Word of the Day: putative I miss you, sitD!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to Florence and dear dear Assisi over the weekend. St. Augustine, in his Confessions, goes off on memory. What would I do without Augustine? It's cold, of course, we're in the mountains. A bunch of us are walking down the streets of Assisi in the misty, cold evening to go to mass at San Stefano. All of a sudden I see Fran turn and so I follow him into a shallow alleyway that leads into steps. It was then, those steps, that view of the valley and the bell tower, that my soul was warmed. I realized then that I had been there before, in that same exact spot, three and a half years ago. The feeling of remembering a place like that, knowing that I was there and that I have returned, gave me sheer and utter joy. Augustine, did you feel like that when you remembered God? I did. So many things have changed since then, I'm like a whole other person. But then, so many things haven't changed, and I'm still a scared little girl searching for my happiness. There are certain things that I don't take pictures of. Cases in point: that castle/jail thing in Denmark, the spring in Lilehammer, the inside of San Stefano, the hermitage of St. Francis. I don't need pictures to remember the joy I felt when I was there, the awe at being alive and life being good. These four images are locked in my mind, never to go awry or bad, and when I think of them I remember how I felt and am happy again. Augustine, is this what you meant when you talked about joy and remembering, bringing not only the image to mind but also you then? I've started going to mass everyday to try and help myself. Actually, I started going at first because I have a crush on Fr. Mark, but after I looked past those blue eyes and that Irish lilt, I discovered that what he was saying would probably help me and now I go to mass for the sake of going. Fr. Mark is an incentive. Any road, mass has become more important to me than homework, than school, than going to Rome as often as I can. I just feel that I can't to this on my own. I've also started reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and doing at least evening prayer every night. Now all I have to do is write in my journal every night and take care of my sitD more better and things will be grand.