Author: Carrie Sue Barnes
Carrie Sue Barnes is a fiction author and blogger who fell in love with creative writing as a grade schooler in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She resides now in Wisconsin with her family, often pulling her love for the Midwest into her writing. Carrie Sue's debut novel, The Hidden Legacy, was released in 2018 by Bold Vision Books to strong reviews. Since then, she has published several short stories and continues to write short fiction and faith-inspired reflections on this site. Carrie Sue loves reading, kayaking, hugging her children and friends, rewatching The Office, and connecting with readers in person and on social media.
Autumn at the Basilica at Holy Hill
Last Sunday I took my passengers and myself on a detour on our drive home from Kenosha. These are pictures from Holy Hill, the Basilica of Our Lady, Help of Christians. It’s not too far north of Milwaukee. Gorgeous sacred place. The day was so particularly beautiful, I’d have liked to stay all afternoon! I took some pics of the scenery and outside of the basilica, as well as a few inside but not many. I walked the outdoor Stations of the Cross rather quickly (must plan a time to return and pray them mediatively) and took photos just of the details that really struck me at the moment.
The Pope Gets It
Adding to my appreciation of Pope Benedict XVI (which is already at a significant level), this is from an address he gave after a recent piano concert.
“This concert has, once again, permitted us to taste the beauty of music, a spiritual and therefore universal language, a vehicle so importantly suited to understanding and union between persons and peoples. Music is a part of all cultures and, we might say, accompanies every human experience, from pain to pleasure, from hatred to love, from sadness to joy, from death to life. We see how, over the course of the centuries and millennia, music has always been used to give a form to that which we are not able to speak in words, because it awakens emotions that are difficult to communicate otherwise. So it is not by chance that every civilization has placed such importance and value on music in its various forms and expressions.
Music, great music, gives the spirit repose, awakens profound sentiments and almost naturally invites us to lift up our mind and heart to God in every situation, whether joyous or sad, of human existence. Music can become prayer.”
You can read the whole address here.
Day One
This is day one.
I absolutely love mornings. I don’t always immediately love them. Those first moments as I become aware of the radio waking me from dreams and the chill of the air outside the blankets reaches my conciousness are not always my favorite times. But I get past those initial upleasentries and I greet the morning gladly. And on occasion, I love the morning from the start. By some miracle I realize that this day is new; I know from the moment I wake that the day has the potential to be a really good day. Aren’t mornings wonderful for that? New chances. New light. New.
For some reason, this is one of those ‘love it from the start’ mornings. Don’t ask me why. It’s cold. It’s raining. I have an overwhelming to-do list and not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish it all. Yesterday could have been better. Tomorrow won’t be much different. But today… I don’t know. There is nothing stopping me from making today Day One of beginning to live how I’ve intended to start living for far too long. I mean, really, why shouldn’t today be that day? Why shouldn’t today be the day I start the daily prayer time I’ve gotten out of the habit of having, and reading for more time than I watch television, and skipping any regrettable unhealthy meals or snacks, and getting back to the gym at least 4 days a week, and letting go of the attachment that I’ve needed to let go of for so very long.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” (Socrates)
Autumn part 3
Autumn part 2
I Do Love a Good Wedding
The Office Wedding tonight!!! The level of my excitement is probably a tad disproportionate to the reality of it being a fictional, television wedding. Yet, I can’t suppress it. Jim and Pam are getting married and I am so happy about it! (I will not admit aloud how much I will be wishing during the episode that I were the one marrying Jim Halpert/John Krasinski.) I almost feel like dressing up for the occasion and pouring a glass of champagne!
“You only fall in love once; the rest is merely practice to make sure your heart can take it.” (Unknown)
Carrie In Writing 
