Heart Warming Events, Baptisms, Weddings, Wakes

“Event” is a good word… it’s definition: an occurrence or incident, especially of significance.

As a Deacon (capital D) I am involved in significant events in people’s lives: Baptisms, Weddings, Wakes. I’m not classifying Mass as an event – it’s in a separate category, because it involves the larger community rather than individual families.

A Deacon’s Thoughts on Baptisms

Baptisms are by far the most enjoyable; we’re celebrating new life, physical and spiritual.  There’s much JOY!!!

A Deacon’s Thoughts on Weddings

Weddings are the least “fulfilling” for me, although I truly enjoy walking with the couple especially in the preparation for their marriage.  But the Wedding Day, since it is the most significant day in the lives of the couple, is filled with tension.  Not all bad, of course.  There’s so much planning of every detail that it becomes fraught with tension.  Everything is expected to work out perfectly as planned. (Which, as we know, is not true to life!)

A Deacon’s Thoughts on Wakes

I feel most fulfilled at Wakes.  The mourners are very close to God in that situation. I feel that I can help them in the connection with God.

Concluding Thoughts on Heart Warming Events

Baptisms are more physically “draining” of my energy.  I do a lot of moving around, using physical energy.  At Wakes, on the other hand, I just stand there – little physical movement on my part, much more passive, as befits the “event”!~  Weddings would be in the middle – some physical energy expended.

Emotional energy for all 3 is about equal, although I emote more at Baptisms, as is the nature of the joyful event.”

This piece was written by our Dear Friend, Bob Campbell. Bob has contributed on Lucid Practice a lot over the past few months. We are extremely grateful!

It never ceases to amaze me how funerals and wakes put life into perspective. On those days as Bob says,  “mourners are very close to God.” After losing a loved one, I certainly feel drawn to a higher power.

I love divine messages sent reminding us of an old friend or family members spirit. It seems that a person may move on physically but their Spirit stays with the people they touched. 

Have you experienced similar feelings at these types of life events?

Most people can relate to having a strong desire, belief and yes, even faith, that something good was about to happen. This may have been a strong intuition that they were going to get that promotion, meet Mr. or Mrs. Right or even reconnect with someone after a misunderstanding that created a rift in the relationship. However, for whatever reason, despite the strong belief that we had it would all work out, it didn’t. The promotion went to someone else, Mr. or Mrs. Right turned out to be wrong and despite our willingness to rekindle the relationship the other person wanted to stay mad and unforgiving.

When this happens the first step is to immediately see the negative. We berate ourselves for our wishful thinking, for our mistake believes and our misplaced faith in the positive aspects of the universe. We often block ourselves from trying again and sink into a cycle of negativity, cynicism and critical outlook on the world around us.

Instead, there are some simple steps that you can take to ensure that your faith, belief and hope stays alive and you stay focused on the positives. Getting caught up in negativity will only attract more negativity, a concept that is central in my book, “The Law of Sobriety” , which is based on the universal Law of Attraction. Three techniques that really help you stay focused on the positive energy around you even if things don’t go the way you anticipated are:

1. Don’t try to control how positives will come into your life, just look for the opportunities that the universe provides. Controlling the process will simply block possibilities.
2. See yourself as you want to be, not how you want to get there.
3. Have faith and believe in your vision for yourself, don’t set a timeline or a specific date that it has to be accomplished by.

Via Sherry Gaba and IntentBlog

The American “family dinner” tradition, as we know it, is only 150 years old, according to a new book called Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal by cultural historian Abigail Carroll. This is interesting because family dinner is often viewed as a sacred custom with near-magical powers attributed to it, yet it’s really not as deeply embedded in history as one might suppose. Many societal changes have led to the creation of family dinner — and to the subsequent drift away from it in recent years.

Carroll writes about the pre-Victorian approach to food, which was casual and chaotic. While the early settlers saw a defined, three-meal-a-day schedule as a way to differentiate themselves from the “savagery” of Native feasts, meals were “generally informal, variable, and socially unimportant affairs.” Since fewer than one in four Virginia households owned a table, it was hard to put on a formal meal. As population increased, table etiquette became a way to distinguish between social classes. With the Industrial Revolution, workers packed lunches, which meant “coming together around a table in the evening took on heightened significance.” This was the final push toward adopting the sacred status that family dinner now holds.

Click to read more of Katherine Martinko’s piece over at tree hugger — Food 

Life Hacks from the Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs:

Respect for self, Respect for others and, Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realise you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Image and quotes via Thrivedynamics

Via Newsday

Meet Jermaine, the patient pit bull mix who acts as a loving guide for his blind brother Jeffrey. The abandoned 6-month-old duo was discovered roaming the streets of Philadelphia in September. Animal welfare workers soon realized that the pair couldn’t bear to be separated.

“They’re always pretty much touching each other,” Ray Little, director of life saving at Operation Ava, told NBC Philadelphia. “Jeffrey really does try to maintain contact with Jermaine, especially when he’s in an unfamiliar environment,” he added. But it’s amazing how they try to maintain contact with each other,” he ended. Little said interest in the dogs had been “overwhelming” after staff at Chester County SPCA posted the picture of them sleeping online.

Click to watch a video of the two dogs — Love.

Image via Chester County SPCA