Author: Maria Johnson

Welcome Mission Conference 2013

Welcome to my humble little blog. I hope you’ll learn quite a bit about how to use social media, maybe dare a little to post on Facebook or Google+  or Twitter if you are beginners, or really push yourselves if you make the leap into blogging.

Whatever you choose, remember one very important thing: be yourself.

If you like gardening, then write about gardening.

If you like music, share what moves you.

I you like books, review your favorites.

You see, we’re all unique and have things to share with others, but we share one great thing in common: we love the Lord. Write about that, too. Not as an apologist, unless you are one, but rather, as a faithful Catholic, living your life and doing the things you do.

Give it a try, share it with your family and friends, and join the online conversation.

What would you write about?

yes, we buried a buffalo; it was the neighborly thing to do

RIP Buffalo

Once upon a time, many years ago when the children were all under 10 years old and we had the stamina to actually do things with them that required sunshine and the outdoors (a magical time before X-Boxes, Wi-Fi and iEverything) we had a little plot of land — five sprawling acres filled with pear trees and peach trees and beautiful tall grasses.

And a bunch of old tires, a rusted refrigerator, and a dilapidated house from like the Civil War or something.

My husband, handyman extraordinaire and embracing country living (I was still wearing my pearls, and let me tell you, he had plenty of fine 3-piece wool suits in the closet a la Eddie Albert), thought it would be a lovely family outing and adventure to go clear our land.

There’s a reason I’m not Pioneer Woman. No delightful lunches packed in adorable red-checkered cloths. No homemade lemonade in mason jars. Nope. I was good to remember some water in an empty milk jug and the bug spray.

So here we are, picking up junk around the property while He-Man drove around on a back hoe doing the hard stuff. I’ll stop here and note that it was pretty cool to watch the house shack come down.

Anyway, I digress. It was hard sweaty work in the Georgia heat which pretty much means we were not justing baking, but possibly poaching ourselves due to the humidity. This is an important point in the story because you know, things tend to decompose quickly in such an environment.

Back to the story…it was very hot, and in the midst of our own work, one of our neighbors, a very nice lady, came over to introduce herself and ask for our help seeing as how we had a back hoe and everything out here in the middle of nowhere. There’s not a lot of farming out where we live because there’s a lot of granite in the ground, but there were many many dairies back in the day.

It turns out, she had some cows…and a dead buffalo. They’d managed to dig a grave for the huge animal right next to where they found it, but they were hard-pressed for figuring out how to get it in the ground.

Enter Farmer John and his back hoe, and his trusty side-kick, Vicky, who was riding shotgun with Daddy.

They came back green, gagging at everything.

I knew better than to ask.

The Post-CNMC Hangover

So you went to the Catholic New Media Conference in Boston. Had a good time?

I know you did. You made new friends, moved virtual friends into the Real Life column. You traveled, some of you, really far to get there, and then turned around two days later and traveled back home.

In between, you had tweet ups, and early calls, and rushing from one exciting session to the next. It was information overload!

We got pumped up for Christ! That’s what it’s about, of course. To arm us with tools for  evangelization, on the internet, yes, but really, in our lives. We leave the CNMC like any retreat: refreshed and on fire.

We look like this:

Screen Shot 2013-10-23 at 7.48.36 PM

And the truth is, we do leave renewed and ready to engage in the new evangelization.

But first, we have to get past this:

We’ve just started calling it the CNMC Hangover.

I think we should give a warning about this, but a little tiny part of me laughs and says: suck it up cupcake. It’ll pass quickly.

I promise.

Catholic New Media Conference 2013 Recap: Boston, redux!

CNMC logo

I always love the days that follow the CNMC, the Catholic New Media Celebration turned Conference now in its 7th event in six years!

Seven Six years! [edited: evidently I can’t count]

Impossible, and yet, here it is, or was. In other words, it’s over. Or a different way of looking at it, it’s beginning. You see, the CNMC has never been an end in itself but a springboard…to ideas…collaborations…relationships!

These first days home, as we unpack our bags are also an opportunity to unpack our feelings and thoughts about our experience. Social media is filled with reminiscences and jokes, lots of pictures, and banter with new friends.

I had an opportunity to present on blogging and engagement, and over the next few days will be posting my own response. But I thought it would be appropriate to provide a space to share those blog posts with the nice peeps who attended my session and said they’d stop by here.  So! Welcome! I invite you to share your blogs in the comments, and I’ll update the main entry. Maybe we’ll be able to gather a nice little collection 🙂

Who am I?

I am warm and giving.
I wonder what the world will be like for my children.
I hear the waves on the beach.
I see the orange sunset.
I want peace of mind.
I am warm and giving.

I pretend to be a space traveler.
I feel disappointed in broken drems.
I touch the future every day.
I worry about my children.
I cry when I am invisible.
I am warm and giving.

I understand my mother’s love.
I say it’s the thought that counts.
I dream of unwritten books.
I try to do my best.
I hope for a better tomorrow.

I am warm and giving.

June 1996

Yeah, I took a Star Trek quiz

You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi
75%
Chekov
70%
Beverly Crusher
65%
Will Riker
60%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)
60%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)
55%
Mr. Scott
55%
Spock
45%
James T. Kirk (Captain)
40%
Jean-Luc Picard
40%
Geordi LaForge
40%
Data
35%
Worf
30%
Uhura
20%
Mr. Sulu
0%
You are a caring and loving individual.
You understand people’s emotions and
you are able to comfort and counsel them.


Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

some things are just transcendent

The other day I was talking with my dad in one of those meandering ways that touch upon all kinds of subjects, and we ended up discussing how a society that produces disposable things is in danger of treating persons as disposable.

I’m afraid that we’re already in that place.

I see it too often from my little perch on a stool, safely behind a lectern so I don’t get too close.

The following video, one I may have posted before but is newly getting some attention since George Takei posted it, speaks to this disposable attitude. In fact, one of the speakers in the video shares the same concern I’ve brought up.

Watch it. If the sheer humanity of it doesn’t get to you, surely the music will.