Category Archives: Personal

Foray into mundanity!

Well, today was the first day that I was able to get outside and do something besides shovel snow. I wish I had been documenting the lousy Winter we in western NY have been having. You all missed out on a lot of serious whining and complaining.

I had intended to dig the veggie garden over but was unable to as it was too water-saturated from snowmelt and recent rains. So that may be a while. I did attempt to figure out the garden’s new dimensions (I’m expanding it a bit (to 30′ x 21.5′ from the 25′ x 20′). At least I got outside and quite dirty! I’m a firm believer in “going outside to ‘get outside’ yourself.” Admittedly that is much easier when the temps are very warm.

I may… keep a photographic record… of the plot.

…

St. Anthony took me very seriously when he helped me find my Mom’s Rosaries. Extremely sentimental, I had misplaced them, I knew not where. No clue. Asked St. Tony for help. Usually this comes… after a while. He likes to meander with me. This time, however, within like a minute or two I got a hint to “Check in that thing.”

And that’s where they were. (“That thing” being a mug I retired from coffee and tea use.) There’s a chance I might have placed the Rosaries in it some time ago during a desk reorganizing, but it would be against my typical considerations to put these valuable beads there. It might have been in an atypical moment, however. Thus, a low probability that I would have placed that mug on my search list. No proof of anything miraculous or supernatural, I’m just happy I found them.

These were Rosaries that she had been given by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA) at my Baptism. The story she and Dad told was that the nuns had looked me over (I was all of 10 days old) and prophesied that I’d become the first American Pope.

Scary thought, that one.

(In an attempt to get this blog more operational, I may have a few ‘personal,’ ‘reflective’, or ‘mundane’ posts through each week. Hence, ‘Foray into mundanity’ as the title for this post…

I’ll try to NOT BE narcissistic. I doubt that’ll be a worry as I’m not that interesting.)

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Please help a Marine Corp widow

The other day I blogged about my wife’s efforts to help the homeless, in Tents for the Homeless. Today is another day in which I’ll be exhorting you to consider another Work of Mercy

Stephanie Price, Marine widow.

Stephanie and her late husband met on CatholicMatch.com, where I also had met my wife. We continued our friendship with Steph on Facebook, (her husband wasn’t a member.) Our little group of CatholicMatch alumni were devastated with the news of her husband succumbing to PTSD and depression.

To quote from the gofundme campaign: “Stephanie, his beautiful wife who stood by him and tried all she could to get him the help he deserved is now left to pick up the pieces of their family life.

She is the one who has paid it forward for so many. Now this is our opportunity to not only show gratitude for a friend, but to also say thank you for YOUR service, devoted wife of a US Marine who dedicated his life to improving our lives.”

So, for all those who “Support the Troops,” now is your chance to do something. Michael had served in three branches of the US military (Marines, Army, National Guard.)

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Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Five AM should not exist

I awakened at 5AM this morning, a few hours before I normally have to (and on my day off, to boot!) so I can drive a ways past the village to get blood drawn and urine collected for testing. Had to switch to a new doctor for a few resentful reasons that won’t be explicated here. So the bleedin’ and the peein’ was requested at my physical a few weeks ago.

Five ante meridian does not exist on my homeworld. Denizens of my planet need sunlight to awaken, otherwise we are foggy of brain and need mass quantities of coffee later. So foggy was I that I almost opened MS Word instead of LibreOffice to write this post’s draft.

The world looks almost post-apocalyptic that early in the morning, when all is dark and sentients are missing. There are all these buildings standing about, but few humans anywhere. Those that are about, all look, well… as if they have agendas that differ from the norm.

I’m back home after a nap, and as I’m too blurry-brained to be able to do my Morning Prayers (not even the Rosary) all I’ve been capable of is to fly through StumbleUpon sites. I picked my “Fantasy Books” and “Fantasy Art” categories as I’ve reading “The Lord of the Rings” again.

This post is an attempt to get over my typical “blogger’s block;” that feeling that if I haven’t blogged in quite some time, I can’t again, ever. It’s usually cured by forcing myself to write about something, anything, and then the block is broken.

I sincerely wish to blog most every day, across my three blogs (see feed links in the sidebar). But I’ve been saying that since I started blogging in 2007. {{{sigh}}} Perhaps someday.

Off to pray.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

It wants to be a novel, but perhaps later

About a year ago I wrote this post on a short story that decided by way of creative inspiration that: It wants to be a novel.

It was going fairly well, then some things in life got to happening and it was set aside.

And then earlier this year I got a new real-world job, details to be disclosed at some other time.

