Speaking of Flu shots. I was listening to old time radio the other day and the comedian on there was saying how sick he was because he just got a flu shot. This was in 1945.
1945! There is absolutely nothing new under the sun and we repeat the same old crap, over and over and over again... ad infinitum.
A well written prayer from exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger for election integrity (miracles happen more with prayers!):
Here’s the Consecration Prayer:
“Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the eternal Wisdom lies hidden to be adored and served by angels and men, Queen of Heaven and Earth beneath whose sway are subject all things that are lower than God, Patroness of the United States of America, sorrowful and mindful of our own sinfulness and sins of our nation, we come to thee our refuge and hope.
Knowing that our country cannot be saved by our own works, and mindful of how much our nation has departed from the ways of thy Son, we humbly ask that thou wouldst turn thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion. We consecrate to thee the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished and that all of those who are elected would govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of thy Son.
Give grace to the citizens of this land, so that they will choose leaders according to the Sacred Heart of thy Son, that His glory may be made manifest, lest we be given the leaders we deserve, trusting in the providential care of God the Father and thy maternal care, we have perfect confidence that thou wilt take care of us and will not leave us forsaken. O Mary Immaculate, pray for us. Amen.”
Thank you for the Consecration Prayer. Yes, miracles happen more with prayers and faith. I find praying on a daily basis (I say the Lord's Prayer everyday) builds my faith in God.
I totally connected with this. This is how I feel, like everything I spent my life believing and just going along has been a lie. I now feel like a salmon constantly swimming up stream. Everyone thinks you are crazy and you can talk to anyone about it. But once you start seeing and wonderng you can't unsee. For me, I worked in the field with gene therapy and clinical trials, consenting, for many years in and so when the shots rolled out, I immediately was like this is not right, and I at least was able to protect most of my family, but that was about it. I so enjoy your posts. I am like "Yes" I feel that! Thank you for giving me someone to connect with. Take care.
You are welcome Tracy. I am beginning to believe that perhaps God allowed the Covid-Me-Too-Freakout in order to "drop the scales" from humanity's collective eyes. We have all been going along to get along for far too long. Chaos rules. Shouldn't there be some peace along with the chaos?
The human ego has been out of control, such as the belief scientists have all the answers to how the human body works. For example, gene therapy. You worked in gene therapy, does gene therapy work to cure illness?
I know when my older sister had breast cancer, the "doctors" said maybe someday gene therapy will "cure" breast cancer. Instead they overdosed her on poisonous chemo and radiation and killed her at the age of 53. The "cancer therapy" truism (chemo, radiation, surgery) is the biggest bee in my bonnet. I hate, hate when I see the following in obituaries "she/he lost ther battle with cancer." Why are we always battling cancer? That seemingly is a battle we will never win. Maybe it is time to walk away from the cancer battle and learn to co-exist in peace with cancer until we go home to God.
Job hunting is horrible. At least for me. It is a terrible process to go through just to make money to keep a roof over one's head and food on the table. I have to trust in God for my daily bread. I certainly do not have the capability to do it on my own.
Have you read “Official Stories” by Liam Scheff? Based on your post I’m thinking you might have done so. But if not, based on your post, highly recommended.
Funny thing. Not really but..I actually think about you guys frequently. Caring for your mom and all. I’ve actually been meaning to say what is below for quite a while So here goes.
We left MI in 2011 to go sailing on our 35ft boat. Financially it was not the correct thing to do. But we figured if we didn’t do it then (we were 55 and our parents were in their early to mid 80s and still healthy) we might never get the chance.
We returned to MI in 2020 due to (1) Covid making travel difficult (2) 4 hurricanes in 9 years and (3) [the real reason] 4 parents still alive at 92, 93, 93 and 94 in various stages of deterioration and nobody but my wife and I to help. So for 2020 we had 4 to deal with. My mom died in late 2020, allegedly from heart failure, but I think mostly from loneliness from Covid lockdowns. The last 6 months of her life no visitors were allowed and I think she finally gave up. Then there were 3.
