Christmas 2025

May you have a blessed Christmas, whether celebrating it for many years or for the first time. I'm praying for all persons to see the truth of Jesus Christ. 

I'd also like to see all Christians, including myself, make every effort to love others as Christ asks. Help us to do so, Lord. 

Outline Writing

I have been thinking once again about “retiring” from writing, but have had things I’ve still wanted to say. For quite a while I’ve felt I haven’t been able to express myself, and I was ready to quit without a feeling of closure, though I would leave the blog available for as long as possible even if I stopped posting. Then it occurred to me to try writing with an outline, which I had never done. I am glad I have made the effort to do so, because I’ve found it helpful in organizing my ideas. I’m not sure this work will be enough to keep me posting in the blog, but it has still been worthwhile for me.

As I developed the outline, I realized my concerns are directed to different “audiences,” or groups of people with various interests and beliefs, although there is overlap. Some of these groups are: non-believers of any God or religion; those who consider themselves spiritual but not Church members; and Catholics and other Christians who are universalists (basically believing everyone will be saved). There are individuals within all of these three groups that in diverse respects deny that belief in Jesus Christ and Him alone as our Savior and God, along with the Father and Holy Spirit, is necessary for a blessed everlasting life.

I also think about other issues within the Church, for example: strained relationships between and among Catholic Church leadership and laity; the negative effect some prominent theologians have had on the Church; and Pope Francis’s call to synodality with the Bishops’ Synod on Synodality 2021-2024.

I’m not on any social media other than Google blog and don’t interact with other forums right now, so I may be optimistic about reaching any audience at all. But with new AI search engines, you never know what will happen. I started this blog with pretty regular posts, but in coping with various life challenges, my input declined. I shouldn’t compare myself to others, but I felt a little self-conscious about not posting until I read several blogs with inconsistent output. We are all vulnerable to difficult circumstances.

Probably more has been written about Jesus Christ than any other person, and concepts of God more than any other topic. And yet there is more to say. God is new every morning. He is a marvel beyond our full understanding, yet He lets us discover more about His Creation each day. Because God is not completely knowable to humans, we have different ideas about Him, but that doesn’t mean they are all correct or even acceptable. And though most Christians have many of the same basic beliefs, I think our disagreements show we need to work together to better understand and be pleasing to the Lord.

There is purpose in writing about the Trinity: Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are many people still to be reached and much to learn for us all. As long as authors proclaim the True Lord, I applaud their efforts, whether I continue writing or eventually feel called to a different task.

Sixteen Candles

On March 8, 2024, I celebrate anniversary number 16 of my womanatwell blog. In my youth I had vague ideas of wanting to be a writer, but couldn’t put together what to write about, unlike so many writers who started making up stories at a young age. On the other hand, a load of life experiences can be helpful to feed the writing fires, and I have had plenty of those.

My parents stressed education and I had always liked animals, especially horses, so I thought I might like to be a veterinarian. Nothing stopped my progress and I indeed graduated in that field and practiced for several years. But in the meantime, I had experienced several very difficult personal situations and spent quite a few years searching for some kind of grounding. I thank the Lord that I eventually came back to my Christian religion. This experience made me aware of how likely it is that others may be in the same condition I had been, and it led me to learn more about theology, the study of God and religion, and evangelization, which is proclaiming the Truth.

As I try to explain aspects of my life, God is at the top of importance, and of course human relationships are a major part. But for interests, theology and evangelization are main categories, you could say. One result of my early theological study was writing the booklet called Heaven’s Passport. It’s small enough to produce on my own printer and I have distributed it in various places. Once I started my blog, I added the booklet digitally, offering it for free. Though the term “theology” sounds heavily academic, my booklet describes various facets of Christianity in what I think to be an understandable way.

Womanatwell has not had a lot of traffic like some, and I don’t have any other media sites. When I’ve commented on a few other websites, I have noticed an increase in visits here. I’ve mostly been happy doing the blog and am glad for an outlet for my writing.

