Indeed I have blogged in the past; the blog became moribund during my walk (run) to Orthodoxy, as it was too private to talk about and nothing else was interesting! Maybe I will pick it up again. In the meantime, the addy is here: http://wpms.blogspot.com/ “wpms” is “words per minute”, pronounced “WOOPmz”…it’s about all I guarantee. My son named the blog.

Kind regards,
Patty Joanna

Thank you for your kind forgiveness. I really do need to get that duct tape thing going.

I have blogged, but it is pathetic. It’s like this: I really like to write. I’ve spent enormous amounts of time writing all my life. Over the past 20 years, it has been in email and business plans, then in personal emails and on an interest-based BBS. I started a blog. Long story short, it turns out that I write better in responsiveness, not into the air. I write conversationally, not unilaterally. So the blog drifted off. Then, I started again…and then I really got intensely involved in the journey to Orthodoxy, and it was too personal, too intense to blog about. I admire the tar out of you four who can blog about such intensely personal things. So much of what you say–regardless that we are not necessarily coming from the same place–resonates and states what I would have said if I had been able to be forthcoming. But I couldn’t do it.

Well, the blog is somewhat limping along. Maybe I will make a post now.

Part of it is that I don’t have a PC. Well, I do, but my son is on it making movies or my husband on it playing Spider solitaire half the time, and so I just don’t have a PC, even if everyone in this house thinks I do. (Yes, I’m bitter. smile)

Well, here it is, for what it is worth: http://wpms.blogspot.com/ I had to go to another site to link to it; I can’t even remember my own blog address. That should tell you something.

Kind regards to all 4 of you.

PJ

Not to worry. What you said is probably true–our family members usually get the worst of us, not our best.

Do you blog?

Blessings

Barb

I think my comment on confession was flippant, looking at it now. I apologize for that and ask your forgiveness.

Of course, the problem is rarely knowing what one needs to confess; the problem is actually doing a good confession with true repentance. This is not easy, but it is good and it is necessary, more than I could have imagined–or yet understand.

Kind regards,
Me again

Oh, by the way, confession is really easy. You just go to every member of your family and all your friends and say, “What do I need to confess?” It is not a mystery to them–if they will only tell you the truth. Just take dictation. (I’m only sort of kidding.)

One of my most fervent prayers is that my saint, Joanna, will put duct tape over my mouth. I know how you feel in this blog post.

Me again…talking.

Sigh.

I commented on Debbie’s blog a few days ago…here I am bothering you now.

We, too, are dealing with the dementia thing. It is hard, especially when the spiritual status of the “losing it” person is uncertain, at best. One thing my husband has done (it is his dad) is to tell him, “Dad, I have some prayers I need to say” and he SAYS them, in front of his dad, from the Orthodox prayer book. The reason he does this is that one never knows what is going on in the mind of another, and the worst thing would be that the “other” *wants* to do something about his spiritual state, but doesn’t have the words. At least by saying the prayers, my husband is giving him the hearing of the words. It is just a thought.

I can’t tell you how much I have grown in admiration for my husband as he has dealt with this. He has made amazing sacrifices to see his dad every week, to be with him and be kind. And his thoughtful response to the spiritual state of his dad is a good one, I think.

Kind regards to all four of you. I’ll try not to bother you too much, but I am praying for you all. You are very dear to God, and increasingly so to me!

Patty Joanna

me