Seven Quick Takes-- Special Edition!!!

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I am thrilled to announce that today is a very special day at The Imperfect Catholic and a very special edition of 7 Quick Takes! My friend, Anne, at Whatever Works, and I have been e-mailing back and forth about how to improve our blogs, how to make them more interactive, and how to make them more authentic and reflective of who we really are. Let's face it-- blogging can be very difficult. It takes time to find both your voice and your audience as a blogger. It also takes time to get comfortable with sharing some of the more intimate parts of your life. It's hard to tell readers about what I'm struggling with. Yet, without getting into the gritty parts of life, my readers will never know who I really am, and my blog will never be authentic or intimate. Like Jen wrote about the video for Nine Inch Nail's cover of Johnny Cash's Hurt, the video captures the truth of the human experience. I hope that someday my writing evolves to the same level. So what makes today so special? Today, Anne and I are going to reveal more of ourselves through our 7 Quick Takes posts, and we are asking YOU, our readers, to PLEASE leave a comment on what you would like to see us expand on in a future blog entry next week. Please help us, fellow bloggers, to be more authentic!

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Ok-- I'll start at the beginning. When I first started blogging, about two years ago, my blog's original title/subtitle was "The Imperfect Catholic: My Quest for Sainthood." The About Me section talked about how I was raised a cradle Catholic, fell away from the church, but was on my way back. I talked about wanting to be better-- a better Catholic, wife, mom, friend, etc. and how difficult, yet comical, that process was. I wanted my blog to be funny, but it never really happened. Maybe I'm just not funny? I can accept that (except it means admitting to my husband that he has been right all these years). My original blog posts were about things like flipping my husband off & then texting my friend, "Do saints flip people off?" or realizing that I probably would need to go to confession EVERY DAY to be a saint, how I kind of forgot how to go to confession after three years away, or my first daring experience drinking the Blood of Christ (it didn't go well). The reason my subtitle was "My Quest for Sainthood" was because a priest pointed out to me that to die a saint was achievable and should be my ultimate goal in life as a Catholic. No one had ever told me that before, and it made quite an impression on me.

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I can almost pinpoint the moment I started to fall away from the church. I had A LOT of faith as a kid. I wasn't perfect-- who is? But I was prayerful, and I always wanted to go to mass and confession. I really believed what was being presented to me at Catholic school. When we graduated from our little K-8 Catholic school, everything started to change. I heard some of the kids in my class were having sex and drinking already, and I knew from a friend's older sister that those kind of behaviors were common among the students at the Catholic high school most of us planned to attend in the fall. I can actually remember going around one by one to my classmates at an 8th grade graduation party, saying something to the effect of, "I heard the kids at the high school drink and have sex. We're not going to do that though, right? Not us, right?" And one by one, none of my friends would answer me. I knew then that my whole world was about to change. Do I sound like a sad, little kid? Because I feel like one writing this.

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I wrote a little about my *ahem* female issues here. I get all teary eyed, anxious, and feel sick to my stomach admitting all this to the world. I'm uncomfortable discussing it. However, I bring these health issues up because they have posed some unique difficulties to me as a Catholic. What does a Catholic do when the treatment options presented to her are contrary to her moral beliefs (such as hormonal contraceptives and ablation)? I'm lucky enough to have a NFP OBGYN here in California, but when I lived in Nevada, I wasn't as lucky. That was a major reason why I put off seeing a doctor for so long.

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A few weeks ago, after my trip to the emergency room, I was told to follow up with my regular OBGYN immediately. The problem was I didn't have one. After calling several doctors, I finally found one who was willing to see me that day. Little did I know, he was an abortionist. The abortion doctor revealed this to me during our consult. It was a crazy encounter (especially since I'm one of those pro-life ladies who prays outside clinics). Let's just say the whole thing was stranger than fiction, and I left the clinic offering to adopt a baby because apparently, that's the kind of crazy Catholic I am now, the kind of lady who leaves her cell phone number with a madman in hopes that he'll randomly call one day.

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I think I'm out of revealing stuff to share. Thinking...thinking...ooooo...oooo... I've got one. How about the story of what brought me back to the church? It was a process, but I'd say the pivotal moment was going to confession after being away for three whole years. That would make a good story too. Can you tell I'm getting more and more tired with each post?

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So, I'd really love it if you would pick one of the topics above for me to expand on in a blog post next week. If you have any other comments/suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. You can leave a comment after this post or e-mail me a private message. My contact info is posted as a link from my homepage. Thanks y'all! Have a great weekend!!! And don't forget to visit Anne to give her your feedback as well. We really appreciate it!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!