although I am a Spring person, I love fall colours too

changed my door wreath as we are famous for our maple trees

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y8r2gk0vyo

I am convinced her helmet is in an American museum. Anyway, an interesting article.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/joan-of-...lic-france

 "You have spurs. Use them!" ~ La Pucelle  

I attended the National Catholic Singles Conference this past weekend. I participated virtually. It took place in Denver, which is a relatively short drive for me. I intended to drive to Denver and attend in person. However, because of some personal things that came up, I thought it best to stay home and attend virtually. (This had to do with losing a cat earlier this month and acquiring another late last week.) 

The theme of the conference was "Rejoicing in Hope." Highlights of the conference were Mary Beth Bonacci's "20 Things I Like About Being A Single Catholic" (may not be the exact title.) Her talk was both funny and entertaining and serious at the same time. She pointed out that the "never marrieds" have the lowest status on the singles hierarchy. She jokingly said that they should pair single people off and marry them so that at least they could say that someone chose them. (I think she was wrong about not needing an annulment.) On a more serious note, she pointed out that salvation is something much bigger than marriage and that this should be our primary focus as single Catholics. 

As usual, there was an emphasis on the Theology of the Body. One of the speakers, Maria Spears-Mumaugh, pointed out how utilitarian the dating world is. In other words, we tend to see people as objects and not persons. She asked: what would it feel like to go on a date and just be present with the other person without an agenda? In a similar way, another speaker asked if you went on a date with someone that ended up not going anywhere, would you say it was a waste of time? If you answer "yes," this suggests that you have a utilitarian mindset and were seeing the person as an object and not valuing him or her as a person.

Another standout speaker was Father Nathan Cromly. He also said the Sunday mass. He discussed ideas from his book "Coached by Paul the Apostle:Lessons in Transformation." I ended up ordering his book.

I found the virtual conference to be as rewarding as the live one in its own way. There were actually more opportunities for interpersonal interaction in the virtual conference. (I had attended the live conference last year in Las Vegas.)

Sadly, this may be the last National Catholic Singles Conference. The driving force behind these conferences, Anastasia Northrop, has been doing this for 20 years. She said she is praying for guidance as to where to go from here. This could include the conference continuing as it has been for 20 years, going to regional conference, or the NCSC community continuing in some other format, such as virtually. Consequently, the future of the conference is up in the air. In any event, the NCSC community (also called GS 24) at least will continue on some level. There are virtual activities with this community that take place throughout the year that I have not taken advantage of. Nevertheless, my participation in the conference this year virtually and last year in person has been an unforgettable experience, which has enriched my faith tremendously.

Apparently CH went down a yesterday, and maybe for longer than that. Turned out to be some issue with the database running the whole show in the background.

Obviously, we are back up now, but don't be surprised if some of your recent posts are missing.

If you have any issues or anomalies, let me know here or send a PM.

After Christmas in late January

We are all happy and flattered to be asked

Hi fellow members!

We are performing a routine minor maintenance on our website. If you have any questions, feel free to send a private message to either me or Flattbear.

I currently swim for 40 minutes, 3 times a week before breakfast.

What do you do?

What do people think the solution is to the situation in Gaza and Israel?

(I don't think this is political, perhaps more current affairs. Apologies if I've got that wrong)

Well, I was going to tag into my old thread about Martha stuff but it seems to have been deleted. Anyway it was a long time back.

I got the job. Legal services, in a much, much better organization than the one I left.

Basically, it is federally subsidized (for now anyway) legal services for people who meet the certain criteria. Income below a certain level, no violent history, and so on within a somewhat restricted range of issues. For instance we do not do criminal or fee generating cases, or anything approaching conflicts with previous cases or clients.

I landed on my feet, getting a job in the Family Law unit. Commute is right in town, office is bigger and brighter and homier. A converted board home instead of one of those dim, low ceiling, 1970s administrative horrors.

I was hired in large part based on my criminal law background, and about half my docket consists of domestic violence cases, whether divorce, protective orders, or child custody. For much of my life I wondered at the jumbled nonsense in my background. A tale told by an idiot, seemingly. But with this job the desperate threads all come together. This job is much more fulfilling than criminal. Criminal was basically archaeology, or taxidermy. Everything was in the past, some unhappy snapshot of a done thing. This work is prospective. People can be protected, set free, made stronger, made safer. Problems can be averted in advance.

It takes everything I've got, is the only drawback. Weekends are purely recuperation.

Thanks to a number of you for your prayers. This is the best job in my life. Certainly a surprise at this stage of the game.