When I started the blog, my overall desire to evangelize could probably be further categorized to three of my general interests: women’s issues; Latin America; and Creationism (which started in the form of Intelligent Design Theory).

I still am interested in women’s place in the Catholic Church, which is probably why I have posted so many links to the current project of Pope Francis, the Bishop’s Synod on Synodality. During this process, women have had a chance to express what they think and feel in a much freer atmosphere than previously. As I expected, many say that Catholic women need a much larger role in decision making and influence. I could write much more about this subject, but have found it is even more of a hot-button issue for me than the other ones and I know there are many very capable women out there working to improve this situation. I have made some comments along the way but have mostly felt it better to let cooler heads prevail.

My concern for problems in Latin America was expressed in a creative way in one of my fictional books, Unto Others. I care about people there, many of whom have such a hard life, and in real life I sponsored children from Colombia and El Salvador for some time through Christian agencies. I was able to make a few trips to Mexico and one to El Salvador, and I’m grateful I had these opportunities.

However, a person can only do so much, and I feel I was pulled toward the evolution controversy in order to use my gifts, at least for a time, to the best effect. As years passed, I shifted attention from the first two subjects much more into the scientific improbability of evolution. I figured my academic degrees in animal science and veterinary medicine would come in useful for this subject, and they certainly did. I even gave a few presentations to groups, although not everyone I approached would have me. The science can be difficult, but as in Heaven’s Passport, I have tried to explain the topics as simply as possible. I wrote two non-fiction booklets about Creation Biology and a fictional book, Biotech Swirl, to provide relevant information and perspective. They are all included on my blog.

But that time to study and promote Creationism came to a close and I wanted to focus more specifically again on theology, which includes studying philosophy as well. I have a certificate in theology (one year of college), but know that there is so much more to learn. I have worked on theology itself for the past few years, reading St. Thomas Aquinas and other authors, and have learned a great deal on my own. However, once again I’m feeling some kind of shift coming which may draw my attention elsewhere.

In the Book of James in the Bible, it warns against announcing what we will do today or tomorrow since we have no idea what will happen in the future. Instead we should say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15, NIV). In other words, we should always keep our eyes on the Lord, since situations can change in surprising ways. I’ve had a tendency to project whether I’m going to write more or not on the blog, but at this point I need to say, “I want to do what the Lord wills for me.”

The first book I wrote, Mission Faithful, was printed before I started the blog. I suspected it would not be accepted by a publishing house, so I self-published it. The story is about a secret group of Christians who pray together about various situations, seeking God’s direction for their actions.

In a way I feel like I’ve come full circle, because this first book still sticks with me. Though I’m not a member of a secret prayer group, or any prayer group, at this moment, I pray to discern God’s will for my path from here.

HNY 2024!

A very belated Happy New Year 2024 to all! 

I'm still catching up. Last year was a very busy one for me, with a lot of traveling to relatives at different times and places. They were for the important life passages of a significant birthday and a wedding as well as two surgeries. The relatives all live hundreds of miles away and I drove all of it since I dislike flying and didn’t want to rent cars or depend on others at the destinations. It was worth it, but I’m hoping I’m home more this year. I’m grateful to friends who oversaw my home while I was gone.

I’ve started a few resolutions this year, one of which is to cut out TV almost totally. I still have a connection, and there might be a few things I’ll want to see, but daily hours are out. After only a few weeks, instead of missing being entertained (which was getting more questionable by the year), I very much like my extra free time. I think I’m already a little more productive because of it, and hope to stay that way.

In fact, another resolution was to get some of my notebooks in more order and that is pretty much done, for the time being anyway. I’m so glad to feel more organized. We had a big snowstorm in the middle of January, so that helped to keep me home and working on these books, along with a lot of shoveling. I thank the electric company for keeping at least our part of the state in electricity.

