Good morning. I have a long litany of requests today…
For my mom: She’s continuing to experience a great deal of pain in her right index finger from gout. Of course, she’s continuing to consume vast quantities of bourbon, which is contraindicated with gout…According to the doctors, it’s also in both her big toes, but b/c of her peripheral neuropathy, she can’t feel it, which is a blessing.
For my niece: H. is not doing well psychologically. She has struggled with depression since age 7 (she’s now 20) and is resistant to treatment. As you know, mental illness is quite prevalent in my family-of-origin and IMO she really needs to be medicated. She has taken antidepressants before but didn’t get much relief with them. Her thinking is quite distorted. She’s paranoid and believes no one likes her and that others are “mad at her.” As an example, she quit picking up her mail almost three weeks ago from the post office at Wheaton b/c she “knows” everyone there is mad at her b/c she “gets too much mail.” She is crying incessantly and frequently comments that she “wants to die” in her 20+ daily texts to my sister (her mom). In my clinical judgment, she desperately needs to be on an antipsychotic, such as Abilify, to combat her delusional thinking, ruminating thoughts and mood swings. About a year ago, she self-injured, to the point her forearms looked like hamburger meat and they had to take her to the hospital…Why they didn’t have her committed then is impossible for me to understand. Fortunately, she arrived home yesterday and her parents seem to finally have accepted the seriousness of her problems and are looking into ways to help her. IMO, they’ve been in denial for fourteen long years…
For my three brothers: Please pray God would pierce their hardened hearts and they would turn to Him and accept Him as their loving savior.
For Brooke: Brooke is a young (24) woman I’ve had the privilege to know for the last twelve years. She is an amazing human being. Her parents divorced when she was young and she was raised by her dad, who passed away from a massive heart attack last year on December 24. Her mom is a raging alcoholic with mental health issues (she tried to commit suicide multiple times during Brooke’s formative years). Pray that joy would find its way into her heart this Christmas, even though it is the one year anniversary of her Dad’s death.
Praise report: Thank you so much for all the prayers regarding the situation with Becca. I’m feeling much less stressed about the report after talking with my brother, therapist and psychiatrist, as well as many wee-hour conversations with God.
((((Ann)))) With your mother you remember she inflicted this upon herself. Having watched my mother fall out in my bedroom floor from an alcohol withdrawal seizure, I can tell you she can’t quit the booze on her own. She would have to be hospitalized to get through the withdrawal.
Your niece didn’t cause any of her issues and it is so hard when the voices in your head are not kind. It may be 14 years too late, but there is still time. I can’t know what you are going through personally but I can empathize. Do you still have my phone number? Call me if you need to verbally vomit.
Back in March I asked for prayer for Ron, dying of cancer. He died and the family has spent the last nine months regrouping.
Mom found a boyfriend and has moved in with him, photos plastered on FB.(Which, frankly, is hard for me, though I’m trying to be open minded).
Because Ron was such a good guy, I’m sure he told her to find another man. They’ve known this guy for years and for all I know, Ron set it up.
Son has finished the JC and moves along to Cal in January, still living at home–by himself.
Daughter is a USC and is my daughter’s close friend. She’s having a hard time.
(Which makes me wonder if that is why my daughter is in LA right now–for L)
Anyway, this is a Unitarian Universalist family, good people, and L has spent a lot of time with us over the last eight years. We took her to Italy with us in 2010 and know her pretty well.
She’ll be here tonight for the party, and I’d like prayers for an opportunity to talk with her–if not today, in the next couple weeks–about grief and mourning. Ron did Christmas big time; no Christmas at the house this year. L is off with a boyfriend and his family on a cruise after Christmas; parents are civil but not keen on her.
I feel like she’s lost and struggling and want to reach out to her. So, prayers please and thanks.
Michelle, I have often heard that the better the marriage the more likely the remaining spouse is to quickly get in another relationship. I don’t know if that helps or not.
My heart breaks for L. I still want to pick up the phone and call my dad so I can’t even imagine how I would have dealt with his death if I had still been in college—especially if the mother has emotionally checked out.
I hate to even ask this with all the things so many others are going through, but this Christmas I can’t find my joy. I have gone through the motions but the “Christmas spirit” just isn’t in me. I still have unwrapped presents. You KNOW I love to wrap pretty packages.
Kim – I’ve felt so tired lately that I could have easily let a lot of Christmas stuff – like sending cards, decorating, baking cookies, even putting up a tree – slide. But there’s this adorable, sweet little boy in my house whom I didn’t want to disappoint. So I decided to “do Christmas” for him, & for the rest of my family. (Lee isn’t particularly enthusiastic this year, either, but I hope he enjoys the little bit I’ve done. I know he’s glad I did cards this year, after a couple years of not doing them.)
