Growing up, I had two grandmothers. My grandfather on my mother's side passed away when she was sixteen, and my grandfather on my father's side passed away when I was two. So my experience with grandparents is almost entirely only with my grandmothers. Nai Nai is my grandmother on my dad's side, and AMA is my grandma on my mom's side. Last weekend my two beautiful, strong beyond words, loving grandmothers made their final voyage and are now playing mahjong together and reunited with their husbands. I've been reflecting on their impact on my life for some time now, but even more so now as I fathom not being able to hug and kiss them again.

The kids I teach in Children's Liturgy oft range in age from about 4 to 10 years old, and they are all full of stories--sometimes on point, sometimes not so on point. This Sunday, two of the boys had the honour of walking up the Advent candles during the welcome procession at mass. So, I asked them about that and asked the other kids if anyone lights advent candles at home. This led one of the kids to tell me about the time someone set his father's church on fire. His dad told him, it's because the man was a Muslim.

Yesterday, one of our family's beloved pups went to heaven. He lived a good, long life, and is greatly loved by all of us. He was like the big brother of the puppy pack, and definitely the most well-trained of them all. I've truly never met a dog so well-trained. He was also the first to show me the power of puppy love.

My therapist said to me that for some reason, when women turn 30, we learn to finally listen to our gut. I thought this was interesting, because the proudest I have felt of myself was when I trusted my gut, which led me to protecting and standing up for myself, my values, and my principles. And I had just recently turned 30 when that happened. Recently, I was faced again with a situation that had my gut screaming at me and I knew I should just go with it, but it can be so hard to be sure. I was trying to be logical. So, here's what I've learned about listening to your gut and how to listen to your gut.