Yesterday started the novena for divine mercy sunday, and I thought about posting something thoughtful and meaningful, but I didn't. By the time I got home from Good Friday Liturgy, scrounged something small to eat, and read Dawn's blog (which, by the way, you need to read also) I was tired. It seems lately that I spend way too much time being tired, anyhow. Fighting for the culture of life at work, trying to persuade my professional colleagues to quit harassing the patients to make the choices that the colleagues think the patients should make, trying to meet the nearly impossible production goals that our grant funding entities think are reasonable (seeing 2.8 patients/hour which means that you have to book 3 patients per hour because so many of them just don't show up - except that lately mine have all been showing up AND needing much more than the 20 minutes per visit). And then the computer system that we are transiting into using for all the office visits except prenatal has crashed twice in the last week.
So I guess that I'm not going to commit to anything that requires daily posting, not even something as dear to my heart as the Divine Mercy. The only reason I am even online now is that the 17 y/o has several friends over to color Easter Eggs - an annual tradition of hers. The music is way too loud and I have retreated upstairs to my room, where I can watch the bluebirds from my window and hear the chirping from the nest beneath the window air conditioning unit.
The Divine Mercy is something that I learned about from EWTN. Before we moved to NH, I had never seen nor heard EWTN. I'd heard of it, mostly negatives, but the whole time we lived in OR and our last few years in CA we didn't have cable. I'm not a TV person, anyhow. I prefer radio. But when I started taking call at the hospital, there was no way I could get a radio signal inside those thick walls and I had limited access to a computer with internet access. So I ended up turning on the TV in the call room for background when I was sleeping. (can't sleep too soundly on call). I was looking for something that would have quiet music, and thought I might have luck finding gregorian chant on the Catholic channel. Instead, I happened to turn it on during a chant of the Divine Mercy chaplet. I was hooked. (more later, gotta get changed to run to the Easter Vigil liturgy - my favorite liturgy of the year though I am afraid that this new parish administrator will cut it as short as he thinks he can get away with).
Alicia, thank you so much for the comment about "trying to persuade my professional colleagues to quit harassing the patients to make the choices that the colleagues think the patients should make".
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making that effort. My own Dr. also respects me and my ability to make the right decisions for me. This pg was an "oops!" (Thank you God for oopses) and when I told her, she said, "Are you happy about that oops?" When I said yes (after awhile), she said, "oh, good, because I am so pleased for you! I was wondering if you would be coming to me soon."
When I got sick this pregnancy, and my own doctor was away, the other docs and nurses constantly harped on about terminating the pregnancy (ie. murdering my daughter) or having my tubes tied since I am having a planned section (CPDx2 caused by problems with the cartilege in my hips -- it's congential in my family). If one more person says to me, "You'll be opened up anyway", I'm gonna start throwing things!
Anyway, for all the women out there like me who are choosing life despite the harpies, thank you, thank you, thank you. People like you lighten the load.
Happy Easter, my blog-friend! May you feel the presence of the risen Lord!