And then… Something happened at this job that got me to thinking creatively. Someone did something that I thought was odd, and that there JUST HAD to be a story behind it. So I got to thinking about the possible story behind the event, and decided that it had to be explored. Writing about seemed to be the best way and so off I was, on to another story.

I didn’t think about length, at this stage in my life I don’t care too much about such things and am just happy that I’m inspired to get story ideas and the overwhelming desire to write them.

I guess it also means that as I’ve matured as a person (which is about time as I’m over 50) and am taking this maturity into my writing “career,” such things occurring could mean that “writing” is becoming a vocation (something meaningful to do as well as to earn a living from) and not an avocation (something meaningful to do, like volunteering).

Why? Because of the seriousness of it. It’s less and less that I’m an “aspiring” writer and more that I’m an “actual” writer.

This new story has taken possession of me. While not obsessed with it as I have marital and job duties, and so on, I am occupied with it. When not actually writing, I am thinking and plotting.

But, I am writing. And in doing so, I am learning more about the creative process and also about me.

More on the latter in another post (I have to look up a quote. a-HA! “Search is your friend.” I found the quote -actually turns out to be two of them as they’re related – and they deserve their own post).

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Strange “sightings” in Church

While at Daily Mass this morning I saw someone who from behind and to the side was a dead-ringer for a friend I knew from kindergarten through some college. Same Mr. Spock-inspired haircut and shade of black hair, same physical build. It wasn’t JJ, who passed away from leukemia in 1995. But the similarity in appearance was amazing.

This brings up something else, a phenomenon I’ve noticed at my home parish, and nowhere else: Every so often I see people who bear a striking resemblance to someone from my old, hometown parish, either a physical similarity, or “something about them” is reminiscent. Odd. It would be one thing if I experienced this at other parishes, but that has not happened, only where I attend Mass now.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Laying down track…

One of the things that I have learned about myself and writing since starting Listening to the Lost Voices is that in keeping with the Ernest Hemingway quote, “The first draft of anything is shit,” I have to “get over” the less-developed quality of first drafts.

First drafts just do not have the same depth and breadth of the final one. That may seem obvious, but for whatever reason the shallow, boring nature of all of my first drafts had dissuaded me from writing. “This is crap.” And I couldn’t see through to what a nice piece of fiction it ultimately might be. Self-doubt? Low self-esteem? Stupidity? And I’d stop, sometimes for years. There were other things going on which stopped me from writing for long periods, perhaps I’ll get to them someday. But concerning the nature of this post, I had serious problems with first drafts. At once exciting (“Could this be the one?”) and scary (“I’ll be humiliated.”)

It is different now. Why, I don’t know, except perhaps exposure to other writers on social networks has given me insight as to how others work.

I now liken first drafts, and second, third and beyond, to the laying down of track. Just like in building a railroad. You lay down the firm framework to get you to your destination (completed draft) and then afterwards you add the things that always followed when they built railroads out to the American West. At first there’s just the barebones story, and then things develop. As you go over the story in subsequent drafts, you expand upon it: flesh out characters and backstory, build up the world they live in, all sorts of things that would make the story “complete,” and unique to you. Just like in the development of communities along the railroads, hardy, rough “pioneers” settled first, and then more “civilized” types until finally what was Tumbleweed Gulch is now Denver.

In “laying down the track” of this story, I am actually looking forward to the process, at least so that I can get it done and start fleshing out the details. 🙂

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Listening to the Lost Voices

“Listening to the Lost Voices” is the working title of a short story I am writing. Oftentimes the story “seems to be writing itself.” Which is quite nice as writing can be painful, if the story can help out, great!

In short, it is a story involving a guy named John who can talk to people in Purgatory.

A few nicely odd things about this story: The self-doubt that normally defeats my fiction attempts is noticeably absent. I’ve taken to the notion that writing can be a form of therapy. I also think that pretty much all writing is autobiographical. Perhaps not so much that a writer picks an episode in their life and dramatizes it, but stuff from one’s life can serve as filler or material.

Another is that I am taking to heart some writing advice, which helps defeat the self-doubt I mentioned above. One bit of advice is from Ernest Hemingway, who said “The first draft of anything is shit.” That makes me feel better. Another is “If it ain’t on the page it ain’t on the stage.” I am not sure who said it, but it is something I picked up wayback when in a failed attempt at becoming a television and screenwriter. It originally meant the basic power of writers in an industry where they traditionally are disregarded: Hollywood. Directors, producers, actors get all the glory, but they can’t do diddly-squat until the writer writes and finishes. I have altered its meaning to be that “It ain’t gonna get done unless you get it written.” Profound, I know.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

In the Land of My Exile I Praise Him…

I’ve renamed this blog. Why? because I thought it was a little conceited to name it after myself, even though it is mine and is intended to be “my home on the web,” for general “woolgathering, sharing and writing.”

