I’m thinking the medium is better suited for some things than others. There are a lot of creative types on tumblr. It seems to be a young demographic too. But one thing I’ve found interesting is that there are a few entrepreneurs lurking there. That’s interesting, and not surprising – particularly for the social media/interactive/techie types.

So, I’ll see you on tumblr… check it out for yourself!

My parents, circa 1951.

I wonder who took the photograph?

In an unusual turn of attitudes, I long to (safely) wear a skirt and heels, or stand on a warm beach and soak up the sun.

Elsewhere in the world half our country is under attack by the weather. Queensland Australia cowers in the path of a Category 5 cyclone. Parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa are in political chaos.

I’m reminded of the Serenity Prayer – yet another way of saying we have to focus on what we can control. Certainly not the weather, or politics in Egypt. Stuck in the house, I do a little desultory decluttering, try to work remotely, and think about the flowers of Spring. What about you?

Oh, and PS, an Update: Quentin the Quahog predicts 6 more weeks of winter. So it’s time to come up with Plans for Snow Days!

I’ve spent a few weeks now as a student of Catholicism and have come to appreciate the value of signs and symbols. As a New England Protestant I was brought up with austere churches and practical roofs pitched to allow the snow to slide down.

 But looking at a building like this one I’ve come to appreciate magnificent churches and cathedrals. The construction of behemoths like this created good solid work for so many men- masons, carpenters, bricklayers, roofers, et cetera – and I can imagine a workman’s pride in building something so beautiful. Stone mason Joe Alonso, who worked on the National Cathedral in DC, characterized it in this way, “I see it as the ultimate expression of the trade of a mason.”

And for the religious worker, imagine the thrill, the day-to-day devotion, in building a monument to his King.

My mother points out that money spent on building these structures might have had more Christian use, and perhaps that is true. But Jesus said that the poor will always be among us, and for me, I understand the motivation to worship, memorialize, and inspire. Like so many objects of veneration, the churches and cathedrals cause us to look Up, and serve as signs and symbols of Love and Faith.

The world is full of reminders of the benevolence of God.  Consider our young West Highland Terrier, Zoe.

We love Zoe. She is as delightful and beloved a companion as one could ever hope to have. We fuss over her, spoil her and give her all kinds of things. We love to have her around.

But like all dogs she likes to roll in things.

When Zoe rolls in something smelly, as much as we love her we cannot be in the same house with her. She is quite happy  to have the stench and glistening goo of Something Awful all over herself. But of course she cannot be in the house, and of course she would be devastated if we stuck her in the garage until the stench went away, which of course it would not do in any case.

So, because I love her and want her to be with the family, I wash her.  Though the smell makes me retch I scoop up my beloved pooch and stuff her into a hot soapy bath. I scrub her and rinse her until she is clean, white, fluffy and fragrant again. Then once more she can live in our house, beloved and close to us.

So it is with God. God loves us deeply and provides for us and wants to be with us, always. But you know we humans tend to Roll in Things. When we sin, we still love our God and He loves us, but we are distanced from him. He loves us but is repelled. He doesn’t hate us, but He can’t be in the same universe as us. As a sinner I am too filthy to be in His house, but through Jesus He’s made a way to be clean and be with Him.

This little lesson inspired by Zoe helps me to understand that God loves us even when we’re out Rolling in Things. He just wants to bring us in, wash us off, and desire to be in the House with Him more than we desire being out in the world. Thanks, Zoe.

We had a snow day here on Cape Cod yesterday, and while I was hanging around the house trying to teach Daisy how to sing “Who let the dogs out” someone from Phoenix, Arizona was trying to swindle coax one of my family members out of two hundred dollars. Their pitch? Launching said family member on a rewarding career of affiliate marketing. They nearly succeeded. Now this particular outfit, Universal Web Consultants (UWC), may have a decent product, which evidently is that they provide training to help affiliate marketers succeed. Web reviews of this company are sparse, because it appears to be young, but there are complaints already including one (real or fake, who knows) alleging that the complainer spent two thousand dollars for nothing. A quick google of one of the domains they use showed thousands of web sites, most of which were still lying there with little change to the template provided by the company.  Now it’s possible that most of those only cost their hapless owners a few bucks. That said, how do these UWC folks sleep at night, telling others that while they are sleeping their wonderful web sites will be bringing home the bacon?

It’s just a reminder that one has to do due diligence on Internet Snake Oil providers. That can be difficult – the web sites I have found to assist with due diligence seem to have quite a bit of affiliate marketing advertising on them. Talk about the fox guarding the chicken coop.