My dad got the jabs in late January and mid March 2021. By July he was diagnosed with Stage 4 (turbo) bone cancer and he died in November. Then there were 2.
My MIL had two Covid jabs and then a booster. The dementia began after the booster and progressed rapidly. Then in late 2023 she woke up with severe abdominal pain and the end result if that was stage 4 bladder cancer and 2 weeks later she was dead. And then there was one.
My FIL is 98, soon to be 99. He has severe dementia. Probably Alzheimer’s. We moved him to northern VA to a memory care facility that is 10 minutes from where my wife’s sister lives. We live on our boat and it was a 2 hour drive from our boat to where he lived and my wife was making the trip 2-3-4 times per week. It was unsatisfactory and expensive. So while we got rid of the ‘physical’ part of his care, my wife talks to her sister every day about Dad’s status, so most of the emotional burden still exists. Her sister has been incredible as she goes and spends 2-3 hours with him every day. He doesn’t know who she is. He doesn’t recognize my wife. He doesn’t know where he is or how many kids he has. But strangely enough he recognizes me and knows my name.
We are both 69. We would love to be able to take off again on the boat for one last adventure. But as long as he is still alive my wife doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do. “What if something happens to my sister, and we are halfway around the the world. Then what?” I can’t argue the point.
I know you’ve written some about your situation off and on. I certainly never dreamed that I would be 70 years old and feel ‘trapped’ because a parent was still alive. We were blessed (and prescient) to be able to live out our dream for a few years. But I struggle daily (as I believe you do as well) with the seeming unfairness of it all. It’s like ok, when do we get to just try and enjoy the years we have remaining before our health gets to the point that we cannot do what we want to do. Recognizing that your situation is far worse than ours has been, because we did not or could not have any of them living with us. So the fact that you have willingly shared your story has helped me to recognize that while I am morose about the situation, there are many others in far worse circumstances.
In my family we have a longevity gene on both sides. Parents well into their 90s. Grandma lived to 100. Great Gram to 106. And dying ‘early’ for other grandparents and great grandparents meant late 80s.
I’ve always been of the opinion, from a very young age, that people live too long. My single biggest fear is becoming a burden to my kids.
There are no good answers to any of it, of course. And yeah, I do ask God why it has to be this way. No satisfactory answer has ever been received.
Anyway, I always enjoy your writing (Pug too) and hope and pray that someday your burden is no longer a burden. It’s such a strange feeling. My wife says, I don’t want my dad to die, but I know the best thing that could happen today for everyone is if he went to sleep tonight and didn’t wake up. It’s hard to pray for something like that. I’ve never asked her, but I’ll bet she does.
Thank you for the great comment, Eric. I have not read “Official Stories” by Liam Scheff. I will look it up. I feel for you and your wife these past few years with the illness and deaths of your parents. Death comes to everyone, it is just a matter of when and how.
I just said to myself this morning, that I bet my mom lives another 25 years. I can see her living to the ripe old age of 108 years. The so-called "scientists" should do a study on her, she is probably the oldest living person after being disabled from a massive hemorrhagic stroke (caused by an AVM). I always tell my brother the reason our mom lives so long is because the quality of home care she has gotten from us these past 28 years. I don't know if that is a badge of honor, though.
I can only live a day at a time. That's it. Like you, I sometimes dream of what life would be like to be free from caregiving. I am jealous of people my age whose parents die quick. No long drawn out decades of tending to a slpw dying/disabled person. Oh well. We each have our own cross to bear, I have to keep telling myself that.
Let me add to your list:
Astronomists and their dumb-ass theories
The Pope
Flu Shots
Speaking of Flu shots. I was listening to old time radio the other day and the comedian on there was saying how sick he was because he just got a flu shot. This was in 1945.
