The Marys in My Life.

Our Mary corner. Lots of Marys, as I have always said, "you can never have enough Marys". The Mary in the prayer garden at ST. Joe's. She is little and quiet and I wish more assertive. I think the real one was much more definant but she was about 16 when she had Jesus and part of a very restrictive culture.


Grandma Mary and of course M-E. I wish I had a picture of M-E's other

Grandma she is also named Mary.
Then there is Our Lady of the Lost and Found. She has been with us through this whole battle. She sits quietly and gathers' good wishes and special things. Notes, Fortune Cookies, special charms and amulets. Lorraine made her for M-E as soon as she was diagnosed. She was made in a couple of days and has been a constant reminder that we are not alone. We are surrounded with people that love us and pray for us and send us good wishes all the time.

She comes from the book by the same name. In the book, a middle aged women goes into her living room and finds the Virgin Mary needing a rest. She has had a very busy 2000 years of prayer answering. She then retells those two thousand years that history seems to have forgotten.

In the book there is a passage about the Guadalupe Web site where it is possible to pray the rosery from you computer terminal. It also has a place where you can "light a candle" and send your own prayer of petition or thanksgiving. The author was amused until she began to read the prayers, thousands of them from people that felt any kind of prayer, even a cyber prayer had value. She pointed out the following:

"In English, the word prayer is most often used generically, encompassing all those moments when a person talks to god. In doing se we are also talking to ourselves, describing and addressing our own deepest fears and needs"

Heaven knows that Marys in my life have heard from me a lot. From Mom to God to Mary and Mary-Elizabeth. Some frown on "intermediaries" for presenting prayers and it is a bit odd for a former Presbyterian like myself to think about it. I guess the reality is that I am very fond of Mary. I can relate to her so much more than many others. She had a child she knew was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it but help him in his mission. ( Don't freak, M-E is doing great. I just have alot of sympathy for Mary. She had no modern medicine or miricles on her side.)

I am not sure about how the universe is really organized. I know that there is a God. I am not certain it is the "God" of many artists or the "God" of Hollywood. I just know there is a god. I am certain that she is more female than male, not that it matters. I just believe that creation is more female. It is more right brained than left brained. I know there is some very important male aspects to god because creativity is good on one plain but needs some much necessary linear practicality that is more of the male proclivity.

Like all people, I have come in and out of faith. It has taken different paths at different times. I have always wondered how to deal with all the inconsitancies but putting some of them aside, like famine, hurricanes, the wiping of whole villages with plague, hate, evil, war and all the other nasty mess, I know I am not alone. Nor do I believe we are a freak mixture of amorphous atoms that became our world. It all works too well.

I can so remember when I was first pregnant and I realized what was happening deep inside of my body. As M-E grew and developed and finally arrived, I was amazed every day. It all worked so well. I craved red meat while she was taking into her body all the iron she needed. I was further amazed with breast milk and who it changed in volume and composition as her needs changed. I was amazed how much a person she was when she was born and how she has blossomed over the years. It is not by chance.

I look back over the past year and a few months and am more amazed. Thank God we never moved. Thank God for eye appointments. Thank God for good friends that give of their time and their resources and their selves. Thank God for all the good things we have learned and the things we have grown to accept. Thank God for warm sunny afternoons and good Dixie Chick CD's. But most of all Thank God for all the Marys in my life. They have gotten me through much.