A Friend From My Past

What a shock and surprise to hear from a friend letting me know that Irma, another friend, had passed away. Since I have been gone from that place of employment for almost twenty years I had lost track of many of my past fellow employees. I believe what surprised me was the picture sent along with the message.

I recall the lunch date in 2009 when the picture was taken. I was meeting a friend for lunch, and Irma joined us.  That was also the last time I saw her. I like the picture because it is probably the only photo I have of her and I am thankful that it was sent to me.

The memories I have of her are how we would see each other almost every day at work and I do remember she was a sweet, kind and dedicated co-worker. Her celebration of life will take place on November 21, 2019, at three in the afternoon but I will not be able to attend. Yet, she will be in my thoughts.

Rest in Peace, Irma.

"The company of many

doesn't erase the loss

of one.

Picturequotes.com

Makes Me Wonder

I know I have many memories scattered throughout my brain and stuck in the creases of the all knowing wrinkled mass in my head! Yet, sometimes I wonder where memories disappear and are gone forever. The other evening I decided to watch the movie, Dr. Zhivago. I believe I have seen it twice, once at a theater and once on video.

What I remember of the movie was the home covered in snow, frozen window panes, the sleigh ride the snow covered landscape and handsome Omar Shariff. I knew it was a love story plus I love the theme song of Laura.  What a shock when I began watching the movie and had no clue as to what was going on. It was as if I never watched the movie. I did not remember that Dr. Zhivago was a physician, that Geraldine Chaplain was the actress he married, the horrible wars, the cruelty, the affairs, the horrific train ride, that Julie Christie who played the part of Anna married the leader of the red power or the ending of the movie. In fact, most of the movie had disappeared from my brain.

The whole movie made be wonder if this is what happens to people with dementia or Alzheimer's. Does part of their life just disappear and they can never recall it again? It is a scary part of losing one's memory and I found myself wondering how I could have forgotten 85% of the movie. Hopefully, five or ten years from now if I decide to watch the movie again, I will remember the story line, but who knows?

It made me wonder what else has been erased from my memory and if something has been erased I hope it is a movie or some non-important memory. What I have been told or read about memory loss, and the one thing that gives me hope, is as long as I can function normally doing my every day things, I should not worry.

Nothing lasts forever.

There isn't any memory,

no matter how intense,

that doesn't fade out at last.

Juan Rulfo

Music Mission With John Angotti

This mission meant more to me than others I have attended. One reason is that the speaker is not a priest and he is easier to identify with when he speaks of his family. Been there, done that, runs through my head as he explains his relationship with his children.

He began the session with a hymn to Mary and some of the phrases I remember were: Let us pray, Hail Mary Full of Grace, and Holy Mary, Mother of God. His voice is easy to listen to and I loved when he said that the congregation is the choir at mass and not the singers around the piano. The song Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, brought a lump to my throat. He had us all sing  the St. Francis Prayer and as I listened to the many voices, it sounded like a choir of angels. Amazing how a group of people can sound so beautiful and I would take a guess that not many are musically trained!

"If you are not looking for something, it is hard to see," he said as he put a video on for us to watch.
A bunch of young people seemed to be playing basket ball and I watched them move around on the floor. After the video ended, he asked, "How many saw the bear walk across the screen?" I had not seen the bear and I don't think anyone else saw the bear either. When he slowed the film, sure enough, a bear strolled across the screen!

Speaking on "mean" parents he said that sometimes we have to be a parent and not a friend and discipline our children. Tough love is important to let the children know you are trying to help them. A parent's most important job is getting their children to heaven.  I am not sure I was a good parent because my thought was to make them get through school. Sometimes I sluffed off on being a good parent because my priorities were not getting my children to heaven! How could I direct my children in the right direction when I was not even sure that there was a heaven!

I liked when he said that we are made in God's spiritual image and not in his physical image. That made sense to me. By using the notes on the piano, he explained how we think we are one note but in reality we are another note. Made me think of how in my imagination I pictured myself as a great mother, my home filled with my children's friends, baking cookies, etc. Reality was I worked every day, did not trust some of their friends so I did not want them in my house when I was not around, and my hands were full with fixing dinner for them and no times for cookies!  The speaker mentioned that each person comes from God and their note is important because all notes are important in music and life! The talk on labeling people hit home for me. I know that in order to improve who I am, I must be more accepting and stop labeling persons by how they look!