I don’t have much more to add right now. I wanted to get a post in for January, and am just squeaking by. Last month I brought my husband’s blog to an end. Even though he passed away several years ago, I felt people were still referring to it for a while, but I felt the time had come. But I hope to keep mine going for a while. It may be rather sparse for now, but it is still a nice outlet for my writing, and perhaps I’ll pick up speed again some day.

Reading Material

I’m trying to get used to the new blogger setup and so far the hardest part is posting, which is pretty much the point of the blog in the first place. There are other glitches, but I won’t go into them and I’m not the type to write to the company to tell them what I think. I just limp along until I get used to it and often improvements come due to the good work of others. I think I notice some already.

So I thought I’d do a short post on what I’m reading now so I could see more of how this works. I alternate most of what I read through the day and week, but I read the Bible every morning and right now I’m on Galatians and Exodus. I had read Matthew and then Acts not that long ago and next went to Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. I'm going to continue in order with the Old Testament, but I wondered in what order the books of the New Testament were written. I wanted to read Paul’s letters, especially since I had previously finished Acts and I knew Romans, the next in line, was not first in chronological order of his letters. The search engine brought forth mostly the answer of Galatians first, although a few listed Thessalonians. So, I went with Galatians in the New Testament.

I’m also reading Dignitatis humanae, a document from the Vatican II Catholic Church Council. It has raised a lot of ire and I wanted to know what it said. It is about religious freedom and Catholics being able to follow their consciences. That’s not the only controversial document of Vatican II, but it is right up there.

Since we are speaking of controversial Vatican II documents, another is Nostra aetate, which concerns the relation of the Catholic Church with other world religions. This has in fact prompted many people to wonder about the validity of the Council itself because it sounds so inclusive as to point toward universalism, meaning that just about anyone can go to heaven. Before the council, it was pretty much understood by Catholics that only Christians, and perhaps a bit more historically only Catholics, were accepted. This has led me to research third and fourth century councils held by the Church concerning the "Arian heresy." Though some councils rejected it, others accepted it. The book that I’m reading about it now is by John Henry Newman called, The Arians of the Fourth Century.

I'm fitting in Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. It is about evangelization by and in the Church. It has already had some surprising comments to me.

I'm also starting St. Thomas' Summa Theologica, which is a theological classic but over 1000 pages, so it may take some very significant time.

 

Book Files

It's been on my mind for a long time to check whether the very limited selection of file types for the books on my blog (PDF and/or EPUB) are adequate. I have put this off in tandem with setting the whole blog aside. Well today, in a brief but enlightening period of time,  I  found that Kindle, iPhones and iPads can display PDF files. I also know that android can handle PDF since I can view it on my nook. Android also uses EPUB (as when I get books from the library onto my nook). I really would rather not get into further Kindle conversions unless there were any requests, which so far has never happened.  So, I made the rather obvious choice to go with what I already have!

My main concern was that the books' PDF files did not show up well on my laptop when I opened them. My guess is that to best view them you will have to download the file and read it from your own computer. The browsers have versions of their own PDF readers, and the well-known Adobe Acrobat Reader has free software for reading PDF files. You can get more information on the Adobe software HERE.

I apologize that this is probably at least partly a low-tech cop-out.  But if anyone requests something else, I can try to accommodate, perhaps even with their help. I am just glad to feel I am doing something with the blog again.

The coming of September with school starting has made me want to get in a regular routine of reading and writing. I feel like I am getting my goals done each day when I read several verses of a study Bible with notes and a few pages of some other books. Now I'm even writing a blog post! I am hoping I can stick even loosely to my schedule.

Thanks to anyone who visits.  Feel free to drop me a line.  💌

Three Month List

I'd like to present a list of excuses for why I haven't written here for 3 months, but no use whining. Everyone is busy, yet some people can keep their blogs going without gaps. Still, even though I have slacked, l believe it's a good practice to add a post once in a while in case I ever get back to this blog on a regular basis. If anyone checks they will see I haven't forgotten it altogether. I actually can't believe Google has been kind and consistent enough to keep the blog site going in the way it has. I'm sure they get something out of it but to give them credit, it is a benefit for those who use it.

