GOOD MORNING WORLD
Please stay with me as today is more journal than blog. I stepped out of my own way yesterday. I quoted one of my favorite passages to those assembled who were choosing a direction for our volunteer work.
Jeremiah 29:11(NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
The most wonderful thing is that at the end of my hand was my husband’s hand as we let God work once again in our lives. We stood before His loving ‘hands and feet’ here on earth and said ‘here we are use us’. He did. He told us for the first time in over 20 years to ‘stay put do not move’. We will be busy and what is not to like about serving the Lord. We should have realized something was going to happen when yesterday’s scripture reading from
Mark 3:20-21 concluded with “He is out of his mind.”
We are happily onward to more misadventure.
We filled the hours of our 3 hr drive home with chatter. Actually my very quiet husband did most of the talking and THAT was a change. I was stunned. The ride was filled with joy and thoughts and ideas and amazement at the beautiful process we had participated in earlier in the day to decide what God wanted for all of us in this particular section of our ministry.
We got home and got a bite to eat and literally crashed on the couch. Not much was on TV so we looked to see if we had DVR’d anything good. I scrolled down to the show “God is Bigger that Elvis”. My husband was intrigued and I was glad to finally be watching it. It is the story of Dolores Hart who left Hollywood in the 60’s to become a nun. She was the actress who gave Elvis his first on screen kiss! (swoon)
In my childhood of the 50s and 60s we had one really big treat in our town A movie theater. My dad in his youth had been the usher in a theater above a store in another town. He watched every movie coming into the old Neptune theater. The Park was the name of our theater.
The Park was probably as big (or as small) as the movie theaters we have now in the multiplex theaters. The Criterion in the next town was an art deco gem and it was a big deal to go there for a show. It was even a bigger deal when my tap class performed on that stage. When the one act play I was in in high school was performed there it was huge!
Every Friday night after I was old enough I would go to the movie. I think I have chatted about this in earlier blogs. It was $.25 to get in and popcorn and candy was 5 or 10 cents. There were few times I was not allowed to go. Two movies in particular I could not see on was the “Man with the Golden Arm” starring Frank Sinatra as a heroin addict. The other was “Peyton Place”. I have since seen them and they pale in comparison to what is shown today.
I loved Elvis and watched every single movie he made. I liked any ‘chic flic’ going and in those days there a lot of them along with some shoot’em ups of the cowboy or war genre unlike today’s as they were lacking in blood though still as good.
Dolores Hart was a beauty. Of course all the starlets were. We had ‘Photoplay’ magazine along with others to tell us all that was going on in Hollywood. It sounded like a magical place where all the beautiful people lived. Rarely was there scandal. Again unlike today’s relentless find all tell all show all paparazzi the stars were protected by their studios or news agents. Occasionally a hint of a scandal would leak out only to be squashed quickly.
Dolores Hart was a good actress. I liked to see her in the movies and especially the ones she did with Elvis. I wanted to be her in those movies! We all wanted to be the star Elvis fell in love with in the end as the credits rolled! I did not know much of her story at the time. I knew she left to go to a convent. Seemed odd and was a blip in the movies news.
Last night as I watched the documentary made about her life, I was warmed by her affirmation of choosing the path less traveled. I have provided a link for you to enjoy some of the story rather than type it all in here.
http://abbeyofreginalaudis.org/sitelive/community/MotherDoloresHart.htm
I heard an interview with Mark Wahlburg awhile ago when he said he goes to Mass every morning. Dolores Hart did the same in the glitz of Hollywood’s Golden Age. I am certain many other glamorous stars have strong faith and live it. It saddens me that this is rarely a mention. We are inundated with poor Lindsay Lohan’s self-destruction or the latest divorce or falling from grace of the wonder kid of the day. I wonder what it would be like if good news was regularly reported about celebrities??? I know it is out there.
Rev. Mother Prioress Dolores Hart chose grace over glamour. She is one happy lady. She left a man she loved to devote herself to another in a cloistered convent. Don Robinson never married and their friendship remains. He visits her once a year. I hope you can find this show on your own televisions. It is an HBO special lasting about 30 minutes and was up for an Academy Award in 2012. She appeared on the red carpet and I have included the you tube link as well. I was surprised to hear she was still a voting member of the Academy.
My conclusion from all of this is that yesterday God gave me (us) a direction for my life for the next three years. Last night through the documentary I was shown how wonderful a course correction can be in one’s life.
My favorite poet Robert Frost says it best in “The Road Not taken”.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
…..all the difference in the world for me as I work with my husband and dear friends in our ministry as we proclaim the value of the Marriage of a man and a woman and Holy Orders. I am convinced that the world can be changed by our work. I believe the world can be changed if we listen to John 13:34-35..
New International Version (NIV)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Today I am truly…………….
…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…
ktsquared 