1945! There is absolutely nothing new under the sun and we repeat the same old crap, over and over and over again... ad infinitum.
A well written prayer from exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger for election integrity (miracles happen more with prayers!):
Here’s the Consecration Prayer:
“Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the eternal Wisdom lies hidden to be adored and served by angels and men, Queen of Heaven and Earth beneath whose sway are subject all things that are lower than God, Patroness of the United States of America, sorrowful and mindful of our own sinfulness and sins of our nation, we come to thee our refuge and hope.
Knowing that our country cannot be saved by our own works, and mindful of how much our nation has departed from the ways of thy Son, we humbly ask that thou wouldst turn thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion. We consecrate to thee the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished and that all of those who are elected would govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of thy Son.
Give grace to the citizens of this land, so that they will choose leaders according to the Sacred Heart of thy Son, that His glory may be made manifest, lest we be given the leaders we deserve, trusting in the providential care of God the Father and thy maternal care, we have perfect confidence that thou wilt take care of us and will not leave us forsaken. O Mary Immaculate, pray for us. Amen.”
Here’s the link: https://www.theblaze.com/news/exorcist-pens-prayer-to-consecrate-the-2024-us-election-to-the-virgin-mary
Thank you for the Consecration Prayer. Yes, miracles happen more with prayers and faith. I find praying on a daily basis (I say the Lord's Prayer everyday) builds my faith in God.
I totally connected with this. This is how I feel, like everything I spent my life believing and just going along has been a lie. I now feel like a salmon constantly swimming up stream. Everyone thinks you are crazy and you can talk to anyone about it. But once you start seeing and wonderng you can't unsee. For me, I worked in the field with gene therapy and clinical trials, consenting, for many years in and so when the shots rolled out, I immediately was like this is not right, and I at least was able to protect most of my family, but that was about it. I so enjoy your posts. I am like "Yes" I feel that! Thank you for giving me someone to connect with. Take care.
You are welcome Tracy. I am beginning to believe that perhaps God allowed the Covid-Me-Too-Freakout in order to "drop the scales" from humanity's collective eyes. We have all been going along to get along for far too long. Chaos rules. Shouldn't there be some peace along with the chaos?
The human ego has been out of control, such as the belief scientists have all the answers to how the human body works. For example, gene therapy. You worked in gene therapy, does gene therapy work to cure illness?
I know when my older sister had breast cancer, the "doctors" said maybe someday gene therapy will "cure" breast cancer. Instead they overdosed her on poisonous chemo and radiation and killed her at the age of 53. The "cancer therapy" truism (chemo, radiation, surgery) is the biggest bee in my bonnet. I hate, hate when I see the following in obituaries "she/he lost ther battle with cancer." Why are we always battling cancer? That seemingly is a battle we will never win. Maybe it is time to walk away from the cancer battle and learn to co-exist in peace with cancer until we go home to God.
What a crack up!! It is so true about job hunting for and waiting on HR. It is a very demoralizing system.
Job hunting is horrible. At least for me. It is a terrible process to go through just to make money to keep a roof over one's head and food on the table. I have to trust in God for my daily bread. I certainly do not have the capability to do it on my own.
Have you read “Official Stories” by Liam Scheff? Based on your post I’m thinking you might have done so. But if not, based on your post, highly recommended.
Funny thing. Not really but..I actually think about you guys frequently. Caring for your mom and all. I’ve actually been meaning to say what is below for quite a while So here goes.
We left MI in 2011 to go sailing on our 35ft boat. Financially it was not the correct thing to do. But we figured if we didn’t do it then (we were 55 and our parents were in their early to mid 80s and still healthy) we might never get the chance.
We returned to MI in 2020 due to (1) Covid making travel difficult (2) 4 hurricanes in 9 years and (3) [the real reason] 4 parents still alive at 92, 93, 93 and 94 in various stages of deterioration and nobody but my wife and I to help. So for 2020 we had 4 to deal with. My mom died in late 2020, allegedly from heart failure, but I think mostly from loneliness from Covid lockdowns. The last 6 months of her life no visitors were allowed and I think she finally gave up. Then there were 3.
