asked him about the monkey on the light.

His mom asked, "Did you put that up there because monkeys are favorite animal?"

"Monkeys aren't my favorite animal!" He replied.

"What's your favorite animal now?"

"Platypuses. They have venom on the claws. Actually, it's not venom; it's poison." 

(Apparently male platypuses have a spurs on their back limbs that excrete venom throughout mating season.)

I saw one of my former students all grown-up and ready for second grade. I got an email from a friend who had a baby.

Another friend invited me to an impromptu Bible study, and there was peach and blueberry cobbler with ice cream. I asked a friend if he liked being Catholic yesterday and his roommate today said that conversation impacted his life.

I saw a statue of St. Joseph between two bushes. I realized that I watched my brother referee basketball at St. Joseph’s school this weekend, and that St. Joseph is with me in the midst of my novena to him for housing. 

I asked a friend, “Do you think St. Joseph will find me a place to live?”

She responded, “He found a place for Mary to have Jesus didn't he?”

Her confidence amused and astounded me.

  

The priest in Rome continued with his homily at the Church of the Holy Rosary…

“Jesus suffered and died. That was the greatest miracle….The apostles were afraid the same thing would happen to them. Jesus told them to go to the Upper Room and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. Then he said, ‘Get to work, teach them everything I’ve commanded you and know that I am with you until the end of time.’ He gave them new vitality, a new attitude.

"I am with you..." This new vitality so filled the Apostles that they were crucified like Jesus, and like the martyrs in the Middle East.

“Jesus is not dead! He’s alive, risen!” emphasized the priest. “The Church was a very small nucleus, not well educated and it spread out in every country worldwide. Great leaders tried to wipe out Christianity, but couldn’t because the Holy Trinity was indwelling in people’s hearts.

“We’re all in need of spiritual renewal,” the priest added. Then, the 80-something-year-old man shared, “I hope to learn something to deepen my Faith [on this pilgrimage]. We need stories of encouragement from each other.”

God, You work miracles in my life every time You remind me to see little encounters with people or created things with gratitude and joy. 

Thank you for that priest and for the vessels of love you put in my life today who encourage me and challenge me to become a whole person, to find deeper meaning in suffering and even joy in the midst of it.

Two Great Songs

Hillsong United Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Kim Walker Smith--Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here

Vessels of Love

My time at the farm ended with a kayak adventure and now I'm officially a couch surfer...well, bed surfer (thank God!).

I have full confidence that St. Joseph will find me a more permanent place soon. (If you read this blog, please pray a novena with me :) http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/joseph.htm

Goodbye, little farm chapel!

In the meantime, God continues to use people as vessels to show me His personal love.

Tonight I visited a friend from whom I rented a room when I first moved to this city six years ago. God brought me back to the beginning. (God also brought me back to the last room I rented before I went to Canada -- which is where I will sleep this week!).

Now, a Chinese student stays in my first old room and because of the language barrier, she jumped up and down to share how excited she was that I had painted three walls in that room yellow and one cobalt blue. Her laughter was contagious. I had no idea the recycled paint from my parents' house would bring another person so much joy!

My friend and I encouraged each other in drafting and writing; she said it's impossible for a Christian to be bored!

She also shared her love of Jesus in the Eucharist -- a new bastion of hope for her since she cut ties with her fiance two days ago. My friend stayed true to her values of openness to life --contrary to her fiance's choice-- despite familial pressure to get married because she's almost 40. She is so happy that she made a decision that leaves her more whole.

It's been years since I visited her house and the kitchen plants are like trees! The whole windowsill is covered with geraniums, philodendron, an Indian rubber tree, and others with huge stalks and leaves that creep up the sides of the windows. To me, they are a metaphor for the spiritual growth in my friend's life. She gave up the man she loved because she loves God more.

My friend believes that God has a plan. She showed me through her witness that God' plan isn't easy --it requires everything. But it's worth it.

God also showed me this reality through the man who kayaked with me.

This man will join a religious order in September. His dad invited him to a retreat in college where he first experienced the reality of Christ in Adoration. A few years later, his dad died of cancer.

My friend mentioned that he went through a period of anger (I don't know if it was related to his father's death), but he also shared that his dad provided the impetus for his conversion--Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist, a real God who loves His people. When my friend's dad died, he realized that death is real; when he discovered the fullness of Christ, he saw that the immoral lifestyle he was living was empty.

At that retreat, my friend heard a priest give a talk about a man in Africa: a blind leper with no limbs, who couldn't stop exclaiming how much Jesus loved him. The man offered to sing for the priest and the priest played a beautiful recording of that song at the retreat.

My friend cried. He saw a joy that he didn't have, but wanted. Later, my friend saw Christ in a poor child's face when he went on a mission trip and knew he was called to give his life to show Christ to broken people.

When we went kayaking that morning, I saw that God put people in my life to be vessels of His love. Our oars made ripples in the dark pre-dawn waters as we waited for the sun to rise. And I thought that each ring that appeared from the dip of our oars was a circle of unrepeatable wonder.

We were shrouded in darkness, but slowly, shade by shade, story by story, experience by experience,  we paddled against the current into the light.

The sun wasn't visible through the clouds, but it was still there; nothing could deny the light.

And my friend reminded me of the Psalm 119: 105, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." He said my life is not about what I do, or the stress of discovering my vocation, but rather, closeness to God.

Later that day I read a quote from St. John Paul II's play Radiation of Fatherhood, "And in the end...everything else will turn out to be unimportant, and inessential except for this: father, child and love."

John Paul lived that in his heart. He was a vessel of love too. He demonstrated that simplicity, order and peace in one heart, like a placid lake, can impact the whole world because when a person is empty and calm he can reflect out Christ.

Jesus loves you