More Delightful Details on Kartause Maria Thron

So, today we got to talk to the man who restored the Kartause, architect Hilderbrand. We plied him with questions and I fell in love with the man. Afterwards I was one of only a handful that he welcomed into his house that is kind of like stepping from a wardrobe into Narnia because you would otherwise not know it was there. Some pictures from the Resoration. Specifically of my favorite spiral staircase to the choir loft. Basically, several decades ago, this architect, Hildebrand, discovered Kartause Maria Thron. At the time, it was in shambles, overgrown, rundown and falling into ruins. He made it his life-time hobby to restore it. Of course he worked as an architect, so he could only work on the weekends, and he rested on sunday. That made for slow progress.
It was also confusing on just how to restore it...Should he restore it entirely back to it's original 1342 gothic self, or leave some of the renaissance and baroque restorations? The ceiling, for instance, is a gothic ceiling with a baroque ceiling re-made about 400 years later twenty feet below it. That he just repaired and left with a double ceiling. But the side Eucharistic chapel displays the original gothic arches. The frescoes to left and right of the main altar, depicting Faith, hope and Love were under seven layers of plaster. Can you imagine the trembling hand he laid to each one, wondering whether he is about to ruin something?
Hildebrand was a funny man. He cracked jokes throughout our whole tour and really just endeared himself to us all. He made professor Herrera translate for him, but sometimes he would take over and speak near perfect english anyway.


The "secret garden"


This was the home of Johanna, wife of Albrecht II, in Burgundy. Albrecht modeled his Maria Thron after her chapel to ease her homesickness.

It is said that Johanna was the one who sat for the sculpture of the Maria Thron in the chapel. That and the two figures in the chapel (copies of the originals in St. Stephen's in Vienna) are the only likenesses of Johanna in existence today.

Another interesting thing: it was from here that Albrecht II made Vienna a city. We have a copy of the township license proclamation thingy, in Hebrew, German and Latin I think, saying that the Emporer intended to make that area of the country his imperial palace.

Ooh la la. Siloutted (humility) roses (Mary/love/sacrifice), Red (humanity) tile roof, Blue (divinity) sky, white (purity) walls. Is there not something very Maria Thron about that?
Hildebrand made us try guessing what this was. He said he found it in the treasury. It was an early tomb of some Roman child. He made it into a fountain.



These I think, were archery targets...although I doubt if that was their orignial intention. I forgot to ask Hildebrand.

A cool room. I hit my head on one of the gothic arches shortly after this picture and I have a huge goosegg to show for it. I was afraid I damaged the thing at first, I hit it so hard. I almost fell over...luckily only one guy was watching, the ITI student in the yellow shirt, whom I like because he reminds me of someone, so I forgave him for seeing my blonde blunder.

This courtyard was seen by no one but the monks for 400 years: 1342-1742, when Josef II closed many many monasteries in Austria because they had too much power. The windows, amazingly enough, including the one in my room, survived the centuries and most are original from the 14th century! Just thinking about all the different people who have been in my room is amazing. I mean, this is probably where the servants Albrecht II lived, and then farmers, then during the Soviet invasion and WWII Russian soldiers slept here, keeping their horses in the chapel.

The monks were pretty amazing. They never slept more than 3 hours at a time. They kept a perpetual vow of silence, besides communal prayer, except for 4 hours on Sundays. Hildebrand said they didn't have much to talk about even then, so they just prayed the rosary together. They were vegetarians, to which some attribute their longevity. Apparently many people of the time died of food poisoning from meat.

One monk lived to be 115 years old. He even then didn't die of old age, but died after being thrown from a horse while returning from delivering a message to Salzburg!

Pointing to landmarks in Europe are.
The Biblioteke. At the end, it was just Hildebrand, and about 20 other students lingering. He took us through a door just under the flags. It was his own living room. He showed us all through his AWESOME hidden house. It was so sweet. He told us not to tell the other students because they would get jealous.