The new name is from the Old Testament Book of Tobit, Chapter 16, part of verse 6:

Tobit 13:6

“When you turn back to him with all your heart, to do what is right before him, Then he will turn back to you, and no longer hide his face from you. So now consider what he has done for you, and praise him with full voice. Bless the Lord of righteousness, and exalt the King of the ages. In the land of my exile I praise him, and show his power and majesty to a sinful nation. “Turn back, you sinners! do the right before him: perhaps he may look with favor upon you and show you mercy.”

(Via USCCB.)

As a faithful Catholic who reads the Bible, I fully understand that life on Earth is a life in exile. Our true home is Heaven, and that land is where we trudge towards on our daily journey.

As a writer and blogger, I seek to employ my talents, whatever they are, to Praise the Lord. He gave me what talents I possess, and therefore I hope to use them to glorify Him.

Hence the name of this blog.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Tenth Anniversary of my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today marks the 10th anniversary of my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary by way of the method according to St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe. And so, I am a member of his Militia of the Immaculata.

I do believe that being in the MI has been a major bulwark of my Faith. Along with all the usual practices of my Faith, such as frequent Mass, Confession and daily prayer, being a part of the MI strengthens my Faith experience. I am united in daily prayers to thousands of MI’s about the world, and I am a part of an apostolate that has as its roots the idea of spreading the Gospel message by a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary was the conduit by which Jesus came into the world, and Mary can be the guide and patroness of those who work out the Gospel in their day-to-day lives.

St. Maximilian Kolbe used the latest means of his times to spread the Gospel, and we Catholics today have access to technology that was unimaginable to him. Every individual Catholic with a home computer has access to software that can outmatch anything that he had in his entire “City of the Immaculate” publishing center in Poland. That astonishing fact makes you wonder how well we use the means at our disposal.

 

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

The Mad Robin (with updates!)

NOTE: All of the posts in August 2012 on Paul Sofranko Dot Net will be reposts from an earlier attempt at a general writing blog. New material will start appearing in September. These first few days are just “moving in” and “setting up”. However, this particular post on the robin I almost didn’t bother carrying over as it is dated (it was originally posted in March 2012). But I changed my mind as it’s funny. UPDATE: the robin in question never really bothered Rose again. There ended up being 3 nests about the house, and the various robin families raised at least 3 broods.)

I am outdoors. It is near 11AM and I am sitting on a patio chair situated outside our bedroom window. I am doing this because my wife Rose had insomnia last night, and just after she had gotten to sleep at 7AM she was awakened by a robin hurtling itself constantly at our bedroom window. And so I am out here, in the great outdoors, defending my wife and home against a wild robin.

Rose has a history with robins. In 2010 she placed a ladder up against the side of the house right near one of their nests so she can take photos of their newborn. The robins took issue with this and dive-bombed her. They haven’t forgotten as they have maintained this attitude towards her ever since. I am not making this up, they do seem to be rather attitudinal when she is about outside and this morning is no different (in spite of the fact that our bedroom is inside the house, as is traditional for humans).

They have apparently discovered behind which window we sleep, and are escalating their vendetta against my lovely bride. (It focuses its attack on the window overlooking Rose’s side of the bed.)

It will be an interesting Spring/Summer.

As a side note, I do love the fact that I can just go outside and blather away online on my MacBook. The novelty of portable computing is still with me. I don’t care if that sounds archaic in this mobile society with smartphones everywhere and laptops and tablets taking over from the desktop. This is freakin’ kewl. To be outside in the trees with a laptop, the contrast between nature and technology is nice. Reminds me of MSNBC in the 1990’s, with their high-tech computers everywhere on wood (probably oak) desks.

All I need now is for a robin to poop on my MacBook.

UPDATE: The robin attacked again this morning. (Thursday the 8th) I never noticed as I slept through it. It also helped that the attack did not last long. Rose placed a stuffed bear in the window. The robin fled. So, our bedroom is guarded by a bear. 🙂

UPDATE 2: It is now Monday, and no robin has disturbed us since Saturday. There are 2 stuffed teddy bears, and a flattened aluminum turkey roaster thing duct-taped to the window. Apparently it is enough to convince the idiot robin to not try and attack the window.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)