St Joseph

Today marks St Joseph’s day, which is traditionally the halfway point in Lent.  I mention this because when we were at school, today was always a day off as our nuns were the order of St Joseph of Cluny.  A few years ago, I saw the list of his titles and was deeply amused to find that among them were “Guardian of virgins” and “Terror of demons” — I’m not exactly sure which of them applied better to a school of almost 800 teenage girls!  I’ll leave it to you to decide 😜  The weather today started off as a very windy and brisk -15C, warming up to -5C, with sun but occasional flurries, so it seems that winter is kicking up at the thought of spring’s arrival tomorrow.  The forecast is for a cooler than average, slightly damp spring, which is fine when you consider that there is a lower risk of massive floods when the thaw is slower.  Jerry has been moving from one lap to another, and intermittently throwing his toy at us to play catch.  He had a jag of alerting us to people moving around in the hallway this afternoon persistently.  Don is presently cuddling the puppy, and enjoying the evening of a quiet Sunday.  There was some sports on TV today, and more planned.  My pain is subsiding, finally.  I’ll really practice stopping when my body protests!

Two brief updates… my cousin’s husband is at home and has registered for all of the clinics that were recommended.  He says that he’s delighted to be home in his own bed with his family around, and is (so far) following all instructions for his home care.  Thank you, everyone, for the thoughts and prayers; we think that they did help — never mind the abuse of that phrase!  Secondly, I managed to muster enough energy to cook some curry chicken, pumpkin, rice and a chicken pelau.  I’d taken out from the freezer a package of what I thought were chicken thighs but which turned out to be chicken wings (I know, labels, blah blah) and they were too many to curry at once, so I divided them into 2 batches and made 2 dishes that I felt like eating.  After a little break, I’ll parcel them and freeze so I’ll have meals available for a while.  

I saw that today is designated International Day of Happiness; it seems to be one of those entertaining, unofficial occasions that pops up, like “chocolate chip cookie day” or “ice cream day” and on reflection, I think I like the idea!  This week there’s a more serious holiday in the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which falls on March 21, which is for another day.  The whole idea of being aware of and celebrating happiness is great.  It’s a definite improvement over the news cycle that repeats on loop all the many disasters that occur.  Sadly, we don’t seem interested in the good news stories that happen; at least not as much as the horrors.  We’ll hear — 6 times in an hour — about a house fire, but only once in a day about the neighbourhood that pulled together to implement a shared food cupboard.  Those kinds of stories don’t tend to generate outrage, so they are less likely to attract a following (“go viral”) which is a pity.  You all know that I have a tendency to ask for lighter images — puppies, flowers, etc — because they help me.  When my anxiety starts to build, those kinds of images remind me of what’s important.  I’ll never revolutionize society, or cure cancer, but if I can make someone smile, or feel good about themselves, then I think that I’ve accomplished something awesome.  

Too many of us feel like failures because we haven’t achieved our childhood ambitions.  We don’t have Nobel Prizes, or win the World Cup, or invent miraculous cures or… it’s a long list!  We do, though, have people around us who love us — or who want to, given a chance.  We also have the ability to spread sunshine and joy around.  I would ask that we try to do that.  I rather think that spreading joy is one very effective way to terrorize demons!  Think about it — if a demon’s main job is to persuade you to join their legions of despair, then bringing light keeps you away from them.  We can, if you’d like, have a (short) discussion of why demons are not fit companions.  Anyway, I’m continuing to find things that make me happy.  High on the list are my boys, my family and friends and being able to get into my hobbies.  I’m often reminded of that lovely prose poem the Desiderata, and the lines 

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

It’s wonderful advice.  Well, the entire thing is full of meaningful advice and I occasionally read it just to remind myself of some key truths.

I’ll end with the last line of this poem, because I think it’s particularly apt for today.  “Be cheerful.  Strive to be happy.”  Good night