Happy New Year From Miss Kitty

 

 

 

Miss Kitty says:

 

 

 

My New Year's resolution is to not wish anyone "a puurrfect New Year"! 

 



The Best Advice About Christmas Stress Ever -- in the World!

 





 

 



In order to reduce my stress load this Christmas, I am reposting last year's Christmas Stress post instead of writing a new one.

Do you feel that Christmas is a disruption in your life?  Are you overwhelmed by trying to provide the best Christmas possible?  How do you feel when you read an article or hear a discussion on a talk show telling you that you shouldn’t try to create the “perfect” Christmas?  And don’t forget all those movies about a burned out parent (usually Mom) who has a revelation and cries and berates herself for not seeing the meaning of Christmas.  Do you feel guilty because you would have been satisfied with just “real nice”?  Or are you shooting for perfect and feeling guilty not only for not making it but for even trying?

No matter where you turn, someone is saying something about the stress of Christmas.  I stopped reading articles about how to avoid stress, since reading them and trying to put them into action just took up time and led to more stress.

Maybe we just ought to accept that fact that we are going to strive for “the best Christmas ever,” no matter what we read or see on television and hear in church.

But I have a thought.

Christmas disrupts our lives, just as it has disrupted the world.  Mary and Joseph had their lives disrupted; so did the shepherds and wise men.  When we decide to follow Jesus, our lives are going to be changed and change is disruption.  It is a miraculous disruption.

But wouldn’t it be nice to find a little peace?

Maybe on the 26^th or the Saturday after Christmas, we can enjoy the leftovers, watch the DVD’s we got, and really read the Christmas cards and newsletters.  I’m going to keep the 26^th in mind tonight as I wrap presents and worry about whether everyone will like them.

 

A Time Management Tip From Miss Kitty

 

 

 

Miss Kitty Says

 

 

Halloween is less than a week away. Now you can start postponing things until “after the holidays.”

You're welcome!

 

 



It's coming harder.

 

This was posted on November 9, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

This was added and posted November 9, 2017.


Due to some technical glitch, "It Don't Come Easy" may switch to a series of selections, most of which are from my playlist.  If that happens, enjoy!

Everything's coming harder!

Yes, it is that time of the year! A preemptive rant!



 

 

It seems that the first sign of fall is not the school supplies in the aisles of the supermarkets, “The Urge for Going” playing wistfully on the independent radio stations, or even the turning of the first leaves. And it's not the first pumpkin spice cereal, yogurt, and limited edition Peeps. On September 2, I went to the store to start my pumpkin spice shopping. (I put it on my bucket list to try every pumpkin spice item I could find except for cat supplies.) But I couldn't find any! The real first sign of fall is people complaining, live, in print, and online, about pumpkin spice. I don't know if they think it doesn't deserve all the attention it gets or if they just want to be too sophisticated to get involved. If you told them you liked Starbucks, they would say everything there was overpriced and everyone there was a wannabe hipster.

Last year, Frank Bruni, wrote in The New York Times (“Will Pumpkin Spice Destroy Us All?” October 17, 2017), “Lock the refrigerator, bolt the cupboards and barricade the pantry. Pumpkin spice is here. . . It happens insidiously: a zombie apocalypse, if the zombies wore nutmeg cologne. And it really must stop.”  He's probably waiting for October to produce the next rant. 

There's nothing wrong with being bored with pumpkin spice or not liking Starbucks. But there is something mean spirited about trashing something you know makes other people happy. Life is hard enough and reminding yourself that you are better off than most of the world only makes you feel guilty.


JESUS ALERT!  HERE COMES THE CHURCHLADY STUFF!

If the purpose of life is to glorify God, how can Christians (or anybody) do that? One way is to truly appreciate life. Or as I read in Facebook (those people probably hate Facebook, too, except as a means to go after pumpkin spice or Starbucks) “Love the crap out of whatever you love and don't let anyone take it from you.” That's why I bought my Hello Kitty two pocket file folder.

It's one thing to rain on someone's Trick or Treat night about pumpkin spice or Hello Kitty. But the real rainer-oners are those people who say God (any god; they just aren't after Christians) and Heaven (or any life after death) don't exist.

Why do they do it? Are they trying to save believers from their gullibility? If a worn out target would say, “OK, you're right. Now that my belief system and my lifestyle are down the tubes, what can I do and what are you going to do about it?” Maybe they can recommend one of those trendy atheist churches.

