{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
On Epiphany, we chalked our door. The Chief led us in prayer as we shivered in our warmest coats. (More on this custom below from our friend Alice — the chalking, not the shivering!) It’s not too late to do yours! You simply need blessed chalk (just get ordinary chalk, even a small piece, and ask a priest to bless it) and the prayers, which you can find here. Auntie Leila says you have until February 2, Candlemas.
I’m probably the only person on the interwebs lame enough to show you Christmas decorations now, but while I was out taking a picture of the door, I had to do it. Bridget arranged everything, using my pinecones that I smuggled home from Sukie’s house in Georgia (and then Rosie sent me a box of them too, so I have almost all the giant pinecones a girl could want).
I’m working on my book — which will be this blog, but you know, in book form. I chug along pretty well and then I come to the sort of post in which I show one (funky) way to go about mending a hole in a good blanket. Is any detail too small to include in this book? Or do inquiring minds want to know? (Spoiler: it’s going in.) (Unless an editor takes it out.)
On to our links!
A fabulous 18th century dress, found in perfect condition after many years in a box, worth more than £40,000, according to Antiques Roadshow.
Against the Universal Basic Income — a short article that points out the flaws of an idea that is gaining ground with many of our social engineers. Mainly, I think it’s a mistake ever to cheerfully assume that human nature is not going to continue to be what it has been! “Despite its rising profile among many sharp thinkers, however, this particular approach to welfare reform would create many more problems than it would solve.”
I’m sharing this exasperating article from the Wall Street Journal about giving a smart phone to kids (I think you will be able to read it the first time you open it, and then it’s behind the paywall) so that you are equipped to talk about it with your friends. By the time you get to the end of it, how refreshing is Felice Ahn, with her simple “we’re happy to be different”?
We think of Handel’s Messiah as Christmas music, I guess, but it’s really a musical recapitulation of Salvation History. Here’s a fun article with some things you might not know about it.
An interesting article questioning the underlying assumptions about how we treat depression as a chemical imbalance to be treated with drugs. The author says:
“If you are depressed and anxious, you are not a machine with malfunctioning parts. You are a human being with unmet needs. The only real way out of our epidemic of despair is for all of us, together, to begin to meet those human needs – for deep connection, to the things that really matter in life.”
I would add to this to take it further: Man is a moral creature. Sometimes our needs are moral! We can be depressed because we need repentance and reconnection with grace. Sometimes the needs are emotional; often they are moral and spiritual.
In the “spiritual musings” category:
I don’t know why the fighting side of Our Lady has been on my mind — perhaps it’s the borderline headache-inducing saccharine prose I sometimes come across as relates to Mary, the Mother of God. This post, though not liturgically timely, gave me the bracing tonic I needed: “Mighty Conquering Warrior”: The Queenship of Mary.
“The fact that Our Lady stood under the cross when nearly everyone else fled, and in the darkness of faith offered up her most precious treasure, her own flesh and blood, to the heavenly Father, means that she must have had the strongest human heart in the history of the world, with the greatest supernatural heroism.”
If you read my “readings” on the two “Spirit of the Liturgy” books, you will know why I loved this short article by Taylor Marshall on St. Athanasius on the Word: The Son of God pervades the Whole of Reality. A beautiful meditation on transcendent reality.
In the “still thinking about Epiphany” category:
Our favorite medievalist’s inquiry into the custom of chalking one’s door on the Epiphany: Chalk on the Door.
Some art notes on the Wise Men.
The Epiphany scene from the incredible “Great Hours of Anne of Brittany.”
From the archives:
Standards and Solidarity — make friends now with people in real life, in your community. Talk to them about your hopes and dreams for the future. Share articles and posts (like this one) and encourage each other. In a few years, you will be glad to have a group of parents who kind of hold each other up — and believe me, when the coach says “your kid has to have a phone because I need to text him” you will be happy that your friends are going to agree with you that such an idea is nonsense.
How to go about making friends? Try a St. Gregory Pocket. There might be one near you!
Today is the feast of St. Hilary of Poitiers! “He could not tolerate that the specious plea of safeguarding peace and unity should be allowed to dim the light of Gospel teaching.”
While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
Follow us:
Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.
Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.
The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