An oil painting in Hildebrand's living room of the Kartause in its full splendor, probably about 450 years ago. I live in the building in the far right middle. The half to the right of the Maria Thron Chapel is what Emporer Albrehct II built for himself and his court. The left half was for the monks.

Half of the wall still remains. It is a good wall...witheld a turkish seige that lasted only a day before they gave up and went away.

He was the first ruler in the world to have this idea of living in a humble palace attatched to a monastery. Alrecht was born in Hungary and moved to Austria after marrying a princess of Burgundy, Johanna. Together they had 7 children. The whole family is buried in the floor of the Maria Thron. Every five years anthropologists are allowed to open the tomb and study the remains and treasures. I asked Hildebrand when they will open it again, and he smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "It has been five years. "

This corner fresco depicted Europe
Rotundae are impossible to photograph. Even laying on the floor, this is the type of picture you get. This is in the Biblioteke (secret library). It shows the Seven Liberal Arts.
This is the 4 evangelists. If you can make it out, look at the corner just left of the window. There is an easel and madonna sketch, randomly thrown in the fresco. The story goes the artist, whose name escapes me at the moment, finished his work early that day, had extra paint to use, and so decided to have a little fun!

There are other places where the painter's sense of humor shows as well. Several places the paintings are 3-D in plaster. A dragon's tail comes out from the wall in one spot, part of a Greek's cloak, an eagle's beak and a lion's face jump out from the flat wall.
These corner frescoes depict the corners of the world: The Americas above and Asia below

This is the corner fresco for Africa
The back of Hildebrand's hidden house.
This was Hildebrand's office room. It used to be a pig sty. Literally.

Vaulted ceilings for a pig pen? Yeah...this is Austria, remember?
Hildebrand the Architekt. What a man.

Wien: Stadt von Musik, Shokolade, Kaffee, Wein, and Pferde

Yes, Vienna: city of all that a girl needs in this world: music, chocolate, coffee, wine, and horses. Yesterday we spent an amazing, albeit exhausting day in this amazing city. We were planning a return trip before the day was half spent, there is so much to take in. Mark Kalpaikakgan (sp?) and his son Ari. Our tour guide and the director of the Austria program
Caitlan and Liz take in the secenery
This was inside Minoritenkirche. We had Mass here. The painting of our Lady within a painting I thought was interesting. Fr. Ron explained that when emporer Josef closed so many monasteries, the monks secretly kept this painting (the inner one).
Another magnificent organ in Minoritenkirche

A mosiac reproduction of Da Vinci's Last Supper. It weighs 20 tons.
Caitlan, Liz B. and Christy outside Minoritenkirche


Behind Ari and Mark is the palace, the third largest building in the world. Vatican has number 1, followed by something in Spain, and then this. From that balcony on the far right, Hitler announced his rule in 194-something, Pope John Paul spoke from it about Human Rights in the 80's and in 2005 Franciscan University Students spoke from it as well.

Mary, do you know what this is? The Spanish Riding School, home of the Lippazanners. When the American troops came to Vienna in World War II, we aided the Austrians in smuggling the magnificent animals to the mountains to protect them from invading Russians.

Mary, you would love this city. You know, it doesn't smell like a city. It smells like horses. The whole downtown. And everywhere you go you see them. You hear them clip-clopping down the street as you pray in St. Stephen's.
A chapel in the palace where many Hapsbourgs were married. Mark was telling us that most kings acquired new land by making war. Hapsbourgs had a different strategy: make love. A slightly ackward way of putting it, but that is what they did: they acquired the largest rule in Europe by marrying off their children to Royalty far and wide.
Maria Teresa had this tomb in the chapel made for her favorite daughter. But her favorite daughter didn't die then and she was actually never buried here. The tomb stands empty. ANOTHER beautiful organ

And another
An altar for St. Rita. All those marble placards say Danke, Rita. They were placed there by people who had miracles performed for them which they attributed to the saint.