But if they don't want to save us from ourselves, why do they bother? Do they enjoy confusing people and taking joy from their lives?

I think they are, as we used to say as children, “Just jealous.” Since this is a Christian blog and should set a good example, I won't add “Nah, nah, nah!”

How can we respond to the rainer-oners, or to use a blunter word, haters?

I'm too tired to argue religion anymore. As the old song says, “Haters gonna hate.” We can pray for them. Frankly, I try to avoid them and limit myself to asking God to straighten then out.

 

So love the crap out of your pumpkin spice M & M's, hedgehog collection and The Hallmark Channel. Just don't forget God, your neighbor and yourself.

 



 

 



Miss Kitty handles an awkward situation.

Miss Kitty says:

 

 

 Am I in your pew?  I'll just move over and we can worship together!

 



Good to Know! A Funfact from Miss Kitty!

 

Miss Kitty says:

 

 

 

 

"I never clutch my pearls because I don't have thumbs!" 



Miss Kitty's Back!

 

 

Miss Kitty says:



 

 

 

 

 

"Cafeteria Christian?

 

I'm a Buffet Believer!"

 

 

A Moment of Zen

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Kitty says:

 

 

 

"I used to express my opinions.

 

Now I just sniff."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Breakout Bishop

 

Well, Harry and Meghan celebrated their weekiversary three days ago, but people are still taking about the wedding. It was not your

grandmother's Episcopal wedding, or even you mother's, although it fit the standby Episcopal descriptives, “sensible” (which it was, compared to other royal weddings or even a nosebleed-high church mass) and “very nice.”

The bride's train was longer than the procession. There was no incense. (Oh, well, I haven't been to a service with incense since the carpet caught on fire on Christmas Eve years ago.) One of the songs was “Stand by Me”, sung by a Gospel choir who didn't wear robes.

But the most surprising thing was the sermon by Bishop Michael B. Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry is the first African American to be elected Presiding Bishop, and his election at the General Convention was unanimous.

His style can best be summed up by saying that if you didn't know better, you'd think he was a Baptist minister. The sermon spoke of the love between Harry and Meghan and branched off to the power of love to change to world, with stops along the way at slavery and Martin Luther King. It lasted thirteen minutes, which may have seemed skimpy to Baptists, but “a bit much” to Episcopalians and Brits. Elton John looked angrily pouty, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie looked as if they were trying to keep from laughing (By the way, where were Mum and Dad?), and the Queen looked dour, but then, she always does.

 

 

 

But the real fallout came from the media. In “How a Bad Curry Gave the Royal Wedding Guests a Spiritual Indigestion” in Anglican Link, the Reverend Jules Gomes asks, “How did the media miss the biggest religious story of the decade?” in which Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby “in a master stroke worthy of the serpentine cunning of . . . Machiavelli executes a bloodless coup d'etat against [among other things] a traditionalist monarch . . heterosexual marriage . . . and the disciplinary structure of The Church of England.” Gomes goes on that the Archbishop is using Bishop Curry as a Trojan horse, who “pulverize[s] and slice[s] conservatives with his Marxist sledgehammer and sickle.”

Of course this led to rebuttals (and rebuttals of the rebuttals), even that the title was “racist” because it is demeaning to make puns of people's names, and curry, which is brown like Bishop Curry, is presented negatively. I am trying to think of a connection between Gomes and Gnomes (Suggestions welcome.)

Tweets and Letters to the Editor also pointed out the media often used the incorrect title for the Bishop. (It's “The Most Reverend Michael Curry.”) Some had even referred to him as “a Bishop from Chicago.” Would this have happened if he were white? Just sayin'.

Bishop Curry has been making the rounds of the talk shows, including The View and Good Morning America.  Saturday Night Live included him (played by Kenan Thompson) on Weekend Update. He'll probably be guest hosting soon.

Who knows what effect all this will have? Will it be the start of a new Great Awakening? Will this sermon take its place with “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”? Will people think about what it says and act on their thoughts?

That would be very nice.

 

 

Even Nicer!

If you would describe Heaven as "very nice,"

YOU JUST MIGHT BE AN EPISCOPALIAN!

Good heavens, you're still annoying! 4

 

 

 

 

If you can't help pointing out that Jesus only got three presents on His birthday and that He never got a Christmas present, because Christmas didn't exist,

 



 

 

YOU JUST MIGHT BE AN ANNOYING CHRISTIAN!