Technically, I have done some things on the blog that aren't reflected in the posts. I added my book, Mission: Faithful which I edited last year (see the picture on right to access). And now I hope to go through the files of my other books to update them.

Also, I will go through my posts from the beginning, which was back in 2008. I am sure there are a lot of links that are outdated, and I wasn't always careful about my style for citations. I hope to make improvements in that area.

I do find purpose in thinking about the blog and in writing. So thanks for stopping by and someday I may get back to posts which have more than 3 month's worth of dates between them!
😉

Trying My Best

I am going to use personal stresses as the reason for delays in previous promises I made to look into the programs that carry my blog's e-books. I want you to have the optimum reading experience and am not sure which possible downloads are the best for which devices. But I just haven't had the time to look into it. Among the stresses in no particular order: both my laptops, one old and one new, have had repeated technical problems; my mother who lives 350 miles from me has cancer and needs regular treatments; now I have my own health problems and don't know where that is going. I find it hard to get back into the blog with these things going on.

I know there are not many who come to this website and perhaps none of these promises to update or at least check for better download possibilities are necessary. I guess I will have to discern depending on future events. In the meantime hope that anyone reading will check out the books and posts, as I have invited before. And leave a comment or two if you so desire.

Tomorrow is Easter. I hope you have a very blessed one. 🙏

Turning Point?

I've been thinking about my blog quite a bit lately, but am trying to discern where I'm going like has often happened in my life. I am working on updating my first book, Mission: Faithful, a Christian adventure / mystery so I can add it to my blog. I have kept my husband's blog available, one on local history. He is now deceased, but I keep his name, and picture, on our shared blogs.

I've had a very strong desire to write through my life, but am not feeling that direction right now. I like to pray, and I read Catholic Answers Forums (CAF) quite a bit and still keep up just a little on Evolution News, an ID website, though I'm more a Creationist concerning biology (open-minded about age of Earth). Even though I desired to write in the past, I still went through quite a bit of emotional turmoil over it, so maybe that's just what is happening again.

So, thanks for reading my thoughts in digital form. It will take some time to discern where I'm going. In any case, I am thankful I have had the opportunity to write about the Lord.

Year Marker

Tomorrow will mark one year since my husband, Tom, died of advanced Parkinson's disease. We did not have cemetery plots at the time, so I had to go quickly to our Church's cemetery office to purchase two. I was surprised to find that there were some available close to his family, in an older part of the cemetery. They had a large family gravestone, but the plots directly around it were all taken. Still, there were 3 right next to them, so I decided on two of these rather than in the new area. Whenever Tom and I went to the cemetery we went there, so I figured the location would be familiar for me to visit. I will go tomorrow and spend a little time. I will wait to put flowers until is is warmer. There are three urns there and I put flowers in close to Memorial Day.

I thought writing this post would help me get through today and tomorrow. I am OK, but it just weighs heavy, as anyone knows who goes through grief. That is, anyone who is old enough to survive a loved one.  I admired many things about my departed husband who was very kind and patient. But another is that his love brought to me a new appreciation of Christ's love. I had strayed away from the Christianity I was brought up with, going from atheist to agnostic. But in all that time I was trying to find meaning through externals such as personal appearance and accomplishments. With Tom I felt loved and accepted as I truly was, much more than when I was young and felt the competition of getting into a good school and then through those dark days of disbelief. And when he brought me to his Catholic church, that feeling of acceptance was reinforced. I believe God drew me near to Him then, perhaps directly but also through these people.

It is nice to have a blog at times such as now to express myself in ways it would be hard face to face with someone. My comfort is in the same God and people who love me and in believing I will be together with Jesus and Tom "in person" someday.

End of Year 2017

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a good 2017. I would not have made it through this past year without God's help. My husband died in March and my mother had three cancer operations for which I traveled to Ohio. As her only child, I felt I needed to be there for her. However, she is doing pretty well for being 86 and living still in her own house.

