"Momma"'s New Year's Resolutions To Reilly (God Willing)

While "Momma" grants that even Kirk Douglas doesn't have tomorrow unless God wills that he does, "Momma" makes these resolutions to Reilly—and assuming that she's even alive by January, "Momma" will try to fulfill (if Yehovah wills) the resolutions to try to:

1. Not fail Reilly
2. Find whoever Reilly's "Daddy" is for Reilly—whether he is who "Momma" thinks (or at least hopes that he is) or she has to settle for whom she can get
3. Somehow get out of the U.S. or die trying if Trump gets his way
4. Be a better "Auntie" to Camille for Reilly's and Camille's sakes

יהי רצון יהוה לעשות הרצון שלו.

PS After "Momma" got offline after checking some things (including the status of her hopefully-soon-to-be-published second book), "Momma" saw a resemblance to her—and thus to Reilly's "Pop-Pop", and thus Kirk Douglas—in Reilly—"Momma" was both amused and unamused.

As Much As Reilly Taught "Momma" Patience...

Camille taught someone else compassion—the "someone else" happens to be the same can-be-contentious person as before, and Reilly's lesson in patience helped "Momma" to ask her to be compassionate to a mutual friend whom has a lot on his or her plate.

The long story short is this: when "Auntie Nicole" asked Camille to ask the being-contentious person to show some compassion, Camille gave "Auntie Nicole" kisses on her hands (Maybe "Auntie Nicole" is a godmother—or "godmomma"—too. 😉).

Reilly also asked the needing-to-be-compassionate person to be compassionate by going over to the person and giving her kisses!

Maybe Reilly's Teaching "Momma" A Lesson About Patience—Or At Least...

Maybe God's using Reilly to teach "Momma" about patience—or resignation. For example, "Momma" didn't tell someone to stop annoying & loud whistling when she could have told her—and she said that she was "surprised that ["Momma"] didn't tell [her] to shut up"—and "Momma" herself just shut up as this person was whistling.

Meanwhile, "Momma" dealt with this contentious person earlier and saw how the contentiousness affected Reilly—poor, patient, unhappy Reilly—maybe at a subconscious level, "Momma" learned and later applied the lesson that she learned (or relearned at least) from Reilly—i.e., all that you can do in some cases is nothing but pray and otherwise shut up about it, especially if you've tried multiple times to reason with the contentious party or parties.

Reilly clearly got that this person can be contentious and wished that "Momma" wouldn't have to deal with when this person gets contentious—"Momma" could see that on Ri's face!

What A Prize Candle Can Teach One About Shabbat, Humanity, Etc.; And...

Yes, I put a link to Prize Candle's website in the title on my own volition, unbeknownst to Prize Candle until they read this blog entry. Speaking of unbeknownst matters, that my sister had the "brill" idea of digging out the Prize Candle before it was naturally ready to come out is her schtick—she dug hers out and got the "brill" idea to dig out the ring (and she hates that I use the slang for "brilliant" to annoy her!)—in other words, Mom won't know that Michelle had the idea until I either squeal, let Michelle confess, or share this blog entry.

Here are just a few of the lessons (There are many more that I'll probably even think of as I type or that you could add as you read this, for example.):

1. A Prize Candle can be a great Shabbat candle. It has eco-friendly soy wax, a manifestation of tikun ha'olam v'tzedek—and soy wax is kosher. It also saves the work of having to hold a Havdalah candle, since it comes in a glass container—which can be recycled and/or reused later—tada! Another manifestation of tikun ha'olam v'tzedek.
2. Like Shabbat, the Prize Candle (at least if you get it for a gift and/or join the Candle of the Month Club like I did) gives you things to which to look forward—lighting the fragrency candle itself (like sanctifying Shabbat) and waiting for the ring (like waiting to find discovered treasures within kiddush Shabbat).
3. The wax can remind of you of the following verse: "I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me." Just as when wax melts when a candle is lit, so we can feel "like wax" when we're put under pressure.
4. Each of us, like a candle has a wick, is called to be a light. "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
5. Israel is called to be a light to the nations and has treasure within her.
6. Our days are like wax, melting away. After those days end or earlier, in time either way, our treasure might be revealed.
7. Sometimes (like Michelle dug out the candle and Mom actually even used a knife to see if she could get through the wax that was holding the ring in and down), God digs through our days with pain to reveal our treasure.
8. Like only Prize Candle ultimately knows the value of the ring within the candle, only God ultimately knows what our treasure is worth.
9. Sometimes (and see Lesson 7 above), God uses other people to reveal our treasure.

I think that the most-important lessons have to be Lessons 3-8. So, Jesus; bring the fire; melt me like wax in a Prize Candle, and reveal my treasure which You have created.

PS Mom came home as I typed...and yes, I squealed before I could get into trouble (and Michelle told me that I should've seen the look that Mom gave her).

Update and Commentary On a Life Lived—Beyond the Surface, To Say the Least

An Epiphany That Occurred To Me Only After My Last Blog Entry...

With All Due Respect To Survivors Of Suicide (Even Myself, You Have To Remember)...

