The View Up Here

I haven't blogged here at all in the last year because I've been over on my  Korea Dreambus: A Journey of Faith blog . As I stare into the last two hours and twenty minutes of 2025, I'm filled with gratitude and amazement. This past year has brought so many new beginnings and opportunities that I need to mark them down in one place. I am extremely fortunate to have been awarded grant money from the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts for my documentary film on my pilgrimage to the holy sites of the Korean Catholic Martyrs. Korea Dreambus is now just about done with a few minor edits and some sound work to go. I worked with two different editors, which was a challenge but which ultimately enriched the project. My public screening will be held on Jan. 17, 2026 at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry.   We screened SOULED , my short film, in April of this year in Elmira. It was a great turnout, and I was so excited to finally share it. The film was a se...

It's time to round up 2023 and cast a gleaming eye toward 2024.   Quickly, because it's cold, and I have to go find a cup of hot tea in the kitchen to warm up: published my short story "Vinny and Luca" in the June issue of Lake Effect Magazine . This was my first short story publication, and it's one of the stories I've written as part of a collection. shot my short film "Dream House" in October after one postponement and a reschedule. We had an amazing cast and crew, a beautiful location, and a lot of generous help. The footage is now with an editor who hopes to have a rough cut in the next few days. started as a journalist for our diocesan Catholic paper, writing features and briefs on the happenings and people in the county. learned how to create video content for Instagram. learned T'ai Chi Yang style 32-move sword form started with a new spiritual director (who was then reassigned to someplace far away and with a far busier schedule... this ...

You win a prize if you catch the reference in this blog title. Comment or message me and we'll work out what the prize will be! I'm currently at my main digs for writing these days, a place in Fairport called Junction 361.  Coffee house and beer bar all in one. And steps from the Erie Canal. New artist show every month. Barista with a thing for K-dramas. Can it even get any better? I think not. I come here with my writing partner on Monday nights (most weeks), and on a Saturday night, this is where I need to be to get sh*t done.  I'm working on getting an editor for Dream House, and I'm writing a new screenplay that involves... wait for it...  a time travel emergency at a mall in 1973. I know! Trust me, it's going to work. I've been creating video reels for Instagram at work and can say that I'm now feeling pretty comfortable editing on the Instagram app.  Not bad for a Gen-Xer with a Boomer brother and Greatest Generation parents.  Yes, I'm happy and pr...

In recent years, I've approached Advent at a breakneck speed, hyper-aware that I'm supposed to "do Advent" before I "do Christmas." The years I spent teaching and working for parishes were the ones I felt the most disconnected from Advent, ironically, because I was so busy preparing Advent liturgies, crafts, and activities that I missed out on the prayerful, silent, wintry season leading up to Christmas. (And let's not forget the excitement and stress of hurling myself across the NYS Thruway/MASS Pike every December to be home with my family.) The Moon getting ready for Advent (taken over my house this morning) The focus of Advent is to prepare for Christ in his Second Coming as well as commemorating the coming of the Second Person of the Trinity into Earth's history.  The liturgical season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, and this year, it starts on Dec. 3, which means the Fourth Sunday of Advent falls on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. In es...

I am waiting in the silence for Messiah, the One who saves, the One who is Love, to come into my heart. Ah! He is already here, yet He seeks even more of my heart.  This Advent I was wracked with mono (since October) as well as stomach flu (last weekend). At first I was angry: how unfair, why did this happen to me, why now? I was planning to go "home" to be with family on the South Shore of Boston for Christmas as usual, and as usual, the hype and stress of getting everything done before I hit the road for a 7 hour drive to stay at other people's houses (even people I love) was starting to ramp up. To give you an idea of how this feels: One night in the midst of stomach flu ickiness earlier this week, I was awake, sweating, feeling so horrible I almost felt out of my body. And that's where I met Jesus. "Accept everything." That's what my spiritual director had said in his voice mail message that morning. "Jesus I trust in You." It...

Normally around this time, I do a wrap up of the year in my own life and estimation. Although I don't remember if I did one last year. Anyway, I'm resuming the tradition.  After spending the Christmas holiday with my family, I arrived home last night to find a pile of Christmas cards awaiting me in the mail box. I had anticipated this and was delighted to open cards from friends and family in other states as well as right here in Elmira. What I wasn't prepared for was a letter tucked into a card from my friend Fr. David, a Trappist in Utah. His letter held some sad news, including the death of their Guestmaster, lay brother Michael. Michael was my first contact at Holy Trinity Abbey, where I spent many a retreat weekend during my year in Salt Lake City, and we had quickly become friends. I will always remember his New Jersey baritone, "We all love you, honey. We're praying for you."  So last night after doing laundry and watering my plants, I made my ...