I have my own home in Michigan and would like to stay here. I've been in the house for 28 years and had come to Muskegon 37 years ago as of the first week of January. I came as a USDA meat inspector of all things. I had used my veterinary degree in other capacities but hadn't found the right niche. I did the USDA job for about 6 years, then quit veterinary work for good in order to write and I eventually got married. I also worked in church-related agencies and did a lot of volunteering in social concerns.

Forgive my rambling but I guess the last week of the year is often a time for reflection and reminiscing. May you greet the 2018 New Year with hope and strength from the Lord, and may He bring you ever closer to Himself.

More Family Needs

As I said in my last post, my husband died of advanced Parkinson's disease. The day after he was buried, I found my mother needed surgery for suspected bladder cancer. The next day I headed for Ohio to be with her for her surgery. It turned out to be cancer, extensive enough as to need more surgery, so I returned to Ohio about a month later for the second surgery. I've been back and forth from Michigan to Ohio about 5 times now. At home, I had paper work to take care of because of my husband's death, such as changing names on various documents. I have not been blogging and don't know if I will continue or not. I just thought I'd write this as an update and let Google know I am still around in case they decide to wipe out anyone who hasn't posted in 6 months.

I hope the lives of those who read this are going well. If you are having problems, do as I do and go to the Lord for His help. He is faithful and good and gives us peace.

Thomas Carlson

My kind, patient, loving husband of 26 years passed away on March 11, 2017 of advanced Parkinson's disease. Prayers for the repose of his soul would be appreciated. Thank you.

War and Peace

I just finished reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Though I think the title should have been War and More War, I can see why it is considered a classic. But I was surprised by how belabored it was on the discussion of what "history" consists of. I guess I shouldn't have the nerve to criticize such a revered book, but Tolstoy seemed exhaustingly determined to get to the bottom of why events happen the way they do (mostly using Napoleon, the French Revolution and the invasion of Russia as his backdrop or example) and therefore to discover a "law" of history just as gravity has a law. The emphasis on law comes from the contrast between the ancient belief that everything came from Divine influence and the modern emphasis on science.

Tolstoy tries to make the point that it is not just leaders such as Napoleon that cause events, but all people involved, including the citizens of the countries. And yet, what causes them to behave as they do? Tolstoy gets into a discussion of human free will vs. inevitability, but this is a question with which many minds have struggled.

Ironically, though modernists want to explain all things by science, Christian evangelists fight in a war of the spiritual kind. This is vividly described by the Apostle Paul in the Bible:

¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12 NABRE).

Anyone who misses this aspect of our lives cannot adequately, even by human standards, understand why things happen as they do. The real goal for us as Christians is, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to lead people to Christ that they may believe He is our Savior. The evil elements resist this in any way they can.

I try to pray for Christian evangelists, which is to say Christians, every day. I pray for wisdom and strength for us, understanding, knowledge and courage, and in general all that we need for the task. Though we are all given different gifts, I believe we all as a body are called by God to evangelize. I pray we do so as well as we can.

Been a While

As you can see if you scroll down my posts, it's been a while since I've posted anything but a Christmas greeting.  I've been spending time on Catholic Answers Forums (CAF), a Catholic chat website.  I mostly read the posts but have made a few comments. Lately I have participated in one long-playing game. I am constantly surprised by not only the knowledge of the people who post on the CAF, but their brilliant sense of  humor (when appropriate). There are some smart Catholics around, I assure you.

I've also been reading, taking a break since I finished writing my latest book, Biotech Swirl.  I read The Brothers Karamazov and am reading Fr. Brown mysteries by Chesterton (there are more than I thought of those). I am in the middle of Don Quixote--I don't know if I will finish that or not. I wanted to see what it was like since it was listed in the top 10 fiction books ever written (on several websites of top fiction books). I admit it's imaginative but for me it's a little over the top and 1000 pages of that is a lot. I like Love Inspired Suspense books, since I'm still a mystery fan and these are Christian-centered stories. I like reading them, and although I admit there is violence by the bad guys, it does not seem too graphic, and there is no swearing or pornographic bed scenes.

