Rose Madrid-Swetman

Our flight over was a bit uneventful. Poor Alex (Alassandro) did not sleep at all so having some serious jet lag. When I travel, I always wonder what it’s like behind those huge doors (in Italy and the UK) of the residences. We are staying in an apartment right in Campo Di Fiori, which is cool because we have a key to see what’s behind those magnificent doors. Our apartment is great. Very clean, two bedrooms with air conditioning. The weather if perfect! mid 80’s with a nice breeze so very nice for walking. We had a good sleep, well Nic woke up at 5:00 a.m. We had breakfast and then walked to the Vatican. The Vatican is incredible. So much history and art in one place. We had a guided tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. So much to take in but I think the highlights have to be the Sistine Chapel, how did Michelangelo paint that ceiling? Amazing! And Michelangelo’s Pieta! So amazingly beautiful, brought me to tears.

We went back to the piazza in Campo Di Fiori and watched as the Italians were eliminated from the World Cup, well we sort of watched. After a bottle of wine and some delicious food we all were falling asleep at the table so went home for a little siesta. We woke up at 9:00 p.m. and forced ourselves to walk, stopped for some more incredibly delicious food and wine. It’s about 11:00 p.m. and we are in the hotel lobby checking email, facebook and uploading pictures.

Tomorrow we are going to shop at the market in the Piazza for fresh eggs, fruit and vegetables for breakfast then we will visit the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Forum and the Palatine. We only have one more day in Rome then we are off to Moneglia by train…Ciao

Unbelievable is how I would describe my life these days. I don’t know how long this run is going to last but I am trying to enjoy every minute. I have a friend who wrote a little book called “Simple Spirituality, Maintain your personal peace and lovingly serve others.” One of the practices of SS is “celebrating moments.” The idea is that we have moments in our lives when we really do sense that “all is well” and in our fast-paced, full lives we should stop and savor these moments. I have had more of those moments in the last month than I can count. I don’t remember many times in my life when moment after moment to celebrate just kept coming.

Winning a 12-week pastor’s sabbatical grant…
Finishing my dissertation…
Passing with distinction…
Alex’s baseball team winning their division championship…
Graduation…
Graduation party…
Celebrating with family and friends…
Regional conference….healing and restored friendships…

and today…

LEAVE FOR ITALY FOR ONE MONTH!

I don’t want to wake up from this dream…

I woke up this morning at 9:15! This is sad but I can’t remember the last time I woke up before 7:00 on a Sunday morning. We are in Southern Cal on vacation.

Rich and I, Alex and Nate, our friend, Jo and her girls are here and Nicole comes on Tuesday. We are staying at the Worldmark resort close to Disneyland. Getting here was a bit of a challenge. There was a 9 year old girl traveling alone sitting in the window seat. Alex was next to her, then Nate on the aisle. I sat in the aisle seat across from them with a teenager next to me and her mom in the window seat.

The 9 year old told us she was flying to California to visit “my mom’s ex-husband, my dad.” She was hyper. She would not leave the boys alone. She kept leaning into them. At one point the boys were playing cards, she took a card and held it up high so Alex couldn’t get it. At first the boys were good sports but an hour into the flight with her constant up and down, in and out and teasing, she was driving them nuts. I had to ask her, nicely several times to leave the boys alone and to stay in her seat.

I was listening to an audio book on my computer and all of a sudden the young woman next to me spilled her Sprite all over me and my keyboard. It took a while to clean it all up….my computer survived, I was covered in soda. We no more got that all settled, I sat down and then I hear Alex, “AH, NO.” I look over and the feisty 9 year old has now spilled her soda all over Alex. I went back to get some towels from the flight attendants and asked them to talk with her and ask her to please settle down.

All of a sudden my two hour flight to begin vacation felt a bit strained and all I wanted to do was get off that plane. Nate traded places with Alex, had better results with her calming down (I think when he put his elbow in her face cause she kept leaning into him she finally got the message).

The flight from H#LL finally ended, we rented a car and got to our condo. We couldn’t check in for a few hours so we had a nice lunch and walked around the outdoor mall. We caught up with Jo and the girls, it took forever to get our room but we finally got our rooms, went to the pool, the kids played in the game room while we cooked dinner. Had dinner, played Scrabble watched “I Carly” and then we all crashed.

Today we are going to the beach. Tomorrow our Disneyland adventure begins. I love Disneyland. The kids are a great age to have tons of fun here at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Lots of really great stuff happening and lots going on. VCC is growing and healthy. We have some important decisions to make about how we will go forward. Lots of prayer and planning this month.

Alex turns 11 on Friday. I cannot believe he is already 11. Time goes by so fast. He wants to go to Tasters Wok for dinner with his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews (this has become a tradition) and then on his actual birthday which lands on a Friday this year he is having 3 of his friends for a sleep over. What a joy he is to us. He is a good boy, sensitive and kind. I think he is a bit introverted which is so interesting to me because he has two very extroverted parents – well at least one very high extrovert (Rich) and me, I am more right on the mid-line…I get energy from being with people but I definitely need time alone, for silence, reflection and thinking. I see Alex a bit more like that. He loves being with people but definitely needs his down time. I so enjoy him. He makes me laugh and he makes me proud.

I am going to try to keep blogging but I am coming to the end of my course work and will have to really buckle down to write my dissertation so my blogging will be a bit spotty. I am, however, going to begin writing my story. I am going to write some of it as notes on my facebook page as I can control who is reading it there. A public blog seems a bit to vulnerable for that kind of writing so I won’t be posting any of it here for the time being. If you are interested in following that story you can find it on my facebook page.

I think 2009 is going to be a very good year. I am hopeful and expectant for what this year will bring while at the same time trying to live in the every day moments of my life.