A cappuchin monastery in Vienna. Mark told us that the Catacombs beneath the church are full of the tombs of nearly the entire Hapsbourg dynasty. When the funeral procession reached the door, they would knock on the locked door. The monks within reply Who knocks? And the funeral procession tells them it is the King and proceed to list all his greatest titles and conquests. Then the monks reply: "We do not know you." The funeral procession knocks again, and tells of the Emporer's lesser conquests and titles. Again the monks turn them away with "We do not know you." The third knock, they say "This is Holy Roman Emporer ____, a poor sinner." Finally, the doors swing open.

The last Hapsbourg would-be-current emporer by blood, Otto is still alive, and he has been invited to speak to us at the Kartause this semester. He has done so a few times in the past. He is quite old, a good holy great man like his beatified father. He will probably die soon. The big question is, will he be buried here in this way as well, with his father, Bl. Francis I, and grandfather and the rest of his royal family?

Liz and Caitlan

St. Stephen's

Look for the turkish cannonball lodged in the side of the pillar, a little to the right of the center of the picture.
Liz, me, Christi, and Caitlan. We ate lunch in the cellar at the Zwolf Apostelkeller. Now a restaraunt, it has had many uses in times of war and peace since it was built in 1100.
Some very special Romanian bread.

We were in St. Stephensplatz when this procession came out of a chapel door. We figured out it was a Romanian Catholic Church holding some kind of festival. They remained the whole afternoon dancing and playing instruments and singing and doing baton performances and what not. It was so captivating. We kept coming back. The people were just so into it, and just having a ball. All ages...old ladies and little girls and young men and women and old men. Singing and dancing and laughing. The joy was infectious and I was dying to dance too. It looked like so much fun. There is more pictures below as we wandered away and came back throughout the day

A metal dancing dude
Flowers of Austria. Sunflowers are everywhere.
Caitlan and Christy and a long-nosed friend

Me and Pinocchio and Liz B.
The crown of Josef II, if memory serves me correctly....although after musing through that entire museum, I doubt much of it is very clear


Caitlan looking at a painting of the Coronation of a king in the National Treasury museum. A museum crammed with paintings, royal and priestly vestments, armor, relics, and religious art. It really made me wish I knew German, though. We could figure out some of it, but being able to read the information plaques would have been handy.

This was an incredible piece. It looked like a rose bush King Midas crossed paths with.
A real narwhal horn
Yep. A family tree of Jesus. How cool is that?
A stunning cape vestment of some kind
A really interesting depiction of the Trinity, Father Son and Spirit.

Romanian old ladies mixing with the tourist crowd

Romanian old ladies dancing
Watching the old Romanian guys watching the old Romanian ladies dancing. These guys were great. They were singing at the tops of their voices to the slow waltzes of the ladies and clapping and occiasonally grabbing one and spinning her wildly. They got so into it.

singing and dancing
I just missed the heel-click in the air by half a second. Whenever the guys would swing the girls really fast, the girls would shriek with this ear-peircing scream at a pitch you never thought was possible.
These guys were having so much fun
St. Stephen's tiled roof as the sun sets. The roof was destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt in ten years to match exactly the way it was before.
Caitlan and her man. We were walking by shops with posters like this one and commenting. But Caitlan's comments on this one were hysterical. She walked past this fella and said something like, "He is not the guy for me...he looks like the type who will work late nights, come home and kiss the wife and then sit down with his laptop. Look at him, he is full of himself. He thinks he is so cute, and he is kinda right...but just wait: he'll ask you how was your day and he'll be checking his watch"!

All the time I was in Vienna, though i was thinking of everyone gathering at my Oklahoma home. Here's hello to Mom, Dad, Samantha, Andrew, Mary, Jacob, John Paul, Kateri, Joey, Donovan, Avery, Erika, Sara, Dane, Daniel, Aunt Karla, Uncle Ray, Grandma, Grandpa, and whoever else who may have shown up. Wish I could be there! Good luck finding a piece or a peace to sleep.....

Gaming, Osterreich: my home

I plan to travel a bit while I am here. I mean, I am in Europe for Heaven's sake. But, honestly, I really don't feel like going anywhere. I don't want to be anywhere but here for a long time. Start scrolling and you will see why.

