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I was raised Catholic . My husband was raised Jewish. Neither of us practice . We both have issues with some of the beliefs of our religions and particularly how they view women in certain circumstances .

On our own, we taught our kids the similarities and differences between the two religions and how religions in general don’t agree, which is why I in particular always questioned, since I was very young, how anyone is to know which of the many religions to believe or follow . Organized religion is not for me , too many “man” made influences as well as wars over religion .

When I want to feel closer to “God”, or whatever the “possible unknown powers” are to “ pray” , I go to a spot in nature to meditate . My first choice is the beach , but if not , any beautiful space outside will do like a park.

I do appreciate that organized religion brings comfort to many. I just wish in general that religion wasn’t used by some as an excuse to discriminate , hate, or cause other conflicts. People should be free to believe and practice or not believe or practice.

When we were dating my husband asked to come to my house and trim our Christmas tree with us because he never did it growing up. Our neighborhood we grew up in was very Catholic . My husband said he always felt like the odd family not having Christmas lights. He still loves Christmas decorations and lights . He also did not want our children to feel left out as he did as a kid , so Santa Claus came to our house .

Holidays are fun family time as we have carved out our own family traditions and welcome breaks from everyday life .
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Easter has become a really special day for my younger grand-nephew and I. My mother read to him almost daily during her last years, including the day before her death. When Mom became more bedridden, we moved his train table into her room and he would frequently play with the trains and other toys as he conversed with "Grandma". He was only 6 when she died but now nearly 2 years later, he still plays in her room and does not want his train table or his books moved; says he still feels Grandma's presence in the room, kinda like when she was sleeping as he played. We still sit in her recliner and read, only now he reads some of the books to me. After he asked me several times to visit her grave, I took him with me on her birthday and then at Easter to place some flowers. Easter has not just become a celebration of Christ's resurrection, but a day when we express gratitude Grandma is now healed and in heaven with her parents, siblings, cousins, and many friends. I am amazed how much this little boy continues state he misses Grandma and "remembers" places we went with Grandma (to Chick-fil-a's playground or the local pool) given his young age now and at her death. He asked yesterday if I would be putting flowers on the graves this Easter and when I said yes asked if he could come with me. I don't recall such devotion in my own life when young, but maybe that's because I didn't lose someone I was really close to until age 28.
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happy easter!! ❤️🙂

the world is full of mannnny religions.

:)
no particular day BELONGS to only one set of people.

for some,
—easter is about chocolate. why not.
—for others, it’s about christianity.
—for others it’s about the easter celebration (pagan) that already existed wayyyy before christianity. easter in that context, was (and for some people still is) about the equinox, the changing of seasons (just as “xmas” was actually the winter solstice celebration, start of winter). easter was celebrated as the start of spring, and all that’s blooming! hope! new! goddess of spring. and celebrating the cool fact that during the equinox: every location on earth (except the extreme poles) experiences the same number of hours of day/night; 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. :) :)

we have freedom of religion, freedom of belief.

let everyone decide for themselves what a particular day means to them.

example:
9 april (by chance that’s today, easter sunday)
1940
was the german invasion of norway

another example:
today is my dear friend’s bday

no one owns the definition of a particular day.

❤️🙂
that’s why we have freedom of religion, freedom of belief
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BOJ,

I totally agree with you on our freedom of belief!

One should also be free to acknowledge their religious beliefs though, or not, it’s a choice that we get to make for ourselves.
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LOL. I'm not saying people can't celebrate their religion (or lack of religion) in any way they choose, I'm just mourning my personal feeling of loss and meaninglessness. Given the many stress filled posts around American thanksgiving and at Christmas there are plenty of caregivers who seem to feel the same way.
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cw,

There is so much commercialism in holidays now. We start seeing items in stores for Christmas so early. Thanksgiving is sort of brushed aside.
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I am thinking of my friend who is having a very difficult time with her mom right now. She claims to be such a wonderful “Christian”woman.