I had to laugh in my head when someone talked about losing her friend to the "dark tunnel of suicide"--she, like others, talks about how suicide is "difficult" for the survivors. Survivors of suicide like her (even if they don't say it) also think about how suicide is selfish, etc..

Well, firstly, the "dark tunnel of suicide" wasn't that dark for him--he committed suicide! Besides, secondly, like he probably thought, I'm thinking more and more that I agree with the sentiments (and I've--when I've Googled "Why shouldn't I commit suicide?", for example--seen and/or picked up the sentiments) that:

1. Suicide may not be that damned selfish after all.
2. The survivors may be being the ones who are selfish--who are they really crying for, after all? (By the way, Wayman Tisdale did not commit suicide, but you get the point.)
3. Since people are complaining about population control, it wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) kill you (pun intended) if we kill ourselves, anyway. After all, you sure don't feel--or at least act like you feel--that losing us would kill you while we're still alive--or at least most of the time, you don't. In fact, you usually act quite the opposite way while we're alive--that is, that you'd even want to see us gone and are just too tactically polite to say that. Even, for instance, while the one person talked about how her loved one "was close to me and all his friends and family" and was a "great friend", the loved one sure didn't feel like he was--or why else would he have committed suicide? Or maybe he felt like he was on his end but not on his loved ones' ends--after all, why didn't he stick around if he truly felt like he was loved by his loved ones.
4. Since you don't care for or even want us around while we're around and alive, that we'd be no longer around or alive would be better for all parties. Besides, you can really put your sentiments behind your "I miss you when you're not around" and "I'll always love you" words when we're really not around.
5. Suicidal people and suicide committers may, in some senses, be ahead of their time. For example, my great-granddad committed suicide on the day that Mario Savio spoke and helped usher in Jacob's Trouble--and he had seen enough of Jacob's Trouble on the horizon in his day. By the way, in case anyone's asking, I did tweet that I gained a whole new respect for Great Granddad for that in a perhaps-perverse since.
6. Since, again, you don't care for or even want us around while we're around and alive, that we'd be no longer around or alive would be better for all parties. After all, if and/or since we're really that much trouble to you while we're alive and around, we'd be putting an end to both our and your miseries if we decided to commit suicide. Also, again, that'd solve your population-control issue.
7. Since we may be well ahead of our time and you don't want us around, quit your (for a lack of a better term and with all due respect) bitching--we're perhaps even escaping to Heaven. Even if we're not, we were predestined for Hell (where you at least surely acted like you wanted us, anyway). Regardless, we'd be cutting our days short--perhaps to your satisfaction, as you made it seem half of the time.
8. The only reason that we don't commit suicide is because we're too damned in dread of what would happen if we did commit suicide or--worsely--if we actually survived a suicide attempt and had dreadful consequences associated with our failed suicide attempts and survivals thereof (or therefrom--whichever; you get the point). 

So, give suicide commiters and those of us who've been suicidal--for good reason--a break. You didn't seem to care for your suicide-victim loved one when he or she was still here--or else he or she would still be here, because he or she would know that he or she had a friend who's even a sibling or even close than one. You don't seem to care for us now--in fact, you're sending us the same messages that you sent your suicide-victim loved.

And that's why I laughed--not because I thought that his suicide was funny, but because I thought that (as he must've thought or would think) she's a damned hypocrite for saying what she should've said and meant while he was alive. Had she truly meant all that she said now that he's been gone for two years, he would've never gone through that suicide attempt--even Jeremiah stayed alive because he had Baruch and Hanamel, and Elijah had 6,999 others .

So, with all due respect to survivors of suicide (including those who've been suicidal like I have), give suicide victims and those who've been suicidal (including yourselves if you've been suicidal) a break! At least if you give us a break, we'll stay around to at least make you selfish brats and hypocrites happy--even if you really don't care for us, and at least to prove that we're not selfish like you--nor would we actually be selfish if we decide to take ourselves out of your lives! 

A Few Lessons That I've Recently Learned and Relearned

• As the old saying goes, "If it's too good to be true, it probably is"; and if it's too true to be good, it probably is as well.
• On a similar note, if it looks too real to be fake, it probably is; and if it looks too fake to be real, it probably is.
• On another similar note, if it doesn't look like a joke or game, it probably isn't; and if it does look like a joke or a game, it probably is.
• Always know the what and why of what's going on and what you're doing. For example, "now their brethren among all the families of Issachar were mighty men of valor, listed by their genealogies, eighty-seven thousand in all." (1 Chronicles 7:5) And "of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command" (1 Chronicles 12:32). Be like bnei-Yissakhar in valor and understanding; for you don't want to be like bnei-Yissakhar when they weren't as valorous and understanding as they could have been-- and thus forewent the opportunity to have led kol bnei-Yisra'el in doing the right thing:

1. " So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but they laughed at them and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the Lord. " (2 Chronicles 30:10-12)
2. When they finally knew what was going on and why they were to obey: " ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹ who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” ²⁰ And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. " (2 Chronicles 30:17-20)

• " “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. " (Isaiah 8:12) In other words, make sure to not get involved in believing or making conspiracy theories.

From bible-history.com