I'm a caregiver for my husband, who is in his 17th year of Parkinson's disease. I try to keep on top of our healthcare as well as upkeep for our house.

So, life stays busy enough. I try to pray throughout the day, thanking the Lord for our blessings and asking for help, often.

Glad I could express and update this in my blog. Hope all is going well for any readers.

Fifth Anniversary

It’s my fifth year anniversary on my blog. It’s hard to believe in both ways: sometimes it feels like forever that I’ve been doing this, and sometimes like I started just a few months ago. I thank anyone for reading any of my posts. I’d also like to thank Google Blogger for supplying the server access.

When I first started, I didn’t want to put a counter on my blog. I didn’t want to know if no one was visiting, or if millions were (ha ha). I figured I’d be too discouraged with the first possibility and too nervous about the second. Now Google Blogger has added an automatic counter and stats section that can be viewed by the authors. I can’t help but notice I’m a lot closer to the former situation than the latter. I know I haven’t been consistent in my posts, and that is unfortunately probably going to continue. What I’m thankful for is that blogging gives me an outlet to write when I do have the time.

Also, my husband has blogged on Google for several years about our local history, and has had many visits. His health has not been very good lately, so he hasn’t entered posts for a few months. We are hoping we can get medical help for his situation. In any case, I’m very thankful to the people who have responded to his “Muskegonmemories.”

I have once again found that I am too busy with my blog to work on my book, so I’m planning on a change of posting schedule. I had read on a book marketing blog that it is good for an author to have a blog and post regularly. I have been posting once a week lately, but I research and re-write the posts to the point where I’m not getting anything else done. I guess I will never be accused of being an over-achiever. I can only do so many things at a time, and my resume will never approach that of many professionals.

Anyway, I always try to attend Sacred Heart of Jesus devotions on First Fridays at a local Catholic Church. Since that is a memorable schedule for me, I thought I’d try to do at least a monthly post on that day. I know that won't encourage many followers, but anyone who wants to check back once a month is welcome. Also, my blog helps me to keep working on non-fiction as well as fiction.

The last few months I’ve really enjoyed adding to womanatwell and if you haven’t been here before, you may be interested in going down the column to my recent entries.  Or you can always go to my archives--there are five years of them! Maybe some day if my book is published (or not) I’ll return to writing more posts.

See you on First Fridays!

Penance Peace

I went to a reconciliation, formerly known as penance, service last evening for our area deanery. I did not look forward to going, and apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way. The priest who gave the homily (who I think was Fr. Thomas Brown at Sacred Heart) said most people put this service on par with going to the dentist. The thought of spilling the beans about yourself to another person, known as confession, is not pleasant.

And yet before I even got to the confessional, I felt a greater peace than I have in a long time. The priest talked of a God who loves us enough to keep Himself on a cross until He died, and that was powerful. Often in Lent I think of Christ's journey to the cross, but last night I focused on what it took for Him to stay there. He could have easily shown the people who mocked Him that He was indeed the son of God and could come off. They would have been proven wrong in an amazing way.

But Christ kept His focus on the long-run, just as He had His whole life. He put aside the majesty and splendor He could have had in the short-run. He saw not only the people in front of Him, but all mankind. He gave us all a chance at future life with Himself and the Father and Holy Spirit.

When someone like myself becomes wrapped up in news stories of political fighting and even fighting within the Church, one can get angry and accusatory. But we pay a price in all that when we lose our own peace and best focus. I was really glad I went to the penance service to start concentrating where I should--on Christ's life, death, and resurrection to His present life where we can meet and know Him.

May Peace and Love be Ours

It's been snowing lightly all day, and we have our first real layer of snow on the ground. Now it's dark, but Christmas light decorations from surrounding neighbors shine their various shapes and give enough illumination for us to see the snow. It's a peaceful, pretty scene.