But here at Daisy’s house, for the moment all is well, though the company now has family credit card information, they do not appear to be cashing in on it (first rule: never give out your credit card number over the phone unless you ABSOLUTELY know and trust the company you’re speaking with). But we’ll be watching it.

The old saw must always be kept in mind: if it looks to good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Decluttering is limping along, but progressing nonetheless, slowed somewhat by the task of de-Christmasing. This year the Christmas decorations stayed up until January 7th, quietly glowing through Epiphany. This year’s Christmas season leaves indelible marks for me, as it is my first Christmas as a candidate for acceptance into the Catholic Church.

I’m blessed to have wonderful people serving as mentors and companions as I begin my journey into the Church. Though I’ve know them only for a short time they bring me so much to think about, pray over and take joy from. We did not meet for two weeks because of the holiday season. Today we came together with joy and humor and faith. It was wonderful and edifying and quite frankly a blast to be with them again. They are my unexpected Christmas gifts.

We talked about how quickly Christmas ends in the secular world. Weeks of preparation and purchasing and chaos end suddenly somewhere around 9 PM on Christmas day.  Poof. In the Christian tradition, however, Christmas goes on well into January. This is a celebration that suits the solemnity, meaning  and the joy of the season.

Catholic or not though, life goes on. The decorations must be stashed, the old year sorted out, the slate must be cleaned. “Ordinary time” as it is called in the faith, begins anew.  I have de-Christmased my house. But in my soul, Christmas continues. My heart glows with a new light, a new hope, and the caring of my companions on my new walk.

Getting organized is a commonly held New Year’s Resolution. I am not making organization  a resolution,as to do so would doom it to immediate failure. But this bright and shiny New Year’s day the holy grails of Decluttering, Simplicity and Organization loom large, so let us consider them.

This new year my family is living in only one place, Thank God. Last year the Englishman was working out of state and we were also between two homes here in the great Commonwealth. Total disarray.  It was horrible. The weight of too much stuff and too many places! Now with living spaces condensed to one, the chaos is diminished, but  the clutter is difficult to bear.  During the last few months I have worked to get rid of duplicate items, cull the book collections, worry over obsolete electronics, et cetera.  Overwhelmed by the stuff I retreat to my computer into the vast cluttered universe of the internet, hoping to be enlightened by others who have gone before me and tidied up their lives.

How do people keep their lives tidy? Are they unafraid to toss perfectly useful items? It is actually a lot of effort to get rid of things that are no longer loved, and you really shouldn’t carry around in your life things that aren’t useful or beautiful, right?

Zenhabits genius Leo  Babuta offers up all kinds of support in his recent book, “The Power of Less” for decluttering at work.  Here at home today I’m checking out his very useful post, “15 Great Decluttering Tips.” Best tip to keep in mind today: declutter one room at a time. Ah, but which room?

Another great resource for those striving for zen-like home and workspaces is this post at Flylady.net. This is a system that works for almost everyone except me, because I am beyond saving. Anyway, both Zenhabits and Flylady agree on many things but perhaps the most breathtaking of all: if you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.

A year!

Wow.

Stuff in excess has so many bad implications for us. Its worst effect is to take away opportunities to do good. Reading Sarah Cunningham’s Picking Dandelions on my kindle (a device which contributes much zen-like calm to my life since it conceals a LIBRARY of books that do not become dusty or take up space), I enjoyed her recollections of helping her grandmother sort her belongings at the end of her life. Cunningham quotes her grandmother: “I don’t know where I got all this stuff”…”I could’ve been more generous. I could’ve done more.”

And that is the strongest reason there is to have less stuff.

Neat, huh.

It’s Christmas time. In the rush to enforced gaiety and structured gifting it is encouraging to stop for a moment to consider one’s blessings.

I have learned that faith is a gift. In my case,  it was received in childhood and I think that I never really knew what to do with it. From time to time it would assert itself from some warm corner of my psyche, a quiet source of comfort and peace.  Sometimes it would blaze up, and cause great consternation, because faith demands from us faculties that we don’t like to use as educated modern people.

One way or another it was, always and eventually, put away.

I suppose we all get gifts that we tuck away in anticipation of a day when it is useful to us.

Some years are tougher than others. 2010 wore down the walls between me and faith. In losing a lot this past year, I learned that I could hold on to one thing always, and that was the quiet child-like faith that God gave to me so long ago. This time I will take it out, polish it, look at it, consider it, use it, show it to others, honor it. And pray that I never take its presence in my life for granted ever again.

So in this season of gifting, I consider the gift of Faith,  and I thank the Giver.