The Parish church of Gaming. It was founded by Carmelites - thus the picture of, I believe, St. John of the Cross(?). Gaming has been a Catholic Christian since around 960 I think Father said. But it wasn't until around when the Kartause was built that they got a parish priest (around 750 years ago).

This statue is interesting. It is St. Anne, the child Mary, and the Baby Jesus. Three generations. Except I don't think Mary was that young when she had Jesus. But that isn't the point.
The Gaming coat of Arms.
The organ. (See, Elizabeth, you would like to study here for a semester. You know you would. You could play on this organ that Mozart traveled here to play on!)

Our own beautiful Maria Thron chapel.
And some pictures from the field across the road.

Mary, we have two neighboring horses. I like to walk over there and just smell them. It makes me miss you;-) They have this adorable little stable, and I would say they are quite spoiled.
Some cute little steps leading down from the road to the creek

The frescoed interior of our Maria Thron chapel
Now, why don't we make pedestrian signs this cute?

In the courtyard. I have 5 of 6 classes in that room back there, the Audi(torium) Max(imum).
No, this isn't a painting. It is real life.
The interior of Maria Thron. Just after this I went up to our choir loft to pray a while. And before long the pews below began filling up with people. They began to sing hymns in German, and then the Litany of the Saints. It was amazing and beautiful and I just sat there and listened.
The stairs that wind around like this three times up to the loft, and are a great challenge in the pitch darkness.
A painting in the choir loft. I shall tell you who is in it when I ask after Art class tomorrow.

Just one day in Austria

If today was any indication of what my time here is going to be like, then I don't know if I can take it. It is way too Beautiful to live like this for a whole four months and see the kind of places I have seen today. It blows my mind. And all right here in my own little valley - we didn't have to go far.
All 157 students loaded on the buses this morning at 8 am. I was up already in the choir loft practicing. With a little twisting of my arm by sister Monica, and God practically forcing me into it, I was drafted to sing at the Mass for the Archbishop today in St. Polten at the Cathedral along with Andrea, Jackie, Liz C, Willie and Paul. Vineyards of Reisling grapes
A street.
A courtyard outside St. Polten.
Outside St. Polten. Unfortunately, I took no pictures inside St. Polten.

These nuns are so photogenic.
Gottsweig Abbey as we approached it.
We headed to Gottweig Abbey. The university "treated" us (yeah, right, we paid for it, all right...what do you think that 800 dollar activity fee is for?) to a nice lunch in a nice restaurant, and we felt all grown up sipping our wine glasses and trying to order in German. It was in a restaraunt just below the abbey, which overlooks the Danube, or Danau as it is said here, valley. Terraced vineyards and Red tile roofs as far as the eye can see, occasionaly percolated (that is the wrong word, I know but I cant think of the right one, so I am leaving it) by church spires.

Another breathtaking view
Abbey chapel
The window that isn't.

A fitting dwelling place for Him.
Elizabeth, I wondered if you played this one?
A Good cathedral raises your eyes to heaven.
After a delicious chocolate apricot cake for dessert, we went up to the Abbey chapel, where Fr. Euctace, a young enthusiastic very tall Austrian monk greeted us and took us on a tour of the monastery. He was great and before long he was joking and laughing with us college kids. He spoke the best english I have heard yet, and most people speak it, but it puzzled the poor man why everyone would chuckle whenever he pronounced a word containing a v. I guess because in German, W's are pronounced as V's, he assumed the opposite was true, so words with v's sent us giggling. You try keeping a straight face when someone jubilantly wishes you a nice wisit, and invites you to wespers, and talks about dewelopment of the monastery!
A frescoed ceiling depicts the marriage at cana. But I realized you can't do justice to frescoed ceilings in a camera lens. The monastery doubled as sort of a summer home for the Austrian Royalty during vacations, so it was full of elaborately decorated rooms. And I took a ton of pictures, as you see.