I know you’ve been going through a hard time lately, & my heart goes out to you, & my prayers up to the Father for you.
I did a little Christmas shopping today. I asked the stores to wrap the presents for me. It isn’t as good as I would have done, but it is good enough and I didn’t have to do it.
I broke down and bought a gift bag last night. I try not to use those, but …
Kare shared this on FB yesterday, it’s really a very good piece on how the sentimentality of the season can give us false expectations, followed by that let-down feeling I think I go through some years.
“Christmas as a consumer event is designed for people like me. Saps, that is. People who inhale the smell of gingerbread and want to buy the whole tin because it reminds us of a happy memory, or a loving grandma, or the Best Christmas Ever.
“This is sentimentalism, the emotional shortcuts we take to try and re-live a meaningful moment. A holiday jingle, candlelight, the smell of pine…these become the icons, the portals by which we attempt to briefly escape to a better kind of world, one untarnished by bad experiences, relational messes, debt, loss, or regret. …
“But we forget that memory is selective, that, through most family holidays, real people are probably arguing, or sick, or play-acting, or hurting. Forget that this world simply cannot—cannot—give us the peace that passes all understanding. In our busyness and exhaustion and sadness, the trappings of Christmas become the shortcuts by which we attempt to manufacture the elusive ‘joy’ the world itself can never provide.
“If the mere smell of gingerbread can bring joy to the world, then what do we need Jesus for?
‘The deepest enemy to Christianity is not atheism; it’s sentimentality,’ says renowned theologian Stanley Hauerwas. It’s taken me a long time to understand what he means. But I think I’m beginning to get it. If the mere smell of gingerbread can bring joy to the world, then what do we need Jesus for? … “
Kim: Thanks for the offer to listen. I plan to take you up on it soon. Becca is sick with some sort of respiratory crud, so we can’t go to church this morning, and I really wanted/needed to go…
Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers. It means more to me than I can adequately express in mere words…
Wandering Views 
Good morning. I have a long litany of requests today…
For my mom: She’s continuing to experience a great deal of pain in her right index finger from gout. Of course, she’s continuing to consume vast quantities of bourbon, which is contraindicated with gout…According to the doctors, it’s also in both her big toes, but b/c of her peripheral neuropathy, she can’t feel it, which is a blessing.
For my niece: H. is not doing well psychologically. She has struggled with depression since age 7 (she’s now 20) and is resistant to treatment. As you know, mental illness is quite prevalent in my family-of-origin and IMO she really needs to be medicated. She has taken antidepressants before but didn’t get much relief with them. Her thinking is quite distorted. She’s paranoid and believes no one likes her and that others are “mad at her.” As an example, she quit picking up her mail almost three weeks ago from the post office at Wheaton b/c she “knows” everyone there is mad at her b/c she “gets too much mail.” She is crying incessantly and frequently comments that she “wants to die” in her 20+ daily texts to my sister (her mom). In my clinical judgment, she desperately needs to be on an antipsychotic, such as Abilify, to combat her delusional thinking, ruminating thoughts and mood swings. About a year ago, she self-injured, to the point her forearms looked like hamburger meat and they had to take her to the hospital…Why they didn’t have her committed then is impossible for me to understand. Fortunately, she arrived home yesterday and her parents seem to finally have accepted the seriousness of her problems and are looking into ways to help her. IMO, they’ve been in denial for fourteen long years…
For my three brothers: Please pray God would pierce their hardened hearts and they would turn to Him and accept Him as their loving savior.
For Brooke: Brooke is a young (24) woman I’ve had the privilege to know for the last twelve years. She is an amazing human being. Her parents divorced when she was young and she was raised by her dad, who passed away from a massive heart attack last year on December 24. Her mom is a raging alcoholic with mental health issues (she tried to commit suicide multiple times during Brooke’s formative years). Pray that joy would find its way into her heart this Christmas, even though it is the one year anniversary of her Dad’s death.
Praise report: Thank you so much for all the prayers regarding the situation with Becca. I’m feeling much less stressed about the report after talking with my brother, therapist and psychiatrist, as well as many wee-hour conversations with God.
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Xoxo.
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Ditto deleted.
Phone is spaspaticstic today.
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Say what?
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Prayers for all, Ann. And what Michelle said.
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((((Ann)))) With your mother you remember she inflicted this upon herself. Having watched my mother fall out in my bedroom floor from an alcohol withdrawal seizure, I can tell you she can’t quit the booze on her own. She would have to be hospitalized to get through the withdrawal.
