All Hallow’s Eve was the perfect evening for trick-or-treating for our little family and a few friends in our little town.  What wonderful community spirit as we drove into town for a neighborhood experience.  Many from the outlying rural community are welcomed by the “in-town” neighborhood where houses are open to the immigrant young people who would knock on their doors. 

I am a recovering feminist, I admit.  This beautiful mind tells us why.  Someone like Sarah Pallin is a living testimony to true femininity in all it’s beauty and complexity!!

OK, I’ve just heard a lecture here and a few things here about author Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.  I can’t wait to read her book, It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.

From an article,

If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a village?

It takes a family to raise a village. Without the family, the village itself can not function. If the family breaks down, or fails to form in the first place, the “village” can not possibly provide adequate help to repair the damage. The family does something the “village” can not do for itself, namely bring the next generation into being, and socialize them into the kind of people who can participate in a free society. Without the family doing its job, the state will necessarily grow larger, more expensive and more intrusive.

See why I can’t wait?  Who else needs to read this book?

Today is the 16th anniversary of my marriage to Pat and the 40th anniversary of the publication of Humanae Vitae.  I just realized we share the same anniversary!  What a wonderful gift of truth Paul VI gave us through this encyclical in 1968, especially to those of us who are married.  Here’s a quote and a great reflection for us as we recall the true meaning of marriage:

[Married] love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit. It is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive. It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.

It is a love which is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner’s own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.

Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness.

–Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI, July 25, 1968

Pat, thank you for being my friend, my happiness, my husband.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

OK, this poster is from Planned Parenthood.   Yikes.  As for me, well, I’ll keep on “kidding” myself with six great little people!! 

…as if having a child is the worst possible thing to “happen” to a girl.  I say “happen” because it doesn’t just “happen,” it is the consequence to keep us from doing something that should only be done within the bonds of marriage where a child can be cared for best.   Check out more posters at The Dawn Patrol.