From a homily on Ezekiel by Saint Gregory the Great, Pope....

"At times I let my tongue run, for if I am always severe in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy. So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him."
St. Gregory the Great, Pope
Art by Norman Rockwell

It is so easy for me to fall into my old ways even if I wish it were not so.  I have always thought though, that you MUST be aware that you are indeed doing something you don't want to be doing, in order to stop from doing it!  The last 6 or 8 weeks, I have busy with our new puppy and I have neglected things that are really very important to me.  I (for now) don't have a lot of quiet time, like I did pre-Lily Belle, and I truly miss it!!  I need to somehow get back into a routine.  As I type this, I just finished my Morning Prayer, with Lily Belle asleep on my lap.  In the recent past, I would have quietly carried her to her crate and made the bed, or throw in laundry, or jumped in the shower.  But, I'm once again, AWARE that I've put Lily Belle above The one I claim to love so much!  Of course that was not my intention, nonetheless, I see that that is what I've been doing.  In this mornings OOR, St. Gregory reminded me that this is what I've been doing. Of course HE had MANY, MANY more responsibilities than caring for a new puppy!!  I wouldn't dare compare myself...I'm just realizing that like St. Gregory, when my mind is "divided and in so many places, how can I meditate WHOLEHEARTEDLY'!!  It's time for me to 'get back on my path'....I tend to wander now and again, before I even realize, "hey...wait a minute, where am I?!?!".  The GOOD thing is that God seems to say," I was wondering when you were going to pay some attention to me, like you do your little Lily Belle!".  OOOooops!  Sorry, Lord!  I DO love you...lets get back to our alone time!