7 Quick Takes Friday

Well, it's Thursday again.  Time for 7 Quick Takes Friday! ;)

1.  I've discovered some more new blogs.  Anne's blog, Imprisoned in my Bones--Releasing my Inner Jeremiah, is a beautiful and inspirational blog.  The title refers to the scripture, Jeremiah 20:7-10:

I say to myself, I will not mention His name, I will speak in His name no more. But then, it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones, I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it. ~Jeremiah 20:7-10

2.  Brother Richard is a capuchin monk and his blog, A Capuchin Journey is a wonderful home for spiritual insight into scripture and living the Christian life.  He recently posted a beautiful poem called Thomas Merton in Manhattan.

3.  Brother Charles is also a capuchin.  His blog is called A Minor Friar and is a peek into the daily life of a friar.  I was especially impressed with his recent post about how he handled the sometimes sticky situation of officiating at a wedding in which some of the wedding party had been raised Catholic but had not practiced in quite a while.  His delicate and  spiritually generous handling of the situation is a model for all priests.

4.  We're moving things around in our house.  I've been giving away, throwing away, and moving things out of our computer room in preparation for turning it into a walk in closet.  Hopefully that will help us stay better organized and help with the lack of storage space that we have.

5.  I've been watching a lot of documentaries on YouTube.  One I just watched on aspartame is called Sweet Misery and has pretty much convinced me to give up artificial sweeteners.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the government that okays cigarettes has approved aspartame.

6. Daughter from Danang is a story about an Amerasian girl who was airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975 at the age of 7.  She was adopted in the southern United States and quite fully Americanized before returning to meet her birth mother at the age of 22.  She learned some difficult lessons in cultural differences and the documentary leaves the viewer with much to think about.

7. The last documentary is called Girl 27 and is about a Hollywood scandal in 1937.  One hundred twenty underage girls were called for a "job" that turned out to be nothing but forced prostitution.  Sixty plus years later, one woman tells the story about how her experience affected her until the end of her long life.