I love this forum, I have learned a lot.  I don't reply too often.  I do light a lot of candles.  When I read posts I am ofter reminded that my crosses to bear can't even compare to others who have posted here. 
  
After all that has happened in 2008, after losing my mom, trying to regain my life after taking care of her for so many years, and missing her with all my heart, losing my mother-in-law 40 days after my mother's death, I do not question the Master Plan and ask why me.  One day I will find all my answers but not looking for that time to come anytime soon. 
 
I am however, trying to figure out a way to make myself a better person and trying to still help those around me as that is something that I know how to do well.  I am a giver.  I belive after reading a book years ago that "the Lord is Fiirst, my Friends are second, and I am Third."  and - - I always remember that wonderful song/saying - - - Let there be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin with me.
 
We need to start somewhere, why not with each and everyone of us.
 
Wishing everyone a New Year, one what is filled with Hope and Happiness and just a small little piece of our dreams to come true.
 
Joni

Joni,
I wish you all good things in the coming year. You deserve it.
 
Jude

Love is the only way

Dear Joni,
 
Thank you for your good wishes and kind words!
You had a difficult year! It seems to me that you grew with the challenges of loss and pain.
 
Your mentioning of crosses reminds me of a story. A man felt his cross was too burdensome. He was offered the opportunity to find another one. He tried several that did not fit right either until he came to one that seemed just right. It was the cross he had carried to begin with! I think we can't avoid crosses but are given the strength to carry them.
 
May this New Year bring you peace and much joy,
 
Love,
Edda

Peace and joy!

Hello Joni,
I love this forum,too.Like you I don't reply often,but I light a lot of candles,and read posts which helped me to bear my own cross.
On June 2005 I lost my dear mom,on May 2006 I lost my loving son and on april 2008 my father in law...Coming to this site I found out that I am not alone and not only one with broken heart...
Wishing you and everyone in this site to find peace and healing in the coming New Year...

With love,
Buba,Goran's mom
 
P.S.Dear Edda, I know this story and I like it,it is so true!

Dear Joni
 
I am so sorry you have/are going through so much heartache.
 
Reading your post made me smile (not the passing of your loved ones)
 
but through helping others we have helped ourselves in so many ways.
 
Your dear Mother was looked after so lovingly by you and through this
 
you have become who you are today.
 
Reading your words I know you are a kind and gentle person and I am sure
 
all those that meet you are very lucky to have you in their life.
 
I wish you a happy and peaceful New Year as well.
 
Take care,Sandraxx
 
 

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love~and be loved in return♥♥  


 

hi joni,

((((((hugs))))))

love,
kriann

[image]http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bcandle3fq9.gif[image]

Dear Joni,
I wrote this about a year or so ago.
Steam into every new day
As though it is your first.
And know when life’s pathway
Becomes an uphill climb
Friends and your angels
Will get you up the incline
For the view from a hill
Is beautiful that’s true 
We can polish the track of time
And life’s sparkle will flutter
As we pass along the line.
 
love and light
Gina and jackory
 

Dear Joni . . .
Blessings to you too, this new year.
Yours is a message that we can all aspire to . . .
to hold kindness, love and peace in our hearts towards all,
and carry this within us the whole year through.
And please, please don't forget to extend this to yourself as well.
with much love . . .
sparrow

everything counts... ♥

I received this reflection several days ago from a friend. I would like to share it with all since Fr. Joe's thoughts are so very timely and well put. It was written for the church bulletin of his parish.

Edda


Ordinary Time…..                                                                                        January 4, 2009
                                                                                                                                      
Tis is to you, for you and about you.  It is not to, for, or about anyone else - except me.  So, I fully appreciate that what I am about to say is directed at me as well. 

If you want peace in the world then you will have to "be the peace" the world is lacking.  Real peace is not an idea; real peace is an experience closely alied with social justice.  The only people who can bring about real peace are the ones who have experienced it - the peaceful people.  They are the only ones who know what it is and can tell bogus peace from the real McCoy. 

So if you want a better world you will have to work on yourself!  Become different and the world will become different.  There are just too many people talking peace and trying to achieve it who simply are unequipped for the task and they are ill equipped because they are not peaceful people themselves and/or politically isolated: you cannot give what you do not have.

How can you or I become peaceful?  What does it mean to “work on yourself”?  It isn’t easy!  It’s far easier to “justify” the way we are.  That’s what most people do and why there isn’t real peace in most places.  So…..

Recognize and gradually eliminate whatever significant influence your own racial and ethnic and sexist prejudices have on you and on your participation in society.  Recognize and gradually eliminate your desires to punish others, to manipulate them to accept your agenda, to place your gods above theirs. 

See through your own behavior and apparent intentions to the often underlying motives that lead you to be busy about good things rather than allowing yourself to be vulnerable to others, that lead you to plead "I was only following orders" instead of being courageous or innovative or simply yourself, that prompt you to put others down so you can feel good about yourself - all the while denying that that is exactly what you are doing.

How many “peacemakers” have you met who would just as soon smash their opposition as look at them?  How many peacemakers have you met who appear to be more troubled than the trouble they purport to fix? 

How many self-styled peacemakers put human dignity before national boundaries, human rights before economic gain, justice for the underclass before golden parachutes, advancement on merit before political advantage and God before the church?  Because they're "nice" they are not Herod?  Please!

So much more than saying “yes” to doctrinal truths, as important as that is, following Jesus is about self-transformation.  It’s about “putting on Christ” as St. Paul says.  It’s about becoming a different person.  Following Jesus means to actually follow him: to go where he goes and do what he does and take his values as one’s own – in family life, at work, in social gatherings, in local, national and world politics.  Deep down, both you and I know that Jesus excluded nothing from his Lordship – nothing.

Being-peace sounds winsome but it’s difficult, yet possible for us all.  It beats most New Year's resolutions.  It's not a resolution.  It's a way to be, a way of life.  Either that or continue to gripe and screw up other people’s lives.

Father Joe Ruiz

Peace and joy!

thanks for sharing this.

with love,
kriann

[image]http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bcandle3fq9.gif[image]

Thank you for posting this, Edda.
It is so timely,
and also simply stated
which makes it an even more powerful message.
with love . . .
sparrow

everything counts... ♥

How can you or I become peaceful? What does it mean to “work on yourself”? It isn’t easy! It’s far easier to “justify” the way we are. That’s what most people do and why there isn’t real peace in most places. So…..

 
So true!!

Love is the only way