I took this picture just for you, Jake. Muskets from the Musketeer days.

Craning their necks to see the frescoes that Fr. Euctace is telling about. (that is father Eustace looking at me)
Old meets new, America meets Austria.

A view from Gottweig.
Next, we traveled down into the Danube river valley and stopped for the afternoon in Durnstein (means durn=dry stein=rock). But there was nothing dry about the place. It was very cool. A castle ruin overlooked the town. Pirates overtook the castle not long after it was built and preyed on ships making their way upriver.
Castle ruins to the left up on the top there. But no pirates live there now. Now it is a pleasant, tidy, albeit touristy town on the hillside. The region is known for its chocolate, white wine, and apricots. So guess what I did all afternoon? yep, sampled chocolate and apricot liqeurs and wines.
Oops, I guess I got in the way of Jackie trying to take a picture of that very cool door.

Yes, that fine chocolate is labeled Rabbit Shit in that nice script.

A car that prays!
Amanda and Jackie and the Danube

Cemetery. I love cemeteries here. You can see why.

This got a laugh out of me. Yeah, that is a car parked in someone's kitchen. Or perhaps the kitchen is the the garage. I am not sure. But only in Austria, where cars are like family pets.
Jackie, Amanda and Mindy on the cobbled streets of Durnstein.

Sister praying in the parish church of Durnstein

The Danube making its way past Durnstein
Taking a break on the roadside.
This was a little less beautiful part of the cemetery, however. I thought it was a chapel in the midst of the cemetery, and so I guess it was. But I was shocked to find it packed with neatly stacked human bones. Thousands of people, I am guessing. But, alas, we couldn't read the sign and I have yet to learn the fate of those people.

....Okay, so a P.S. about the bone thing. I asked Sr. Faustina, and she said that families are responsible for the upkeep of these beautiful graves. If no one takes care of yours, you are ousted out and your bones are stacked in the shed with all the other people who aren't fortunate enough to have family to care for their grave.

Gruss Gott!

I am in AUSTRIA! AUSTRIA!! Really, I am!
The flight was long, very very long, but it was great fun too...there were some 40 FUS students on it, so we kinda took it over. The plane was huge - 10 seats wide. Juliana and I got a good eye-roll and shake of the head with a 'These American Girls!' from a German-speaking dude in the airplane. Although we did deserve it - we were trying to get into the airplane lavratory and Juliana ended up pulling the handle off the door. (It was marked in english, PUSH quite clearly.) The scenery during the bus ride over was just gorgeous... and got more and more beautiful as we got closer to Gaming. Monasteries, trees, snow capped mountains, yellow houses with geraniums and red tile rooftops, and cute little old women in pink dresses with handkerchiefs on their heads driving tractors in their corn and sunflower fields. I feel like I went both back and forward in time at once. The cars are cooler (and cuter) and technology is better, things are more expensive (I just traded in 60 USD to get back only 38 Euro - sick), and everything very clean. But on the other hand everything is so old and so much is still done the way it has always been done.
When we got off the bus, the children of the professors here ran out to greet the bus in traditional dress and gave every student roses. It just ate my heart out, they were so cute. And then all the little munchkins helped us move into our rooms. I have especcialy fallen in love with Bella Asci, whom I think is about 10. From my window, I can watch the kids play on the playground in the courtyard. My room-mates are Angela Pulaski, and an LCI student (from somewhere here in Europe) who hasn't arrived yet. I had my first "legal" beer at our opening bonfire - but I didn't like it and threw half of it away. The wine from Assissi wasn't much better. Maybe I just don't appreciate it, but thats fine by me since I can't afford it anyway. The bon-fire was okay, but it would have been a lot more fun if we sang songs to a guitar and bodhran, but nobody was offering.
Instead of staying at the bonfire I sneaked away to the chapel again. Something about it is riveting. All the lights were out except the sanctuary lamp and two candles. I flet my way up the spiral staircase and stumbled into the choir balcony. Heaven on earth. I had the place to myself for half an hour. The acoustics are amazing in there. Just softly singing a Regina Caeli fills the entire chapel with echoes. I love that chapel I go in there and don't want to come out ever. I just want to become a little church mouse and live in there. Absolutely gorgeus. I was in there earlier this afternoon and there were little girls giggling while they played on the spiral staircases that wind up and up and up. One mystery that I will have to find out is the reason why the upperbodies of Moses and Elijah were rubbed out of the fresco painting...Katherine do you know?? The Gaming parish church vies for attention too, though. Everywhere there is such beauty sometimes my heart forgets to beat.
I am utterly exhausted - I only managed an hour and a half of sleep last night on that plane. And I have been on mental overload since being here. My German vocabulary has quadrupled in one day, but that is not saying much.
Here are a few preliminary pictures from my first day...have I only been here one day? Actually, only 10 hours. Wow. It seems longer than that. It already feels like home.