This Christmas and New Year's Eve, I am spending time with family and old friends in Massachusetts. I'm always happy to return to the place where I grew up, enjoy the holidays with loved ones, and worship in the very church where I received my First Holy Communion.  Fr. Jim's homily at Christmas yesterday was short on time but long on meaning. The closing of his homily was an encouragement to hang on to Jesus as an anchor . I love this analogy, as so often it does feel like we are tossed around by big waves, storms, wind, and the uncertainties of where we are going.  From the Catholic News Agency , quoting Pope Francis in his Christmas homily: ...the Pope asked that we open our hearts to receive the grace offered on Christmas Day, “which is Christ himself.” Jesus, he said, “is the radiant day which has dawned on the horizon of humanity. A day of mercy , in which God our Father has revealed his great tenderness to the entire world. A day of light, which dispels...

Thanksgiving is next week! What the... how did that happen? It seems like I was just in Giselle's garden in Salt Lake City, picking cosmos for the living room table, and cherry tomatoes and basil to make a batch of The Sauce. This year has been big for me - paying off credit card debt, getting new (bifocal) glasses and two root canals, moving from Utah to New York, and of course being granted a way to handle the student loan debt when I find the right community to enter. I also had my heart broken over two Carmels that didn't end up working out (it's okay! better things were on the way), only to be introduced to St. Clare and a deepening awareness of my own Franciscan/Clarian charism, leading up to my live-in with a Poor Clare monastic community in Massachusetts in January, 2016. I am humbled by all of this incredible grace. Can I just empty this thing and crawl inside until Jan. 2? And now we're all looking at the calendar, realizing that Thanksgiving is ...

As it so happens, gentle readers, I am home from work after having my first root canal surgery, and I am taking some pretty good pain killers, so forgive me if my thoughts stray here. OTC ibuprofen doesn't seem to be enough to do the job, so 800 mg combined with acetaminophen and hydrocodone are in effect. As you can see, there have been some changes here - most notably my old domain "fred in the can" is gone. Time to put that one to rest; I've been using it with my films and writing since the mid-90s. The View Up Here is appropriate in more ways than one. I am living my life in a different way, from a different place, the Heart of Christ, plus I'm now living in Utah, which as the license plate boasts, is where one can live "life elevated." But, as most of you know, I prefer life at sea level. My visit home to Massachusetts for Christmas and New Year's was glorious. I was able to spend time with my family, and I had some time for discer...

Life in a new city, a new job, a new home - all of this and more have kept me occupied and not blogging. The third week of Advent is well under way, and in a week's time, I'll be on a plane headed to the Land Where I Was Birthed for Christmas and New Year's Eve. Not only will I be visiting my dear family and friends, I will also be continuing my discernment by staying overnight at the Carmel in Concord, NH , and visiting with the Poor Clares of Boston , located in Jamaica Plain. (Incidentally, Jamaica Plain is where my parents first settled when they moved from Elmira, NY to Boston back in the early '50s.) A few words on the full-time job I've held since August - I'm the Office Manager for Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City, UT, working for the Catholic Diocese of SLC. Certainly not rocket science, but definitely a ministry - in more ways than I would've thought. I've come to see and know a deeper vein of human experience and suffering...

In my last post, I wrote about the Light of the world. This morning I found an article on another blog that reflects the ideas I presented in that post. Here's a very appropriate quote from that article, referencing Meister Eckhart, a Christian mystic, theologian and preacher from the thirteenth century. He wrote that ...the story of the virgin birth is the story of Christ being born within us through the union of the Spirit of God with our own flesh. It is about birthing the Spirit within us. Ultimately, the story of Jesus’ birth is not about the past, but it is about discovering the “Light Within” each of us in the present. http://progressivechristianity.org/resources/a-light-in-the-darkness/ I clearly need to read some Meister Eckhart. Put that on the list, when I'm done with my current and immediate queue that includes St. John of the Cross ( A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and Bridegroom of Christ) , Bernard de Clairveaux ( A Lover Teaching the Way of Love: Sel...