Raices y Ramas

“He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.”—St. Benedict of Nursia When I read this quote today, I chuckled a little bit, because it’s become a relatively new habit of mine to pray a Rosary while washing the dishes after dinner.   And because I remembered an entry in my “man-journal” from years ago that dealt with the same subject matter, but on a personal level.   I started my journal back in 2001 to help me cope with Tom’s passing and my thoughts of my own mortality.   I wanted to have something my kids (and hopefully, grandkids) could read years later to get a sense of what their Dad’s inner struggles were, as benign as they are.   My journal morphed into my blogs, and occasionally, I’ll incorporate earlier entries into them.   Here’s my entry, copied and pasted, of a random Sunday:   Sunday, June 06, 2004   It’s funny, the things you think about when you’re doing things you really don’t want to do.   In my case...

  It was 20 years ago today when my "little" brother Tom died on January 5, 2001.   Even though we knew he was terminally ill, I didn't really expect he would be taken from us so early, or suddenly.   I take comfort in the fact that Tom faced his life, his death, and his reunion with our Creator with faith, courage, and a sense of humor.   But, on rare occasions, he also faced loneliness and despair.   I want to use this 20 th anniversary to remember a few of the special memories we shared.      Tom was really accident-prone.   A lot of my earliest memories of Tom involve his hospital or doctor visits.   There were numerous times that Tom would run into the house crying out for Mom, bleeding from either tripping over or running into something!   I couldn’t say the exact number of stitches he had to endure before his 10th birthday, but as we got older, we would joke about it! He was hitting bullets with a hammer in the garage on...

  January 3 is the feast day of St. Genevieve.   Anyone who really knows me knows of my devotion and reliance on the Saints of the Church to help me through life’s experiences.   Today’s feast day reminds me to pray for my Aunt Genevieve and to remember her influence in my life.   What better way to honor her than to compare her to her namesake!   Most Saints are depicted in special ways through art, or “Icons”.   The use of symbols lets us know the special traits of each saint.   The symbols associated with Saint Genevieve are: A loaf of bread —because she was generous to those in need.   I could tell countless stories of the times Aunt Jenny showed her generosity to others! A coin suspended around her neck —symbolizing her consecration to God.   Aunt Jenny’s devotion to God and His Church was second to none! A candle —which it is said she used as she walked to church at night and which stayed lit despite the devil’s persistent attem...

  December 20 th is my Dad’s birthday.   Every year I try to write a little something different about him on this date.   I thought this year I would use something my younger brother Tom wrote in his “journal” that I found when he passed away in 2001.   I’m amazed at the detail Tom uses when reminiscing about Dad.   This story described Dad in a nutshell.   From cooking tacos (or tamales) to good-naturedly cussing to being there with an alternative answer to a problem, that was Dad.   Even though Tom and I didn't have Dad around relatively long growing up (Tom was 13, I was 16), it was apparently long enough to impress our young minds and help to shape our characters for the rest of our lives.   December 20 is also the date Mom and Dad got married in 1941.   Please pray for both of them today, won’t you?   Thanks! With all of that being said, here’s what Tom wrote: (the illustration above was also drawn by Tom) "WHO NEEDS A FISHIN...

  Lily turns 12 tomorrow!   She’s no longer a ‘little girl’, but a ‘young lady’.   I thought it might be interesting to recall my memories of that day.   It was quite an adventure for me!   My mom and I had made plans to travel to Simi Valley so Mom could stay with my brother Bob and his wife Marilyn for the holidays.   I was just going to drive her down there, maybe have a bite to eat, go to Mass, then return home, because Alicia was due to deliver Lily at any time.   If I didn't feel like driving all the way back that night, my intention was to stay at the apartment that U-Haul had set up for me when I worked in Bakersfield, then drive home in the morning refreshed. Everything was going as planned and we were on our way on time.   We thought we could stop every couple of hours to stretch our legs and grab a water.   Highway 5 would be the quickest way to get to Simi.   We got as far as the Westley rest stop outside of Tracy when I ...

  My Mom sent me and my brothers the following e-mail on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Do you know, my family, what tomorrow is? It is your sister, Dorothy Anne's birthday!! Even if she wasn't alive on this her birthday (she was stillborn), I have been thinking about her all week!!   What would she have looked like now, what kind of a person would she be, would she be a help or otherwise to me? But we won't know will we, until we see her in Heaven!   Yes, she is definitely in Heaven (because she was baptized by the nurse at the time of delivery) and so she can pray for all of us struggling here below! She is up there with Our Lord and our and her Blessed Mother, and her Grandmother Batty, with whom she shares her birthday!   Tomorrow or tonight when you say your prayers or tomorrow (or tonight) when you go to Mass remember her for me will you?? Love, Mom Mom’s letter got me reflecting about a deep subject that’s easy to describe but extremely difficult to com...

This picture was taken the year after this story takes place! March 13th is my brother Tom's birthday.   For some reason, I thought of this incident today when thinking about how to honor him.   One day, when I was about 10 and my brother Tom was about 7, he and I had a knockdown, drag-out fight about something.   I don’t remember why, and it’s not important to the rest of the story.   But Mom suggested we spend the rest of the afternoon playing at separate friends' houses, to let things calm down.   Tom and his friend went down to the end of the alley that was behind our house to pick pomegranates from a tree that hung over a fence and were easy to get to. (It was a different world back then.   As long as we stayed “on the block” and checked in often, we’d be OK.)   A bully that he knew from school happened to come by and started to give Tom and his friend a hard time.   Because our mother didn’t raise no dummies, instead of getting i...