The view from the steep hills on the northside. That is my Chapel!!! Maria Thron (Mary the Throne [of Jesus]) The wall in the foreground, like everything else in the picture is very old...a piece of the original wall that surrounded the palace that Josef Hapsburg II built 750 years ago.
A newer watchtower overlooking the wall. It is all carpeted inside, which I think is rather curious.
The courtyard. That is my window, the first on the right there.

Mid-day view from my dorm-room window


Ashley, Rebecca and Brie checking out village Gaming...went to the bank, Shclecker and Spar, and dropped in at the parish church
Night falls on the Kartause.
The bells are ringing 10 pm. That means I can go to bed. Sr. Monica warned us not to sleep before ten if we wanted to adjust quickly to the time change. I miss all of you! Auf Weidersein!

More fun with Benedict Street friends

Below is a picture of last Thursday night at San Remo's Itlian Restaurant. We decided we had enough of serving other people and it was time we went out to eat where WE could be served. It was fun, of course. And Jakob was teased by the waitress the whole time for going out with 11 girls at once. Jake teased her back with Rufus, his tooth. At one point the sassy waitress slapped him on the shoulder. Jakob has that influence on people I guess ;-)
Left to right are me, Jess, Shar (not a BSMP employee), Tori, Clara, Hannah, Gwen (not a BSMP employee), Katie, Carmen, Jakob, Karis, and Sam is taking the picture. Then, on Saturday night after work, we invaded Paula and Chuck's house for a surprise 66th birthday party for Paula. We had enourmous amounts of cake and ice cream which provided the sugar for a romping wild ruckus of the dictionary game and charades, followed by (something similar to) dancing.
The dictonary game was pretty wild. Vesicle means a scab on a turtle's leg or, alternately A popsicle that prints a bible verse on your tongue as you lick it? And Halcyon means A disease transmitted by daydreaming falcons? Pretty wild. I laughed until I ached.
The only bummer of the deal was the Chuck missed the whole thing because he is in Alaska on a fishing boat. Oh well. We will just have to do it again sometime.
This is Jakob, of the demon's team (mine) playing charades.

Jake teaching Sam the line dance from the wedding scene in the bull-riding movie 8 Seconds
Jake, Jessika, Sam and Katie having a great time making fools of themselves.
Olga (Carmen) and Sam
Katie

Paula, enacting "pecking"

Paula busting up while enacting something
Katie enacting heaven only knows what for the Angels team
Karis, who should be on the Olympic Charades Team, enacting something with her typical energy
Jakob doing his really really weird octopus dinosaur dance
66 candles light up the room. Actually, 68. Two to spare, just for bonus points.
Eating. The most important skill for a Benedict Street employee.
Jess choosing a word for charades Good times. Good times. It was funny, as the night went on, we each made our confessions to Paula for the bad things we did at work that day. And we were pretty roudy that day...and we took longer to close down because of it. Tori told a lady we were out of Meunster cheese just because she was too lazy to go and cut some especcialy for her. Jake was mouthy to another impatient customer and told him tartly "I don't know; I'm not the chef!" Carmen tackled Karis to the floor trying to untie her apron strings. And I stood up and pulled Carmen's apron string out of my pocket. Paula chided us and wondered aloud if how many customers we lost that day. But there was a big smile on her face.

