PPPST! March 2014

A little wintry mix will not stop us from meeting online to review yesterday's monthly meeting for parents of the very young!

After the customary chiming of the singing bowl (my phone app) to center ourselves, we read the following quotations from the 20th century Trappist monk, Thomas Merton.

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.

When ambition ends, happiness begins.

Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.        http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasmert116013.html

A bit of a follow-up to the vocation conversation of February. The original question was to be, "How do we guide our children to 'make choices that enable [them] to fulfill the deepest capacities of [their] real selves?'" I offered that personally, it is sometimes very difficult for me to let God's plan unfold in my life. Again, the trust issue rears its persistent head. But all is not lost! The subsequent quotes show us a light and easy yoke when we rely on Christ's strength.

For more information on St. Thomas Merton (and more about Forward Movement's Lent Madness) click here: Thomas Merton background

We closed with the Prayer of Thomas Merton (thanks S. Balke, Seminarian!):

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” 
― Thomas Merton,        Prayer of Thomas Merton

See you on April 6th! Of course, there will be snax....

Faithfully,

The ModSub

PPPST! February 2014

Hi Intrepid Parents:

We met once again at the top of a new (wintry) month to share in fellowship and respite from the rigors of parenting the very young (and not so young :)!).

After centering ourselves to the sound of the singing bowl, we shared these two quotations from theologian, Frederick Buechner. I was prompted to select the first quote based on a sermon delivered by our Rector, the Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard a couple of weeks ago. Follow Me



"The place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Wishful Thinking 

"Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you. I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.” Wishful Thinking 

Frederick Buechner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Buechner

The question that we put to ourselves was what is our calling when it comes our role as parent? There is a certain comfort and challenge in the second passage. Sometimes, it takes a gracious gift of courage to reach out and to accept a call.

Comment if you'd like and see you on 2 March.
Blessings,
The ModSub

PPPST! January 2014

Happy New Year, Intrepid Parents:

We met again this morning and after a quick centering moment, we read the following passage from today's Lectionary. Every time that I read this passage, I question more than becomes resolved. The comfort that I draw from reflection on this Gospel reading is that, although one can be lost so often in life (and in early/middle/late parenthood), we are consistently found as we rest in the every-ready arms of El Shaddai.

Blessings....

The Mod Sub

Luke 2:41-52

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them.Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour. 


The Parents of Pre-pre-schoolers Team at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church (PPPST!) blog entries begin in previous months. Click on link below to read more...
http://jkdesignspot.blogspot.com/2014/01/st-patricks-pre-pre-schoolers-parents.html
BTW, the next session should be on Groundhog Day, Sunday 2 Feb. at 9:15am in Small Group Room.

PPPST! (St. Patrick's Parents of Pre-pre-schoolers Team) 2012

Welcome Intrepid Parents!

Here is a convenient place to meet virtually and to see what was "food for thought" in past months. We meet once a month before the 10am service (9:15 to 9:50am) on the First Sunday of every month. There is a nifty "small group" meeting room just past the office that suits our needs quite well. Needless to say there are snacks to go with morning tea or coffee. Childcare is available in the nursery for a quiet respite from parental duties.

Please join us! The Rev. Loren Lasch is a good first contact. Ellen Teplitz and I (Janet Lee) are your facilitators.

We start with a centering bell app that I installed on my mobile phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.mindbell&hl=en .
When I hear it ring randomly throughout the day, I might take a deep cleansing breath or I might say the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner".





In November 2012, we prayed this prayer from The Book of Common Prayer:
46. For the Care of Children

Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the
joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient
wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love
whatever is just and true and good, following the example of
our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

We asked the question, what does Jesus have to say to us about parenting?


In December 2012, we read this short passage from a book called, What Mothers Do by Naomi Stadlen. It helped us to think about how we can best serve each other in small group. Sometimes all we can do is listen...

Naomi and Ruth. ("Call me Naomi no longer; my name is Marah for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.")   http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=255773724

"It took me many failures to realize that this silence is healing. It acts as a shock-absorber. No more needs to be said. The crying mother feels less alone, and the listening mothers feel they have taken on a tiny fraction of her lot. All feel lighter and stronger, despite the pain they have shared. After some time, the bitter mother will dry her eyes, thank everyone, and the meeting moves on to something else.

Silence often works better than words. Mothers sometimes use meetings to seek or share advice, but this can easily go wrong. Each mother's situation is specific to herself. Often when one mother learns something from another, it's a tiny bit of information that she finds useful, not the informant's entire system. But when a mother has survived the early months of uncertainty, she can be tempted to believe that she can rescue newer mothers from this difficult time. 

Most of the time, what mothers seem to want from each other is compassion--without any advice. That's why their stories can sound harrowing. The harrowing quality is to elicit pity. A mother may often give a more one-sided picture than is truly the case. This is because the mother longs to be bathe in her listener's compassion. She has probably spent all morning being patient and compassionate toward her child and craves some attention for herself."

Naomi Stadlen

There are related conversations in a previous post:
http://jkdesignspot.blogspot.com/2013/07/ive-been-reading-this-recommended-book.html

Please join us on Sunday 5 Jan 2014; and as always, there will be snax :)!
The ModSub

One could say that my present day has been a lifetime in the making.

Seeds were planted years ago in Seattle when the kids were infants and dreams were nascent.

Course corrections were particularly productive a year ago in summer of 2012. This blog was essential for external expression of interior, amorphous musings. See post: First Thoughts First

Have to give props to T. Mohr for life-coaching from the Ether... Tara Mohr: Going For It

Sometimes, one is brave enough to throw caution to the wind.

From the Road,
The Mod Sub

Little Feet; Footprints to Follow...

I've been reading this recommended book and have found that the author expresses a great many ideas in common with my own.

I would be curious to know what you think of the passage below? Leave a comment; this is a good forum for sharing our thoughts...

Excerpt from What Mothers Do (Author is Naomi Stadlen):

                Taking trouble over a baby is definitely tiring and sleep-depriving. But mothers could probably cope better if we all acknowledged how complex and difficult it can be. If a mother says she is short of sleep, this could be a sign not of her failure but of how well she may mothering. I believe that the real, dreadful quality of maternal tiredness is the mother’s sense of struggling against prevailing disrespect. The baby may tire her, but we, if we aren’t careful, can exhaust her.





Excerpt 2:

The odd thing is that mothers often don’t realize that this is true of many mothers. For example, when a mother takes her baby out to the park or shopping, this can change the mood of them both. Once they are out, the baby seems interested, and the mother feels proud of her achievement in getting them both through the front door. She then feels less tired. This means that when other mothers look at her, they see a calm-looking mother with a happy baby. In the same way, when she is looking at them, she is almost sure to mistake their temporary calm for their permanent state. It won’t occur to her that she is giving the impression of being a calm mother herself. Instead, she may well return home feeling discouraged because she seems to be the only mother who is finding it so tiring.

Click for Post of Interest for St. Patrick's folks and others.

Chartreuse Fractals

Here's something interesting to feast your eyes on from Pike Place Market on Puget Sound. Must be a hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli. Nutritious, I'm sure.