A skit with five persons showed us how we do things by ritual. We need to know why we do something and we need to know what is done at mass and why. If we do not understand the rituals we miss what mass is all about. The majority of people attending mass follow the tradition of what was learned as a child. I realize now how important the classes that are offered are to make us understand why and how things are done during mass.  He mentioned that using the word trust instead of believe would  help us see our prayers more clearly. Another point was how important it is to forgive past hurts so that we can move forward. He had us all get our cell phones out and text some one and tell them we forgave them and loved them. I can just imagine what the person on the other end of the call was thinking to get such a text!

From the book Sacred Fire he read ten ideas to help us through life and mentioned that the holiest person we know is the most grateful. Forgiving and thanking are important prayers in our lives.

"I have found that

people relate both

to music and testimony."

John Angotti

On Saturday, November 16, 2019, the five o'clock mass was filled with people and music. It was the culmination of the mission and a concert by John Angotti and Myles Ogea, (Spirit of Christ Catholic Community Music Director), was to take place after the mass. What a performance by the uplifting music featuring voices, piano, sax, base, and drums. The music was happy and powerful as Billy Joel and Elton John hits were magnificently performed! There were over one hundred and fifty parishioners clapping and singing along with the exciting music. Myles transformed into an Italian crooner and I could picture him singing in a romantic nightclub.

Some of the songs were: Bennie and the Jets and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, (Elton John), A Bottle of Red and A Bottle of White, Ride Sally Ride, Sweet Valentine and Route 66 (Myles), Piano Man, (Billy Joel) and Country Road were also on the program along with some songs I did not recognize.

John Angotti sang hymns that he had used during the mission which included Mary's House, Make Me A Channel of Your Peace and while we all held hands the words to Hold On and Somebody to Lean On were quite touching and moving.

The end of the mission, I am sure, was filled with more love than at the beginning because of the way John Angotti worked comedy, videos, and talks into his presentations.

The Spirit of Christ

is the spirit of missions.

The nearer we go to Him, 

the more intensely

missionary we become.

Henry Martyn

Missions Then and Now

For one whole week my parents would take us to the parish mission. The mission was about religion and to the kids it was boring. I remember falling asleep as I leaned up against my mother. It seems that those missions were given about twice a year. After the conclusion of the six day long mission, everyone went to confession.Yet, as I grew up I did not hear about missions being presented in the different parishes. I don't know if they were happening and I just did not pay attention or if they disappeared from being practiced in the churches.

At Spirit of Christ I have attended two Missions and found them interesting and much shorter than in the past. This morning I was impressed by the presenter; degrees in business, theology and music. John Angotti's Music Mission is music, jokes, and talks.  I must have been in the right frame of mind because he touched my brain and my heart as he explained love and forgiveness.

The mission began with everyone singing, All Are Welcome a beautiful hymn.  When he mentioned that what we all need or want is to be loved, I agreed, because that is a true statement. I guess we know the fact but never verbalize it but when the idea was spoken, it made it clear how important feeling loved is needed to feel good. The statistic that for every person that enters the Catholic faith there are six that leave the church surprised me. When he asked how many parents have children who do not go to church almost everyone raised their hand. My children do not go to mass every Sunday though they are honest, kind, loving, generous and willing to help those in need. As far as I can see, they are good followers of Christ. They just don't attend mass. I cannot be too upset with them for not following my tradition passed on by my parents and their parents.

I find myself attending mass and religious retreats to strengthen my faith so when the speaker said, "We do not come to church to get faith because we already have it and there is no one that can give you faith."  People attend missions because they already have faith.  That is why we attend mass and try to do what is right by following Christ's teachings, because we have faith.

"Alleluia," He said, "is the wrapping paper around the gospel and we get a hug from God at Communion." I liked those images.

The mission ended with a song of Mary and though I cannot remember all of the words some did stick in my brain; All are welcome in Mary's house, come all ye broken, to Mary's house, in our suffering and pain you are welcome at Mary's house. Help me, Mother of God.  The Hail Mary followed and as we held hands and sang Hold On we turned to our neighbors and told them we loved them. I find if difficult to tell anyone who is not my family that I love them, but today, I looked in their eyes and felt a love for those around me and told them I loved them. Their response was the same and I hope they felt as good as I did with those three simple words.

The thought I have is wondering if my parents felt more complete and had more understanding of life and love after the missions they attended and if they felt as good as I felt today.

Tomorrow is another day of the mission and I am looking forward to attending to see what more I will grasp in my mind and heart!

.

"Where there is love

there is life!"