Is it any wonder why I love Benedict Street Marketplace?

An unlooked for package

"Nothing in life is free." So they say. And for the most part, that is true. But sometimes, people do give you something for nothing.

I got the mail on Wednesday, and there was a cardboard box addressed to me from a publishing company. I didn't order any books, I thought, almost irritated, thinking that I ought to just write return to sender across the top and put it back in the mailbox: there must be a mistake.
But I opened the box. Inside was this book. And a letter from the author:

Dear Jamie,
Thoreau once wrote, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." In my travels in over 50 countries over the past ten years, I has seen nothing to believe that Thoreau is wrong. Most people are not thriving, but merely surviving. I believe that God wants us to thrive. but often we are distracted by the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life.
Before you is an amazing opportunity to see life, the world, and yourlsef from a different perspective. Austria was a life changing experience for me. I hope The Rhythm of Life helps you make the most of your time.
May your semester in Europe be filled with new friendships, laughter and dreams come true.
Signed Mathew Kelly.

Whoa. I was shocked. That was like the best unexpected surprise I have had in a while. Wow. I immediately started reading the book. I don't usually read self-help type books. But I figured this one was sent to me by the author himself, so It is not going on the shelf until I read in from cover to cover. So I did. And I was highly impressed and very inspired. It was not your typical self-help book in more ways than one. It was sort of atypical, anti-culture, while at the same time very modern and real-life. It was both original and very cliché. Mostly, he just affirmed that which I already knew and believed. But still it was refreshing and challening. Sometimes you need encouragement to believe and become what you know and believe to be true. I dídn't think I really needed a pep-talk, particularly, right now. But boy I sure benefitted from it.
(Also, the fact that he mentioned his dealings with my beloved school like 5 times in the course of the book, each time accrediting it and his time with our students in Austria with transforming his life, really endeared me to him, I must admit.) I hope he continues to send his book to Austria-bound FUS students, because I for one am extremely grateful for it, and it will remain in my book collection. Now I have to write a thank-you to Mathew Kelly.

Good people

Sometimes, in this broken self-centered world, someone, even a total stranger, does something good for me and it almost knocks the breath out of me. Someone who has no reason to impress me, to get my favor. Someone who expects nothing in return.

Sometimes it is just a little act of kindness, such as little as the lady I was waiting on the other day who just suddenly, in the middle of ordering, stopped and said: "My dear, you have a beautiful smile. Thank you for sharing it". What did she have to gain by telling me that? Nothing. But she said it because she could.

Sometimes it is something big. Peggy is a tiny old lady who comes to Benedict Street every blessed day. Twice. She gets the prize for the most dedicated regular. She comes for breakfast: half a toasted croissant soaked in butter and honey. She comes again for lunch: a half burger made exactly the way she likes it, and she is very particular. A couple of Saturdays ago, she came in towards the end of the day, after we were closed (she always sneaks in the back door). I greeted her and gave her a hug as usual, then I went back to doing dishes. She stood there with her hands in her pockets and just watched me. To be quite honest, after a few minutes it was kinda getting on my nerves. Finally she asked me when I would be done, and I responded that I had a despairingly huge pile of dishes left, so I'd be lucky to be out in an hour. She left and returned in an hour. We were almost through - just putting Herbert back together. She walked in the back door, pulled yellow envelopes out of her pocket and handed them to me and Samantha. Then said she was going to church. We thanked her for the mysterious envelope, and completed our job. As we were walking to the car, we opened the envelopes: A card, blank on the inside except for "love and prayers, Peggy." And a 100 dollar bill.

