7QT: Seven Quick Takes (Volume XVIII)

I'm linking up with Bonnie from A Knotted Life to bring you Seven Quick Takes from my world this week.

~1~

Weeks after a holiday are always brutal.  I only worked 2.5 days last week, so this 5 day week has been excruciatingly long.  Not to mention pay day is so close...yet so far.  

~2~

I finally wrote down some of my thoughts on the gay marriage ruling here.  Bottom line, we need to make clear that ours is a message of love. We need to evangelize and re-evangelize Catholics about what marriage really is.  We need to build communities of support for married couples, singles, families, etc. in order to live out what we believe.  We need to pray for our country and live our own vocations to holiness.

~3~

I filled out a little survey about marriage for fun here because, what can I say?  I'm a newlywed, and I'm in love.

~4~

It might seem trivial, but I found out this week that I'm actually an I-N-F-J, not an I-N-T-J according to the Myers-Briggs personality test.  It explains so much!  I'm fascinated by human behavior, personality, habits, what motivates us, etc.  I'm also always trying to crack the code of my own personality to make sure I'm living the best life I can.  It has been great fun to perceive myself as an I-N-F-J instead of I-N-T-J.  I really think it's more accurate, after thinking that I-N-T-J was like looking inside my brain.  

Here are some I-N-F-J traits that stopped me in my tracks because they were so right on: 
 - have "psychic" moments sometimes in which they either have a prediction about the future that comes true, or feel a connection to a loved one right when something significant is happening to a loved one (can't tell you how many times this has happened to me from where I was going to go to college to who is calling me when the phone rings (without caller ID))
- work in the arts, higher education, or ministry (I have a background/degrees in music, I currently work in higher education and have for years, I have worked in the past for the Church, and it's something I've strongly considered for the future - plus, I just finished catechist training for my diocese
- sometimes are really bad at expressing their own personal feelings (YES)
- often fixate on external things when stressed (YES YES YES!!  I was so deep into scrubbing toilets and showers when stressed a few weeks ago that I didn't hear the doorbell or the phone ring, and I was expecting that person to come over!)

Anyway, apparently an I-N-F-J is most likely to doubt their own mental stability and also to seek therapy.  I'm still learning, but I feel like a door has been unlocked.  Take a test here for yourself and unlock the key to understanding yourself.  I-N-F-Js unite!!

~5~

It's going to be a busy July.  We have a friend staying with us for about a week next week, which will be great.  I need to do some cooking and cleaning.  My love has a concert coming up soon, which is also great, but takes lots of work.  And, once we recover from that, we have a family vacation/my parents' 50th wedding anniversary in August.  So, I have about 3 weeks left of summer to finish all my work projects before the students return.  Where has summer gone?!

~6~

On a more serious note, I heard someone saying that if you can't pray a rosary a day or do a novena, pray one Hail Mary every day for our country, for marriages, for our gay friends.  It's time for us to wake up and live the lives we are called to.  I've been so grieved and burdened by the lack of knowledge, lack of formation, lack of any effort at all on the part of so many Catholics.  How can we change the culture if the truth means nothing to us, if the truth hasn't changed us?  Let's learn our faith and live it with God's grace!

~7~

While many of the bloggers I read (and have never met in person) are off partying at Edel, I'm just staying home.  No $$ to attend, plus I'm not a mom, so I don't know how comfortable I'd be there.  (I know it's open to all women, but it's emphasis is for moms to connect.)  I've really been thinking a lot about community lately, and I hope those ladies have a great time, and that I can find a little community here in town for myself.  It is sorely lacking, in my experience.  My husband and I were just talking about another couple we'd like to try to befriend from church.  It feels like you're asking someone out on a date at first.  Ha ha.

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Peace and all God's blessings to you.