I don’t think of myself as a “gamer” per-say. I am what Paul Barnett calls, “a non-gamer gamer”. For me, gaming is fun, it’s a hobby, an activity I do to blow off a little steam, and share some fun with other people online. I game usually at night, about 2 – 4 hours, but not every night. I seem to go through cycles, I give up games for a while, then I go back just a couple hours a week, then increasing to many hours a night. Last year for Lent, I gave up gaming COMPLETELY for 40 days (the 40 days of Lent) and then when Lent was over, I really didn’t go back right away, because I had found many things that needed my attention over the course of the 40 days. But the lure of World of Warcraft just was too much, I went back, and now I’m on it every night, which makes me a little aggravated. Aggravated because I thought I had “licked” this addiction! But no matter how long I stay away, it always seems to lure me back, like the sirens call to the sailors at sea. Recently, there is an even bigger reason I enjoy going back, night after night…I AM A TANK!

You know, I have thought about it, and it seems to me that each of my 4 toons in WoW have some part of my own personality…I can be, and have been a healer in my life. I CERTAINLY have been a witch a time or two! I’ve got a side of me that I don’t like to show, which is the vindictive Death Knight side. But who knew, that I would most like, and most relate to being a Warrior/Tank! Years ago, I was going through probably the most difficult period in my life. I had been dumped by my fiancé who left me for a married woman he worked with, who’s own marriage was failing. I had dreams of being a wife and mother, and a graphic designer…it just all crumbled to the ground like old buildings in an earthquake. I remember very fondly, my mother who I had a strained relationship with before, came to my rescue. She couldn’t walk very well, she couldn’t breathe very well, and here she was at my Chicago apartment, struggling, puffing, up 3 floors of steep stairs in order to help me clean out my apartment and move back home with her. She helped me pack, she washed and cleaned, she held me while I cried, she was this tiny, frail, thin, sickly, monster-warrior soul of a woman who just would NOT let life’s troubles beat her down, nor her precious daughter! She put up with so much abuse from me in the past, yet here she was by my side, fighting off the depression that might have killed me if she had not been there. She showed me then, how much she loved me. But it wasn’t until I was her caregiver in the last 5 years of her life, that she showed me what a TRUE warrior is…she suffered ailments, and humiliations because of those ailments that would make most people crumble into a pile of insanity! Yet, she handled it all with such Grace as I have never seen. Yes, she had her bad days. She even yelled at me in a restaurant one day, something that made me burst into tears. But I realized that I was the ONLY safe target she had to unload on. All the suffering that life was throwing at her, she had no way to unload it, except onto me, the daughter she loved and fought with, and fought FOR …for so long. I forgave her; because she forgave me for all that I had done to her. That’s what a warrior is…someone who can take a beating and still smile – Someone who can take a beating and realize that we are all only human. Someone who knows that forgiveness is NOT just an option…it’s a shield, not just for the warrior, but for the person who’s hitting as well. So, of all my characters in WoW, I think I like being a Warrior/Tank the best, because I was shown by my mother, what it means to be a good warrior, to fight the good fight, and not let the sadness or suffering make you bitter and angry and mean.

To my mom, the best warrior I’ve ever known. Mom, I only hope that I can one day, be as good a warrior as you were! I love you.

Sr. Frances

Below are just a few things that I got sent via email, I thought they were really cute and might cheer someone up! Enjoy!

KIDS IN CHURCH
3-year-old Reese :
‘Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen.’

A little boy was overheard praying: ‘Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am.’

After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, ‘That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.’

One particular four-year-old prayed, ‘And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.’

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service, ‘And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?’ One bright little girl replied, ‘Because people are sleeping.’

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.. ‘If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, ‘ Ryan , you be Jesus !’

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand. ‘Daddy, what happened to him?’ the son asked. ‘He died and went to Heaven,’ the Dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, ‘Did God throw him back down?’

A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, ‘Would you like to say the blessing?’ ‘I wouldn’t know what to say,’ the girl replied. ‘Just say what you hear Mommy say,’ the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said, ‘Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?’