That’s all for now. When I’ve slept I’ll wax poetic for y’all.

Menstrual-Cramp Tutorial for Men.

Just because I think y’all need to know why we feel what we feel:
What we refer to simply as “cramps” is actually called “Dysmenorrhea” in the medical field. There are a few ways to medically describe what’s happening in there to cause such pain. The first thing you need to know is that every month of the female’s life her body is preparing for fertilization. Part of this process includes the thickening of the cellular layer of the uterus. So, in preparation the innermost lining, called the endometrium, thickens and readies itself for implantation. If this doesn’t occur, then that layer of cells begins sloughing off, tearing itself away from the other layers of the uterus (imaging the skin on your arm start separating and then falling off in pieces – change that, how about just being ripped off in pieces). During this process of sloughing, the prostaglandin starts producing this hormone which causes the uterus to contract, temporarily shutting down blood flow to the uterus, depriving the muscles therein of oxygen and other necessary nutrients. This, supposedly, decreases the pain we would feel if all the nerves were working properly.

So, at the end of the day what you need to know is that our uterus’ are oxygen-deprived and having a layer of skin ripped off – which hurts. A lot. In fact, sometimes it feels like a bonfire has been started in our abdomen and little savages are hopping around digging their axes into the sides of our uterus.

Not fun. Have some compassion.

The emotion bank of your body is monitored by a chemical called Serotonin, which can be manipulated and altered by nearly every component of your life, from the food you eat to the colors you wear. Recent studies have focused on these small clues to explore the idea that emotions are completely, one hundred percent dominated by exterior, mundane components. This means that, since emotions are not abstractly volitional or as some like to think, spiritual, then they can also be ruled by medicine. This has been tested on such conditions as ADD and has proven that changing emotions is as simple as putting a Band-Aid on a cut.

Given these facts, we can examine how this plays into the rest of the body. According to modern psychological and psychiatric studies, the human emotions or moods directly effect the health of the entire human body. And these moods are effected and often caused by vitamin deficiencies, making them unavoidable. For example, “violent inclinations or feelings are caused by a lack of Vitamins D and C, as well as Magnesium and Iron.”1

This means, consequently, that if people study the main factors in their mood swings and take the corresponding natural remedies, the world will gradually progress into a utopian society lacking negative emotions. Psychologist William Glasser believes that if we learn to take advantage of what “Mother Nature has given to us, life might be unbelievably joyful.” Psychiatrist David Burns even more optimistically observes that, “using medicine will free you from fears, phobias, panic attacks, nervousness, anger, self-defeat, and improve your health all around.” The key is to understand that the emotions are not a result of people’s volitional responses, but a consequent of nerves, environment, and diet, all of which can be controlled with modern medicine. As soon as people believe this simple truth, then we will have found the antidote for hate, crime, and violence, and the key to a peaceful life and society.

“Touching a tree is no different from touching any other living thing, in fact, even better. Why is it better? Because if you scratch a dog’s head, for example, you indeed feel something warm and vibrant, but beneath that there’s always a tremor of agitation. Perhaps dinnertime is coming soon, or not soon enough; perhaps he’s longing for you or just recalling a bad dream. Do you see? Dogs, like people, have too many thoughts, too many requirements. Neither dog nor man can attain peace and happiness by himself alone.
Trees are different. From the moment it sprouts until the day it dies, a tree stays fixed in the same spot. Its roots are nearer than anything else to the heart of the earth, and its crown is nearer to the sky. Sap courses through it from top to bottom, from bottom to top. It expands and contracts according to the daylight. It waits for rain, it waits for sun, it waits for one season and then another, it waits for death. Not one of the things that enable it to live depends on its will. It exists and that’s all. Now do you see why trees are so good to stroke? Because they stand so staunchly, because their breathing is so slow and so serene and so very deep.”
-susanna tamaro

The last post was me sorting. What I know right now is this: I am overwhelmed with Friendship in my life. In my early years there were friendships that were built for eternity and everything in between. But as youth faded I became lonely for the first time, as every friendship ran shallower than those early ones, and faster – more transitory all together. But as I take a moment’s pause now I see true Friendship in many faces – more than I ever could have asked for. Three in particular that have become part of me, our beings are now inextricable from one another. They are unexpected to most, comic to some. They have arisen without invitation nor expectation, but their roots have wound and bound me.

