You're Making My Life a Garden

God is making my life beautiful. The funny thing is, I usually think that I have to tangibly see the beauty to know that he's making it fresh and pure. To see the goodness, that I'm becoming more perfect, that life is getting easier and that temptation is being crowded out by a desire to be good and love God above all else.

All of those things are definitely beautiful, and they're the fruits of following God in how you live. Yet I think that God is shaping me and growing me and making my life more pure even when I can't see Him doing it. It's like he's there invisibly, helping me in those moments where I could trip and fall and standing me up straight. He's the reminders to think the best of people, and to shut up if I haven't anything good to say, or to pay attention in Mass.

These things are tiny. They're even rare, at times in my life. But they're proof that God is real and that He loves me. That even when I'm a jerk, He's not going to give up on me.

That's a wonderful comfort. I'm loved. It's the most special thing to be.

-Tina

I'll be out of my mind...

I would be, rather, if the BBC didn't make such smashingly fantastic TV shows.


Right now, BBC Merlin is my very favorite. I haven't got time to write a full review, but the show tells the story of the great sorcerer Merlin as a young man in Camelot. Using magic is against the law, and for a guy with a natural talent for it, that is a bit of a problem. The creator of the law is the king in town: Uther. He's Arthur's dad (not dead in this reworking of the legend, though Arthur is a young man) and he believes magic to be evil. Is it because he believed the old religion to be wrong, or perhaps because of something rooted deeper?

It's just such a great show. I feel as though movies and TV today barely ever make a distinction between right and wrong. It's so chock full of relativity, and those who are shown to believe that truth exists are depicted in most TV shows as ridiculous or intolerant.

That drives me NUTS. My french teacher seems to share the common opinion that truth is abstract and relative. Luckily, she doesn't grade my papers with a bias for her own beliefs.

So when BBC Merlin actually speaks (blatantly) of doing the right thing, of choosing a higher good (such as knowing and acting on the fact that a good end does NOT justify a bad means), and actually speaking of this as laudable, I'm so glad! I'm so grateful for good TV shows like this.

It's not perfect. Not by any means. Not safe, necessarily. But it IS good.

Let's spend the afternoon in a cold hot air balloon!

I just babysat my niece and nephew. As they are such close relations and more like a brother and sister than niece and nephew, I have license to be a bit snarky when I'm babysitting them. Or so I tell myself. And I let them play alone and am not completely attentive to them all the time.

This afternoon was a bit different, because I played with both of them for a good part of it.

I was pulled at from both sides. My niece wanted me to be her "Baby" and "My dear", and my nephew wanted me to be a fellow magician and a clown with him. It was quite difficult to find the balance.

Just so I won't forget it, I'm going to write what happened between me and Sophia (my niece) as I was pretending to be her "Dear" at bedtime:

"Mama! Mama!" I say as my niece walks away from me at bedtime.

She doesn't respond and has neglected to pull up the covers, so I pull them over myself.

This brings her running back. "No, no, my deaw! (how she says "dear") You go under the covows!"

"I am going under the covers!"

"No, not like that!"

"Fine, then I won't have covers," I say grumpishly.

She runs away to see her mama, and I lay pretending to sleep. Then I wake up. "Mama, mama! I want you to snuggle me!"

Sophia runs back and slaps her hands over my mouth. "SHH, SHH! You wanna heow (hear) a stowey? (story)"

"Yes, mama!"

"Okay, okay. So theyoh (there) was a little giwohl (girl) and hehw (her) name was Tina and she was walking down the stweet and hehw (her) mama came and said, 'It's time fow bed!", so Tina went to bed and hehw mama didn't snuggle her or do anything and the baby went to bed and stopped cwying."

Then she pats me and runs away again.

How is THAT for a message to me? Be quiet and go to bed!

And then I decided I didn't want bedtime anymore and tried to get up and she pounced on me and put me back to bed again, forcibly!

How's that for a three-year-old mother? She's quite the kid!

-Tina