December Daily 2013, Day 1

"Therefore, stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come."  Matthew 24


Last night I was trolling Facebook.  Sometimes, I find myself in a labyrinth when click after click occurs.  I happened upon a post from the daughter of an old friend.  I pieced together that her dad, my friend's husband, had passed away sometime this summer from lung cancer.  That very morning, a friend and I were discussing the sudden death of a young man, and how finite of a time we all have on this earth.  We all have a starting point.  And for all of us, we have an end.  We have no idea when that end point will be.  We must live our days as if it will be the next moment, or at least TRY to do so.
I started my day going to Mass at a different church today.  Our pastor also pastors this church.  It is our sister parish, St. Mary's.  In his homily today he shared the story of a phone call he got on Friday night from a friend who was told he had about a week to live.  Cancer struck again.  They knew this would be their last call.  His friend, also a priest, shared with him that this is what they had been preaching about their whole adult lives: meeting God in heaven.  He could have despaired, but he was rejoicing.  What a message.
It truly stuck with me through my day.  Today was filled with a great deal of professional work.  I spent a lot of time in my classroom (accompanied by Max).  For whatever reason, it did not feel like drudgery, even though I was there for quite some time (5 hours).  Then, I came home, ate, and had to do some grading.  I squeezed a relaxing bath in there, too.  Despite wanting to go down to the basement and demolish our wireless router, it really was somewhat pleasant.  What a gift, as many parts of my day could have completely stressed me out.  
Other snippets of the day included:

• Max believing that Father Jerry was indeed two separate people as he tried to accept his celebration of Mass in a different location.

• Threatening my firstborn with physical harm if he ended up with a C in AP English for the quarter.

• Pretty much eating out for each meal today (McDonalds. Subway, Fazolis).

• Seeing and communicating with a variety of friends via Facebook, text message, and in real life.

• Unpacking the Advent wreath and chilling to end my day.