My Family's Faith ...

If you have been reading along so far, I have been talking about my family of origin and some people of my youth that affected my life's journey.  Besides babysitters and elementary school, my youth also was about faith and religion classes.  

In January 1966 my parents got married after a 6 month courtship.  They went on their honeymoon in the Bahamas and visited a few of the Islands, brought back many unique bottles of liquor and yep, got pregnant with yours truly.   Mom was from a huge Catholic family, and Dad was not.  This all happened right after the finalization of Vatican II and finally Catholics were allowed to marry non-Catholics but with some unique agreements by the non-Catholic.  Mom HAD to raise her children Catholic....Dad consented. 

I was supposed to be born around Halloween of that year, but decided I wanted to stay in the comfy cozy place in my mother's womb for 3 more weeks and was born on November 18th.  My Dad just celebrated his 28th birthday and my parents just purchased the home I grew up in.  Then later that month I was baptized at St. Cletus Parish.  I would belong to that parish until 1988.  

I don't recall all the reasons that we kids didn't go to Catholic Elementary school, but because of that we were required to get "catechized" in PSR classes.  I went until 9th grade, my siblings only until 8th grade we each were confirmed.  After 9th grade, I got a job that had me working every evening after school and couldn't go to PSR, and by then the classes were so boring to me, I just didn't care to go. 

My most memorable time at PSR was when the principal Sister Marian came to my 3rd grade class and explained what Heaven would be like.  She said it would be 10,000 times better than Earth as we know it.   It would be 10,000 times prettier and perfect.  Our bodies would be perfect.  No eyeglasses to wear (I had to get those in 5th grade), no braces, no injuries, no broken anything.  No death and we would be in the presence of God.  I was so taken by the image in my head of what Heaven would be like.   I still am, though my image has changed a lot from when I was 9 years old. 

I believed everything my PSR teachers told me.  Why wouldn't I?   They were adults, they knew more than I did, basically I thought they knew everything!   My Mom made sure we kids got to Mass and reminded us to go to confession once a year and not to fight and disobey ....  I hated going to confession.  I was scared of Father Brauner, he just seemed like a mean ole priest to me...  I knew I would forget the Act of Contrition, I stumbled all the time, I really tried to get out of it for as long as possible, but my conscience told me to go, and I would.  Eventually.  

It's funny that had I been born into a family of another religion, I would have grown up knowing that religion and culture and did what they do to be "right with God" per what the adults taught me.  This idea nagged at me off and on from high school until, well, now.   I took for granted that being Catholic, I knew what I had to do to get to Heaven, but when I went off to college in my 20s, I learned a whole lot about many religions and different ways of being in the world that were totally different from what I was taught.  

This is what this blog is all about!   My spiritual journey and how I dealt with the new ideas I learned and how I compared them to what I was raised in.    This ride is a life long one so it seems.  There is oh so much to tell.....

             ....  if you're so inclined, hang on in there, I got much more to tell you!



"Raise Your Children To..."

 

If you want to see more kindness in the world…
… Raise your children to be kind.

If you want to see more honesty in the world…
… Raise your children to be honest.

If you want to see more positive values in the world…
… Raise your children and teach them positive values.

If you want to see more honor in the world…
… Raise your children to be honorable.

If you want to see more love in the world…
… Raise your children to love unconditionally.

Raise your children to be the change you want to see in the world!

 

~J. Charest

It Started With My Family...

Okay so I learned A LOT about how to be in the world from my family.  Right or wrong, my parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins taught me many things. 

I was a shy kid growing up. Not too many friends, not really close to my siblings, and when visiting at relative's homes, I believe I was pretty invisible.   At school is where I shined more.  I loved school!  And I was pretty darn good in the 3 R's.   But my favorite classes were my art classes.  And my favorite place to be, in school or out, was the library.  I never got the impression that my parents really knew all this about me.   I got good grades and pretty much could do my homework on my own.  It just always seemed that it was expected I would be smart and self-sufficient in my academic studies.  This would play a part later on in my education after high school.

I have a sister, who is a year and half younger than me.  Once she was old enough to sleep in a big people bed, we had to share a bed together.  My brother came along a year and half after my sister, and once he was old enough to sleep in a big people bed, the three of us had to share a room together.  Me on the top bunk, the younger two on the bottom bunk.  We learned to share a room, but heaven's to Betsy, we were not known for being model sharers of toys or anything else.  My sister recounts that she was told to sit between me and brother in the back seat of the old Dodge Gremlin because my brother and I just didn't get along.   That would really wouldn't change much as we got older. 

My sister and I weren't close, but since we were both girls pretty close in age, we did get along a little better.  We sat next to each other at the family dinner table, during the years we all 5 ate together as a family.  I don't remember too many fights at any meals....but we were different in more ways than just birth order.  In high school she was the popular one with her huge group of friends.  She always seemed to be the one that controlled everything.  I always wanted to be in her group, but never really was allowed, except when some came to our house to play cards.  Once she was out of the house, we really did nothing together.  And as time went on this wouldn't change much either.

My Mom raised us 3 kids in a most practical manner, making sure we had a roof over our heads, food to eat, and clothing.   Until we hit high school.   Once I was old enough to hold a job, I had to work to earn money for a car and its expenses, my own clothes, and my own hygiene products.  Not a lot of outward affection was beheld on us, and this would play a most huge part in my development as a person and as a Child of God.  

Finally, there's my Dad.  He was a unique soul.  I have good and bad memories growing up with him.  Until recently, I dwelt on the bad stuff more than any of the good stuff.  It seemed to outweigh everything.  Dad worked until I was 12, then suffered a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disease.  A terrible disease that took more than a year to properly be diagnosed.   When we were young kids, he played with us.   We had fun with our Dad!  After his diagnosis, nothing was the same, and I never grew to be close to him.   And in 2000 my Dad was killed after getting hit by a car.   All of these tragedies would play a huge part of my ups and downs in moods over the years. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the things to recount from my youth and early adolescence.  Opening up about my family was always something I wanted to do, but wasn't sure how to do so and definitely not an easy thing to do.  I learned a lot from these four people in my life.  Some good, some misguided, some not resolved until recently, and a few not resolved yet. 

                                 ..........  hang on for more.  The ride gets bumpy from here on out.