Geeeeez, the major reference regarding religion in her family is telling her children that they are all going to hell! Then, she wonders why they have strayed from the church! LOL 😆

Her daughter told her that she wasn’t setting a good example of showing the love that Christ has for us.
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It’s kind of chilly here this morning, in the high 50’s. I am sure that it will warm up later.
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For me the meaning of Easter, for example, comes from my personal beliefs and not from how society treats the day. I am sorry you feel loss and meaninglessness, cw. I hear what you are saying. Life around Christian holidays is very different from what it was. I guess I have adapted to accepting what is going on outside me without changing what is going on inside me.

Totally agree, we are free to make our choices.

Chilly here but warming up - supposed to be high of 8C (46F) which melts the snow. Half the back lawn is green now and a few very small patches in front, but the banks of snow along the driveway are still several feet tall. Rocky is enjoying being outdoors again.
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My Easter candies of choice would be those horribly sweet thumbprint sized colourful eggs that have a hard shell and white inside, jelly beans, cadbury cream eggs, a Mr Munchy chocolate bunny.... but neither of those are as good as they used to be. When I was little we each got one of those hollow chocolate eggs with candied flowers on them, I liked saving the flowers for last.

I haven't found a carrot cake that lives up to the one I lost the recipe for (but if you serve me a slice I'll be polite and eat it anyway 🤣)
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I don't eat much chocolate but like those hard shell candies too.
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Way,

I totally get what you’re saying about religion. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools. There are many beautiful beliefs in the Catholic Church but I certainly don’t believe in everything that they teach.

Like you, I believe much of the Catholic faith is man made. That could apply to most other religions too though. They add their own spin to it.

My oldest daughter’s best friend has parents like the two of you. Her mom was raised Catholic. Her dad is Jewish and previously lived in New York. It was important to him that the children were raised Jewish and it didn’t matter as much to her so the children attended Hebrew school and their synagogue.

The mom shared her faith and she put up a Christmas tree. He celebrated Hanukkah/Chanukah. Their children had the best of both worlds, double the celebrations, double the presents!

The conversations between my daughter and her best friend growing up were adorable. We would attend certain functions with them. My child went to Catholic school and her friend attended public school and Hebrew school.

At her friend’s functions they had games for the children. My daughter knew all of the answers to the questions. Her friend, Rebecca would say to my daughter, “How do you know all of the answers? You’re Catholic! I’m Jewish!”

My daughter told her, “I learn about more than Jesus in our religion class. I study the Old Testament in school. We have the Old and New Testament in our Bible.”

I miss Rebecca. She lives in California now. My daughter stays in touch with her on Facebook.
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cw,

I like the name, Mr. Munchy! Cute!
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I get a bit sad not having many childhood memories. Had loving parents but my mother was&still is impatient. My late father was too critical, and those discussions were always at the dinner table.
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i just got sign of life from sendhelp!! :)
yeay!! :)
i saw a click of "like" on my post asking where is sendhelp.

by the way, as warned, i myself will be gone a while.
i'll be very, very, very busy eating chocolate eggs. you have no idea how many i bought.

❤️🙂
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I was just reading how the bunny came to be associated with Easter.

According to German writings from the 1600’s, the Easter Hare, “Oschter Haws” left colored eggs for good children.

I loved dying eggs as a child. Mom would sometimes give us a wax crayon so we could write our name on our eggs. The dye couldn’t penetrate the wax.
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I’m the only one awake right now! 🤪 My hubby and daughters are snoozing after their Easter dinner. I think I will make myself a cup of tea.