My dad got the jabs in late January and mid March 2021. By July he was diagnosed with Stage 4 (turbo) bone cancer and he died in November. Then there were 2.
My MIL had two Covid jabs and then a booster. The dementia began after the booster and progressed rapidly. Then in late 2023 she woke up with severe abdominal pain and the end result if that was stage 4 bladder cancer and 2 weeks later she was dead. And then there was one.
My FIL is 98, soon to be 99. He has severe dementia. Probably Alzheimer’s. We moved him to northern VA to a memory care facility that is 10 minutes from where my wife’s sister lives. We live on our boat and it was a 2 hour drive from our boat to where he lived and my wife was making the trip 2-3-4 times per week. It was unsatisfactory and expensive. So while we got rid of the ‘physical’ part of his care, my wife talks to her sister every day about Dad’s status, so most of the emotional burden still exists. Her sister has been incredible as she goes and spends 2-3 hours with him every day. He doesn’t know who she is. He doesn’t recognize my wife. He doesn’t know where he is or how many kids he has. But strangely enough he recognizes me and knows my name.
We are both 69. We would love to be able to take off again on the boat for one last adventure. But as long as he is still alive my wife doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do. “What if something happens to my sister, and we are halfway around the the world. Then what?” I can’t argue the point.
I know you’ve written some about your situation off and on. I certainly never dreamed that I would be 70 years old and feel ‘trapped’ because a parent was still alive. We were blessed (and prescient) to be able to live out our dream for a few years. But I struggle daily (as I believe you do as well) with the seeming unfairness of it all. It’s like ok, when do we get to just try and enjoy the years we have remaining before our health gets to the point that we cannot do what we want to do. Recognizing that your situation is far worse than ours has been, because we did not or could not have any of them living with us. So the fact that you have willingly shared your story has helped me to recognize that while I am morose about the situation, there are many others in far worse circumstances.
In my family we have a longevity gene on both sides. Parents well into their 90s. Grandma lived to 100. Great Gram to 106. And dying ‘early’ for other grandparents and great grandparents meant late 80s.
I’ve always been of the opinion, from a very young age, that people live too long. My single biggest fear is becoming a burden to my kids.
There are no good answers to any of it, of course. And yeah, I do ask God why it has to be this way. No satisfactory answer has ever been received.
Anyway, I always enjoy your writing (Pug too) and hope and pray that someday your burden is no longer a burden. It’s such a strange feeling. My wife says, I don’t want my dad to die, but I know the best thing that could happen today for everyone is if he went to sleep tonight and didn’t wake up. It’s hard to pray for something like that. I’ve never asked her, but I’ll bet she does.
Much love and blessings to you both.
Eric V
S/V Blessings
Bay City MI (summers)
Surfside SC (winters)
Thank you for the great comment, Eric. I have not read “Official Stories” by Liam Scheff. I will look it up. I feel for you and your wife these past few years with the illness and deaths of your parents. Death comes to everyone, it is just a matter of when and how.
I just said to myself this morning, that I bet my mom lives another 25 years. I can see her living to the ripe old age of 108 years. The so-called "scientists" should do a study on her, she is probably the oldest living person after being disabled from a massive hemorrhagic stroke (caused by an AVM). I always tell my brother the reason our mom lives so long is because the quality of home care she has gotten from us these past 28 years. I don't know if that is a badge of honor, though.
I can only live a day at a time. That's it. Like you, I sometimes dream of what life would be like to be free from caregiving. I am jealous of people my age whose parents die quick. No long drawn out decades of tending to a slpw dying/disabled person. Oh well. We each have our own cross to bear, I have to keep telling myself that.
Thanks. I have been meaning to write this post for months now, but I have been too lazy. I probably shouldn't be so lazy.