We are blessed in many ways, and pray for blessings for others. Though our house is small, it is nice and warm. We have had a good dinner and trust we will have plenty to eat for our Christmas holiday meal. We live in a relatively safe place in the world.

We Christians have a wonderful, loving God. I pray we may be pleasing to Him, to work as much as we can through our hurts and divisions to be the followers He wants us to be.

I pray we may have a peaceful, content, loving Christmas.

The Woman at the Well

As you might realize from the name of the blog, one of my favorite Bible stories is the woman at the well, John 4:4-42 (can be read in NABRE). Jesus came upon a Samaritan woman who was drawing water from a well and asked her for some. She was shocked, because for a Jewish man to be talking with a Samaritan woman was doubly unthinkable. Jews did not talk with Samaritans and there was a religious restriction against men talking with women. Beyond that, she had had 5 husbands, which Christ knew and told her so. Yet, Christ was willing to engage her. He probably spoke with both gentleness and authority. He told her the water He shall give would satisfy so that she would never again be thirsty. How could she not be both awestruck and curious?

He announced to her that He was the Messiah Jews were waiting for. She understood and went to her people. How did the townspeople see the woman who had lived with so many men and even a sixth one now? It must have been something of God's miracle that at least some of them listened to her at all. Yet Jesus Christ allowed her to be one of his first evangelists, and many of the townspeople were saved through following her call to come and hear Him. They did listen to Him and believed.

There is disdain for what some call "Cafeteria Catholics," that they pick and choose rules of the Church instead of "towing the line." It seems even though we each are supposed to have different gifts to give to the Church, somehow we are to fit in one mold. Naturally, some doctrines are non-negotiable in the Church. But it seems some of the problems come when individual persons are not seen as respectable in their own desires or interpretations of what God is calling them to do.

Some don't want people to be too different from them, or they might have to stretch their interior understandings to try to meet other people half-way in trying to see their side of things. This takes time and effort. It's much easier to tell other people to conform.

It's no wonder many of the Jewish leaders of the time didn't like Jesus. Though He said he did not come to abolish the Law, there were many times He did not conform to what they expected. Even His disciples, who loved Him, were often baffled. In the John 4 story, they were amazed when they came upon Him talking with this Samaritan woman.

The people and the leadership of our Church I'm sure are trying to do the right things. But sometimes we have to stop and consider that more discernment on certain points may be needed. We in fact do that with Church Councils and things do slowly change. So let's, instead of calling people "Cafeteria Catholics," engage in the deeper issues of where we think differences and change may be valid and encourage development rather than peer pressure to fit in a rigid mold.

Mind Changing

Well, leave it to a woman to change her mind. I had decided to leave comments open, but after seeing some pretty filthy language languish on comments from another blog, I've decided to go back to moderating. I don't get many comments anyway. It's just the principle of the thing. (Sorry if I sound whiny. I know it's unfair to expect comments when I'm not blogging much or commenting on other blogs. I'd like to post more, but I'm working on writing another book and, unlike many others, find it hard to do both.)

Bad language is everywhere, and it bothers me even to read books or watch TV shows that have it. Unfortunately, I sometimes still do that or I'd hardly have any entertainment available. Nevertheless, I'm trying to move away from all entertainment with foul language, and I don't use it myself. I don't want it bouncing around in my brain being ready for use at any moment. I neither use it in my conversation or my writing. I try to read Christian writers, but I like mysteries and have a limited number of "favorite" authors. Anyway, I heartily invite anyone reading my blog to comment, but I sincerely hope you can do it without swearing.

The significance of "damn" and "hell" are scary to someone who fears God. Some say "fear" in this sense is just a word to mean respect, and I agree that is one of the aspects. But I also think there is real potential for separation from God after death, and that should bring fear to any heart.

I'm not saying I have been perfect by any means. But now I am trying to follow God the best I can. I believe that using pure speech is one of the ways to do that.