Sometimes it is kindness not directed directly towards me. My 12-year-old sister Mary just got braces on wednesday. All Wednesday evening and Thursday and into Friday, she was miserable. Her teeth ached, couldn't eat, and she was emotionally labile. She cried at anything. She didn't want to get the braces on in the first place, saw no need for them, and really just felt depressed about having to have them. Mom called the orthodontist and explained how Mary was having trouble, mostly emotionally. Two days later, we got a package in the mail from the orthodontist, inside, a small metal horse decoration with a personal note encouraging Mary, ending with "we will come through this together smiling, Mary, I promise". I was really really impressed. That is a woman who is a successful doctor who makes a ton of money and yet she takes the time of day to not only write a personal note of encouragement for a patient mostly suffering from a bad attitude, and even buys her a present just suited for her. Most doctors wouldn't even remember Mary. I thought that was just awesome! Needless to say, Mary's attitude is very much improved and she is even looking forward to her next appointment.

Some people really do have big hearts. There are real human beings out there.

Light up the Night

I finally found out what the glowy things in the creek-bed are. They are larvae. Mary and Sam and I went out and caught them in the mud in the creekbed with a series of "Sam, shine the flashlight...okay, now turn it off!" and "No, over here" and "Turn it off I can't see its light when you are shining yours!"
Baby lightning bugs. Toddling fireflies. Glow worms! I guess I could have figured that out if I thought about it long enough. But I had to wiki fireflies, then, and find out more about them, and why they like the creekbed, and how long it will be before they are flying around so I can chase them and catch them. They are really fascinating little creatures, what? So, if you are as curious as i am read on.

These little guys eat baby slugs and grubs and maggots in the wet marshy areas. All the while, they make the creek beds twinkle and sparkle with their mysterious beautiful lights, so it looks like someone decorated it for Christmas. Did you know that the light they produce is completely cold, using neither infrared nor UV, which means their energy efficiency in converting it directly to light is over %90, whereas a lightbulb wastes over %90 in heat? The light attracts prey (they eat other bugs) or a mate, which is sometimes the same thing. The light is activated by an enzyme. Cool huh?

well, anyway, I think so. But sometimes what makes me excited is not so exciting as i think it ought to be.
* * * * * *

How countlessly they congregate...

I wish you all could see how the stars are shining tonight. I took me going away to school to really appreciate them, as sudden deficiency often does. You cannot see the stars on campus like you can here. They are so gorgeous I actually tried to take a picture of them, like a stupid tourist. But you can't. You just have to see them.

I just saw my 8th shooting star in a week. Every time I witness one it sends a tingle down my spine. Once (when I saw a particularly amazing one: auburn with an indigo blue tail) I even scared myself by spontaneously shouting "Oh, my God!" and then quietly, "thank you, that was beautiful!".

What is it about shooting stars that is so riveting? I think perhaps part of it, besides the incredible unexpected intense beauty, is the fact that I feel privileged to have seen it. I mean, of all the billions of people on earth, most are either sleeping, under a roof, or under the sun. Of the few people who could have seen it, how many were actually looking up at that instant and at that part of the sky? Probably very few. There were probably a few other human beings on earth who witnessed that brilliant display of God's glory.

The trail it leaves behind is amazing too. It almost goes so fast that you wonder for a second if your eyes were playing tricks on you, and then you realize that the tail holds out for just a second longer to assure you that you saw the truth.

I see skies of blue, clouds of white, the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night...And I think to myself what a wonderful world!

BSMP Bowl

Hannah, Susie, Jessika, Carmen (aka Congarongemong), Alison, Sam (aka Songarong) , Jakob (aka Jongakongobong) and I (Jongamongie), having fun. We always have fun together at work (apron strings, balsamic vinegar, towels, whipped cream, and spots on the wall, etc.), but this was a novelty: having fun when we are actually supposed to be.

Jakob, complaining, as usual;-)

Alison lines it up

Stirrrrrike!

"Did you get that gutter ball on camera?"

Jake the Fatman

Me and Jess

Susie

Jong & Jong

Susie shows em how its done

Carmen, cool and collected, throws one down the lane

Jess had the high scores of the night, and the only one of us who was able to break 100 points
A rather awkward picture of yours truly.