I rarely take daytime naps.
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❤️🙂
🐣🐣🥚🥚✨✨

i'm no eggs-pert, and i'm going out on a limb here:

but i have a feeling i might have problems after eating my mountain of chocolate eggs. if so, i'll just egg-nore the problems. sounds better than eggs-ercise.
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I’m sorry you are sad Catskie. I feel I’ve lost a lot of memories after caregiving for both my late parents, especially my narcissistic mother . I have better memories from when I was young, preteen . But I seemed to have blocked out certain chunks of time . I thought it was because I was more oblivious when I was young. But my sister that is 10 years older than I , says that my mother was not as difficult when we were young . She could not handle us becoming independent from her .
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I loved reading Beatrix Potter books as a child. I loved Peter Rabbit!

The Velveteen Rabbit is a fabulous book also written by Margery Williams.

I adore classic children’s literature. I read all of the classics to our children.

It’s funny how children respond to stories. My oldest daughter was quite upset when the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland said, “Off with their heads!”

Me? I read Alice in Wonderland so many times as a kid that my book almost fell apart! I wasn’t frightened by it at all.
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Bundle ,

Maybe it would help to do Golden ( hen) squats after all your chocolate eggs. 🪺😜😂🥚
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Cat and Way,

I don’t think blocking out disturbing memories are uncommon at all. Many of us did this with unpleasant memories. I feel that it is a way for us to protect ourselves.
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I just got a message on my 23andme app that I have new relatives that have done the DNA testing and registered. I absolutely love seeing records of family members.

It’s fascinating how we end up having relatives all over the world. I have reconnected with some of my cousins that I grew up with and lost track of.

Genealogy is amazing. I wasn’t interested in family history so much as a child but now I am fascinated by it. I wish that I had asked my parents and grandparents more questions than I did. So many stories become lost or forgotten and it’s a shame.
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So, today I read that I have 18 new relatives on my 23andme app. The furthest one from me is a man (3rd cousin) in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

He has a photo of himself on his profile. He’s handsome and has a nice smile.

I have thousands of relatives that are on my app. Some are in my city, the rest are all over the place!
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I went to college in North Bay (about a thousand years ago).
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cw,

I don’t know anything about North Bay but if I ever visit, maybe I could look up my cousin!

I have had quite a few relatives message me on the 23andme app. It’s fun!

Some people put family names and locations, others don’t. It’s interesting to discover the family connection.

I also research my genealogy through a Mormon site. You don’t have to belong to the Mormon Church. I was christened Catholic. They have a messaging system on their app too. I have connected with cousins there too. They are on my mom’s dad side. His family came over from England.

On my 23andme app it showed they were from the greater London area. My mom’s mother was from Germany. I did visit the grave of my first relative that came to Louisiana from Germany. I have DNA from Switzerland too. We are predominantly English. Also France, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Italy.

The biggest surprise was learning that I had DNA from India and Egypt.

It takes time to do ongoing research due to verifying the results but I enjoy it.
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My DH hasn’t been feeling well since his surgery. He just checked his temperature and is running a fever.

He has been achy which is supposed to be normal after the surgery.

The doctor did say to call if he starts to run fever so, I guess that he will have to keep an eye on his temperature. It’s only a low grade fever so I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about right now.

I find that as we age, we don’t bounce back from surgery as quickly, even a minor surgery like he had.
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Need a fever can mean an infection. Keep an eye on him and if his fever gets worse please take him to the ER.
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Need,

I agree with sp19690.
DH surgery was over a week ago . He should be starting to feel better , not worse . If he spikes higher temp or more pain , nausea, or vomiting go to ER. If he has a quiet night tonight , still call the surgeon first thing in the morning .
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sp,

Even with a minor surgery? He only had his appendix removed. Can you get an infection from that?

He took pain medicine initially, narcotic but then switched over to the prescription Tylenol.

He doesn’t feel well.

Thanks, Way. I will keep an eye on him.

My husband is not a whiny baby at all, so I know that he isn’t feeling well. He doesn’t complain unless he feels funky.

I guess that’s why he didn’t eat a lot today and he took a nap earlier. He just woke up and asked me for the thermometer.
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