Mahatma Gandhi

Frequent Flyer Miles

I am beginning to think that there is no such thing as Frequent Flyer miles. I have used Frontier for my travels and have never been able to use the miles that I have supposedly earned. You would think that after twenty or more years that I would have accumulated enough miles to take a free trip somewhere, but that is not the case.

About three months ago I was told I need 10,000 miles for a one way trip. When I tried to use the miles I had for a return trip the price was doubled and it would have cost more than if I just booked regularly. Today, I decided to give it a try once again. Somehow, I did not have enough miles for the trip I wanted to take. When I tried to get the foreign lady with a strong accent to explain the procedure of using my miles all she kept saying, "You have 19,104 miles."

Okay then, I thought, I'll get a one way with my miles. I gave her the dates I was planning to travel and she said, "You cannot use your miles on those dates." My questions about why not were not answered or if they were answered I could not understand her. In order to use my miles on the dates I wanted, I would need 30,000 miles.

Once in speaking with another agent, I mentioned that it seemed as if I kept losing miles. He said, "Miles are lost if they are not used." The last agent I spoke with told me my miles would expire in January, 2020.  Tomorrow I will try again to get a free fare or at least a partial free fare with my miles. Evidently they have certain fares that I can use and my suspicion is that if the fare I want is too high, then the miles do not work. Today, I was told that the fare that normally would cost me $61 dollars I could use my10,000 miles. But, why would I use my mileage for such a low fare? I wondered.

On the Internet I found this note: Frequent flyer miles are awesome. Use them correctly and you will save a ton of money in traveling. But, they are not easy to use and getting started may seem more confusing than it's worth.  Amen I say to that information!

A Three Day Roommate

My daughter came to visit on Halloween Day and to spend some time with me. She came at a perfect time because on the 29th of October was my son's three year anniversary of his death and her arrival kept me from feeling sad and blue.

It is wonderful having a daughter who takes over when things need doing. She fixed my garage door opener; an opener I have had for over six months and procrastinated in calling someone to come fix it. When she saw that my windshield was not getting cleaned, she purchased windshield washer and filled the reservoir. We went through paperwork I have been stacking up and she helped get it in order and shred unwanted pieces of mail. She is kind and helpful. And, of course, we talked about my granddaughters, a favorite subject for both of us!

Watching television was fun and a ten minute fit of laughter was probably good for the soul!  When we ate together I enjoyed her company and no matter what we did or where we went, she was an excellent companion!

Lunch at The Real Thing, (a South American restaurant), with her Peruvian father was interesting because he knew the food types and he could carry on a rapid conversation in Spanish with the workers. He had two empanadas from Peru and said they were very tasty. My daughter and I had the Pupusas from El Salvador which were also good.  He brought pictures of the past and we reminisced; many memories of when the children were little! I took a picture of my daughter, (she wasn't too thrilled), and the worker from Venezuela.

As an experiment, we rode the G Line from Arvada to Union Station. While at Union Station we wandered around and took some pictures and then returned to Arvada. She wanted to check out the procedure on riding the train because she thought she might  ride the train instead of having me drive all the way to the airport to take her. She kept saying, "Riding the train is easy and this may be our future mode of transportation when we come to visit." Wearing wool caps, to ward off the cold, are not the most becoming attire for pictures!

Later, when we went to Target we laughed and she said, "Gee, here on vacation and my highlight is coming to Target!" The following day at The Day of the Dead celebration at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary found us looking at the many booths with skull decorations,  a line to get a slice of  the Bread of the Dead booth, watching Folklorico dancers and listening to Sol de mi Tierra Mariachi group! People had their faces painted, there was Day of the Dead bread, food trucks, a photo booth and an area for children to make their own skulls.

A visit to her Dad's home to meet with his son, a cousin with his girl friend and Georgia, a red Irish Setter! We enjoyed salad, pizza, and a Peruvian drink called Chicha Morada (a drink made from purple corn believed to be healthy due to high antioxidant content).  I took zucchini bread, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies for dessert. There were many stories from the past, remembering family members, and talks about soccer since father, sons/daughter, cousins, grand kids all played the sport.

My daughter's visit was only three days, yet I felt that good quality time was spent together. She was able to relax without any worries from her busy life when she is at home.

This morning I drove her to the Arvada station and she left on the train at 5:28 in the morning. It was cold but we were bundled up!  She texted me after she arrived at Union Station and was boarding the train to the airport. Soon she will be on the flight home and her visit will become another pleasant memory!

"In matters of healing

the body and mind,

vacation is a true genius.

Mehmet Murat Ildan