Your niece didn’t cause any of her issues and it is so hard when the voices in your head are not kind. It may be 14 years too late, but there is still time. I can’t know what you are going through personally but I can empathize. Do you still have my phone number? Call me if you need to verbally vomit.
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Back in March I asked for prayer for Ron, dying of cancer. He died and the family has spent the last nine months regrouping.
Mom found a boyfriend and has moved in with him, photos plastered on FB.(Which, frankly, is hard for me, though I’m trying to be open minded).
Because Ron was such a good guy, I’m sure he told her to find another man. They’ve known this guy for years and for all I know, Ron set it up.
Son has finished the JC and moves along to Cal in January, still living at home–by himself.
Daughter is a USC and is my daughter’s close friend. She’s having a hard time.
(Which makes me wonder if that is why my daughter is in LA right now–for L)
Anyway, this is a Unitarian Universalist family, good people, and L has spent a lot of time with us over the last eight years. We took her to Italy with us in 2010 and know her pretty well.
She’ll be here tonight for the party, and I’d like prayers for an opportunity to talk with her–if not today, in the next couple weeks–about grief and mourning. Ron did Christmas big time; no Christmas at the house this year. L is off with a boyfriend and his family on a cruise after Christmas; parents are civil but not keen on her.
I feel like she’s lost and struggling and want to reach out to her. So, prayers please and thanks.
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Michelle, I have often heard that the better the marriage the more likely the remaining spouse is to quickly get in another relationship. I don’t know if that helps or not.
My heart breaks for L. I still want to pick up the phone and call my dad so I can’t even imagine how I would have dealt with his death if I had still been in college—especially if the mother has emotionally checked out.
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I hate to even ask this with all the things so many others are going through, but this Christmas I can’t find my joy. I have gone through the motions but the “Christmas spirit” just isn’t in me. I still have unwrapped presents. You KNOW I love to wrap pretty packages.
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Kim – I’ve felt so tired lately that I could have easily let a lot of Christmas stuff – like sending cards, decorating, baking cookies, even putting up a tree – slide. But there’s this adorable, sweet little boy in my house whom I didn’t want to disappoint. So I decided to “do Christmas” for him, & for the rest of my family. (Lee isn’t particularly enthusiastic this year, either, but I hope he enjoys the little bit I’ve done. I know he’s glad I did cards this year, after a couple years of not doing them.)
I know you’ve been going through a hard time lately, & my heart goes out to you, & my prayers up to the Father for you.
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Kim – Speaking of wrapping packages, I was thinking of you yesterday as I did an atrocious job wrapping some of my packages.
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I did a little Christmas shopping today. I asked the stores to wrap the presents for me. It isn’t as good as I would have done, but it is good enough and I didn’t have to do it.
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I broke down and bought a gift bag last night. I try not to use those, but …
Kare shared this on FB yesterday, it’s really a very good piece on how the sentimentality of the season can give us false expectations, followed by that let-down feeling I think I go through some years.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/december/bringing-true-joy-to-world.html
“Christmas as a consumer event is designed for people like me. Saps, that is. People who inhale the smell of gingerbread and want to buy the whole tin because it reminds us of a happy memory, or a loving grandma, or the Best Christmas Ever.
“This is sentimentalism, the emotional shortcuts we take to try and re-live a meaningful moment. A holiday jingle, candlelight, the smell of pine…these become the icons, the portals by which we attempt to briefly escape to a better kind of world, one untarnished by bad experiences, relational messes, debt, loss, or regret. …
“But we forget that memory is selective, that, through most family holidays, real people are probably arguing, or sick, or play-acting, or hurting. Forget that this world simply cannot—cannot—give us the peace that passes all understanding. In our busyness and exhaustion and sadness, the trappings of Christmas become the shortcuts by which we attempt to manufacture the elusive ‘joy’ the world itself can never provide.
“If the mere smell of gingerbread can bring joy to the world, then what do we need Jesus for?
‘The deepest enemy to Christianity is not atheism; it’s sentimentality,’ says renowned theologian Stanley Hauerwas. It’s taken me a long time to understand what he means. But I think I’m beginning to get it. If the mere smell of gingerbread can bring joy to the world, then what do we need Jesus for? … “
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Kim: Thanks for the offer to listen. I plan to take you up on it soon. Becca is sick with some sort of respiratory crud, so we can’t go to church this morning, and I really wanted/needed to go…
Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers. It means more to me than I can adequately express in mere words…
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