One Year of Blogging

I have now had this blog for ONE YEAR. I have enjoyed it. I had two other blogs some years ago but I was a student at school and didn't have the time and ability to keep at it though. Right now, I think I have discovered my place in the blog world as well as what I hope for out of it. At the very least, I have discovered what I am not.

I am not a pro-blogger. I am not seeking to earn any sort of income, ever, from blogging.
I am not a mommy blogger (yet) and so though I enjoy the stories and pictures, there's only so much I find I can comment on.
I am not a daily blogger. In fact, I can go happily for a long time without blogging as long as I continue to read/skim my favorite blogs at my own leisure. I do want to be somewhat regular for my readers though.
I am not a blogger driven by the number of readers or stats. It is nice, for sure, to have new readers - yet I would be very disappointed to know all these people weren't actually taking the time to read every now and then!
I am not the prettiest blogger. Aesthetics are nice and I wish I could do more design-wise, but I am not at the stage of pursuing change yet. I would be very happy were I to find someone who wanted to take on the challenge and teach me some stuff too. Even uploading photos for posting is something I have to discipline myself to do more of!
I am not an impersonal blogger. I really enjoy interacting on some level with the people who read my blog and vice versa. This is the 2nd biggest pay-off for me I think. I value authenticity in relationships greatly.

The WWW is not the best place to hope for relationships and friendships per se, but as long as I'm here and there are other people sitting behind their computers, I really want to make something more than an impersonal or superficial connection on some mutual level at some point along the way.

I read/subscribe to a wide variety of blogs: biblioblogs, mommy blogs, artsy blogs, food blogs, pastors' blogs and others. It's not possible to comment on everything but I do get a kick out of simple things like getting a reply to a comment or a whenever a little discussion evolves.

I am a blogger who wants to have something of value to say at the end of the day. I want something greater than my own thoughts, ramblings and experiences to be woven throughout the blog posts here. And this is my biggest pay off. To hope that God will use something I've said or shared, maybe even a Marvelous Musing, to reveal something more about Himself in some way to some one.

Finally saw Fireproof

I finally saw Fireproof the movie on DVD. I had heard a lot of great things about it. In fact, my friend's hubby who is strictly an 'action movie' type of guy, actually cried a little! I have to say, the acting was quite sub-standard. And this runs throughout the movie for the most part. However, the message of the movie is superb, necessary, and it comes through loud and clear. I was not as emotionally moved as I thought I would have been, based on the effect I've heard it had on some men who saw it, but I think this is because the movie targets men and husbands more than the opposite sex.

I would absolutely recommend this movie to anyone. It brings a message of what true love really is and how to make it work. The principles will work for anyone, regardless of whether they're a Christian or not. However, I daresay a non-Christian will not truly be able to love their partner consistently in actions, without the inner work of the Holy Spirit. This just happens to be another message in Fireproof. Enduring love starts with God and is perfected in God.

What's In MY Name?

Well, I have been absent from my blog for about two weeks now. A lot has happened in various areas of my life. On Wednesday 24th June, while in the course of a conversation, I stumbled upon some information in an article that shook me up pretty good regarding my ethnicity. As you know, I have been spending more time praying. Around this time, praying for Israel, Jerusalem and the Jews is something that became very exciting for me.

I was casually discussing an old Jewish shop sign I spotted along one of the main roads and checked online for more information about a prominent and Jewish family that had operated a successful exclusive store on the island until a few years ago. Hans Stecher came to the island at the age of 14 with his family, fleeing Vienna in 1938. In his reflections about the 'disappearance' of the Jewish community on the island, he mentioned that many Jewish family names were changed and listed some last names that actually point to Jewish families, as well as some that were slightly changed. My last name was one of them. I also found a website maintained by our national library that also contained this information.

I spoke to my mom (who has always been intensely passionate about anything Jewish, without knowing why) and was told that:

• she has always considered herself a 'Jew', I have many times heard her say that she is connected to 'those people' (but thought it was her Christianity making the connection)
• she long ago, secretly felt and wondered that perhaps there was some Jewish ancestry just based on the depth of her emotions
• not only is my last name from my father, well, they also share it in their genealogy. More precisely, my mom and dad are related: My mom's grandfather's (her mother's father) sister's son , was my father's father. That means my parents are distant cousins.
• these were white-skinned, long, straight-nosed, brown/red haired people who married into the other Caribbean ethnicities, namely, East Indian, perhaps indigenous Indian and African, so that now, we mostly look a nice blend of dark, 'local Caribbean'.
  

I face several difficulties in finding out more. Detailed birth and ancestry records were not kept in the islands; much of my family is split up in different countries now; the older generations are practically gone; my parents' and their families were actually from another island nearby (and most of them did leave that island) and my parents have never been back to their island of birth since leaving in the mid 1960's.

The more research I do on my last name, the more evidence turns up that this name does indeed point to some Jewish Sephardic families. I have always known it was 'Portuguese' and since I live on the brink of South America, that made even more sense, but the origins of its origin had never occured to me till now.

Part of me is very excited. Part of me was somehow 'shook up.' I want to know for certain. But I don't know how to know. There just seems to be nothing else to work with right now.