I wish a very joyous, blessed 2009 to all of you.

Advent/Christmas, the entire season is really my favorite time of the year. I love autumn but I really love this time of year. I have wonderful memories of Christmas through the years. My mom would make Italian Christmas cookies, candy and lots of pasta. Christmas Eve we would go to midnight mass and then come home and open one present before going to bed, always new pajamas!
My mom would set out milk and Italian cookies (scallini), divinity fudge but not just for Santa, she would tell us that Jesus and the apostles would come and sit around the table as well. Imagine as a small child thinking, “Jesus and the apostles are sitting at our table tonight?” That was just as exciting to me as Santa coming.
Christmas morning my parents would always leave a “big’ gift unwrapped out for each of us, this was our gift from Santa. One year it was a bike, another a Chatty Kathy doll (I loved that doll?) another an Easy Bake Oven…
Christmas meant, peace, giving, receiving, good food, family, church, very fond memories.
Somehow over the years I have grown to love the entire season, beginning with Advent. Embracing not only celebrating that Jesus came as a baby over 2000 years ago, but living in hope that He will come again and when He does, everything, all sickness, death, violence, war, mental illness, addictions, poverty, everything will be put to right. This is how I celebrate the four weeks of Advent and the season of Christmas.
Each week we as we light the Advent candles we have reflected on each candle and asked the question, “how can I give and receive the gift of hope, peace, joy and now today, love?”
Today we had to cancel our worship gathering because of weather, we would have listened to folks from our community tell a story of how the light of Christ came into some part of their darkness this past year. Then we would have had a talk on how to“ receive” this Christmas. We would have sang carols together and closed in prayer.
Today, in order to practice waiting for Christ to come in all His forms into my life, I will light the Advent candles with my family, sit in stillness for 15 minutes and receive the love of God into my entire being and then we will sing some Christmas carols. This week I will try to be mindful of how the light of Christ comes into my life moment by moment. As I drive around town and see Christmas lights I will look at them in wonder and allow them to shine into my soul and use them as moments of prayer to ask God to shine his love into the hearts of those that are suffering and in pain.
I wish you a wonderful, blessed Advent/Christmas season.

Tomorrow is the second Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Peace. Prayers are for peace in our very unsettling world globally, locally and personally. We pray for the Prince of Peace to bring peace on earth and goodwill to all people. In my personal life having heard the news my dad’s death I have been wrestling with processing the death of a parent I was estranged from most of my life. I find peace in a beautiful song by Kevin Prosch:
Kiss the Son

When you’ve been broken, broken to pieces.
And Your heart begins to faint
’cause you don’t understand.
And when there is nothing to rake from the ashes.
And you can’t even walk
onto the fields of praise.

But I bow down and kiss the Son.
Oh, and I bow down and kiss the Son.

Let the praise of the Lord be in my mouth.
Let the praise of the Lord be in my mouth.

Well, though You slay me, I will trust You, Lord.
Well, though You slay me, I will trust You, Lord.
Though You slay me, I will trust You, Lord.
Though You slay me, I will trust You, Lord.

When the rock falls, falls upon you.
And you get ground to dust
no music for your pain.
You open the windows, the windows of heaven.
And then You opened me
and You crushed me like a rose.

I pray for Immanuel to come into the darkness of my own heart and bring rays of healing light…

Black and white, all people of color, young and old celebrating in the streets, young people activated, John McCain giving a gracious, generative concession speech–what an historical moment we are living in. I pray we will take the hope ignited and in God’s hands make the most of this moment for our world. I bet those great cloud of witnesses are cheering:

“If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service.” Ida B. Wells

“I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.” Harriet Tubman

“I have a dream” “Let Justice Roll” Martin Luther King Jr.

Yesterday was my 52nd birthday. I actually love to celebrate birthdays, including mine:) It is a natural time for me to take some time and reflect on my life. My birthday began the night before when I got a bunch of Facebook birthday wishes and then an 11:00 p.m. phone call that our daughter-in-law, Hyemin was in labor. I knew there would be a good chance that our 12th grandchild would be born on my birthday. I thought, “what a beautiful gift” the gift of life, another person to welcome to our family and add to our ongoing story. I was in and out of sleep and prayer for Ben and Hyemin all night long. In the morning I woke up to Rich and Alex’s happy faces giving me a whole bunch of kisses and love. Then got to the office and I was greeted by Myra and Max with happy birthday wishes. On Thursday mornings I pray with a group of women. They brought a cake, coffee, cards, gifts and we had a fun little party and a good time of prayer. We found out on the way to the office, via a text from Ben that Daniel Haesung Cho Swetman was born around 7:00 a.m. We met him in the afternoon, he is gorgeous! I received lots of phone calls, texts, email and FB birthday wishes throughout the day. We went to dinner with some of our kids and grand-children. Then home exhausted and to bed.

Today as I take a few moments to reflect on my life at age 52 I sit in amazement and gratitude. Here are the words that come to mind:
wonderful
magnificent
sweet
brilliant
beautiful
astonishing
fantastic

There is of course sadness that has to do with broken relationships. In the sadness I find great comfort that at some point, maybe not even in this life “all matter of things will be well.”

I am one very grateful person. I could not have imagined the gifts that are given to me daily and for which I am most thankful!

I so try not to care about this…but then something like this happens and it makes me want to scream…

It’s no secret that I have decided I am voting for Obama. The one question that most Christians ask me is how I can be a follower of Jesus and vote for someone that is not pro-life. I am pro-life and I believe that being pro-life is bigger than “one” issue. Here is where I reach back to my Roman Catholic roots and lean into a the overarching reality of what pro-life means and meant before the 1980’s Moral Majority campaign (and others) redefined pro-life around one issue. Here is what I am talking about. So, I consider myself Pro-life and pro-Obama.