And now I am leaving this place. I know that transplanting Friendships is much more difficult than the rarest plant, and more painful. I know the roots remain, the seeds, the flower, but that our ground will no longer be shared brings tears of sorrow. I find myself desiring winter, so we can all freeze in this moment – but alas, the sun in shining out my window, beckoning autumnal change.

So, in English: I am scrambling for each and every moment here, to encase memories in impenetrable timelessness. And I am sorrowful. For the first time in my life, it hurts to leave.

our sad *cheers*

C.S. Lewis outlined Friendship as that love which is not necessary to the biological functions of humanity. Without Eros none of us would have been begotten and without Affection none of us would have been reared; but we can live and breed without Friendship. The former two can be felt tugging at your guts and fluttering in your diaphragm. But in Friendship – in that luminous, tranquil, rational world of relationships freely chosen – you got away from all that. This alone, of all the loves, seemed to raise you to the level of gods or angels. (An example to show the innate difference of perspective here would be that lovers are normally depicted in the mind’s eye as being face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends are side by side, absorbed in some common interest.)

I sometimes wonder if Lewis would say that there is inherent value in Friendship because of (not in spite of) the fact that it is not :necessary” to human existence in the way the other loves are. Being entirely volitional, Friendship can become a thing unto itself, serving those who enter into it either to heaven or hell – which are real but not tangible.

The last post was me sorting. What I know right now is this: I am overwhelmed with Friendship in my life. In my early years there were friendships that were built for eternity and everything in between. But as youth faded I became lonely for the first time, as every friendship ran shallower than those early ones, and faster – more transitory all together. But as I take a moment’s pause now I see true Friendship in many faces – more than I ever could have asked for. Three in particular that have become part of me, our beings are now inextricable from one another. They are unexpected to most, comic to some. They have arisen without invitation nor expectation, but their roots have wound and bound me.

And now I am leaving this place. I know that transplanting Friendships is much more difficult than the rarest plant, and more painful. I know the roots remain, the seeds, the flower, but that our ground will no longer be shared brings tears of sorrow. I find myself desiring winter, so we can all freeze in this moment – but alas, the sun in shining out my window, beckoning autumnal change.

So, in English: I am scrambling for each and every moment here, to encase memories in impenetrable timelessness. And I am sorrowful. For the first time in my life, it hurts to leave.

“Charity, as we have seen, is the soul’s natural light, and was created by the Author of Nature for seeing God. There are two eyes to this spiritual vision, forever straining to see the light which is God, and their names are Love and Reason….And when I say that these two help each other, I mean that reason instructs love, and love enlightens reason. Reason merges into the affectivity of love, and love consents to be limited by reason. Then it is that they can achieve great things.”
-William of St Thierry (emphasis mine)

“The ideal is faith incorporated into our whole life and refashioning it by its influence. It is the shining of faith into a soul which has gradually been made capable of penetrating the mysteries of faith by its attempt to yield itself to what Scripture calls the ‘obedience of faith’. By a lively understanding-that is, the understanding of a heart attuned to the heart of God who speaks to it-the soul will thereby discover living truths, or better still, a single living truth, in what at the beginning seemed a mere conglomeration of enigmas.”
– Bouyer, The Cistercian Heritage

With brambles and thorns my soul was overtaken. They crept in over time, slowly vining their way up through the soil of my heart, choking out one virtue at a time as I became a sin collector. Two weeks ago I stopped and looked at the garden of my life, and found that I could no longer distinguish the thorns from the flowers, that I was in a field of my own making yet unrecognizable to my once-enlightened eyes. There I stood, not knowing where to step or what to do. The skies of my life had been so overcast that the light of the Immortal seemed fragmented through clouded layers of earth and flesh. The din of my folly had deafened the ear of my heart.

Then that Light which captures blinded eyes with sight shone upon my soul, my heart, my mind, my being. Calling out as in the days of Eden for me to show myself, to be exposed so that I might be clothed again. I found myself kneeling before my King and Judge, rays of light through stained glass rested a rainbow of hope and promise upon my head as the Table was laid. “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest.” Rest which leads to Restoration and a Remembrance of the Divine.

And I returned to that Place Imperturbable. That place where love cannot be forsaken unless it first forsakes. I remembered the Trinity. I remembered my holy family – Father, Mother, Brothers and Sisters. I remembered my calling and my cross. Just like Israel was told to remember, so I remember. The words of the Shema even now ring in my ears. I have heard and now I must go forth to battle for the Lord is my God.

Christ has weeded and sifted me this week. He has gently but firmly put my hands back on the plow, and by His grace I will not look back, that I might be fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.