It's the Kissy-Kissy season, and I'm in the mood for lurrrrrrrve.

We missed the Crow Roost Bike Ride on 2 February, 2013. 

I like that day.  February 2nd is Imbolic on the pagan calendar, or Candlemas if you're Christian, and it's a celebration of the quickening. It's the best time of year to make a wish, to plant seeds for future endeavors (you can start seeds for your garden now, too.)  If you can dream it, you can create it, and this is the best time of year to reflect on your goals.  

It's important to a healthy happy life to celebrate often, so I was sad to miss the Crow Ride.

photo by redsara

I'm also sad when I drop my chain under load. It never happens when I'm just riding for fun, it's always when I'm working it up a hill and trying to make it quick. What's a girl to do?  When I want to go fast, I want to go fast, so I dragged the boy out and we rode to a sweet little LBS called

Kissing Crows

 I say dragged, but there wasn't actually a lot of dragging going on from my end. He was determined to get the ride over and done with as quickly as possible and he rode pretty hard, bless him.
He likes to go fast, too.  :)
Once we arrived I bowed under pressure and hurriedly took some terrible photographs.  Like this:

My reason for making this trip was not to showcase how methodically and consistently I can take really bad pictures, but also to pick up one of those doo-hickies that stop your chain from dropping at the most inopportune moments. Ye olde chain drop stopper.

A kind and helpful young man named Josh showed me the stopper they had hanging on the wall, and then he went and got his bike, and showed me his stopper.  It had his name engraved on it, and it had a skull and crossbones, too.
I want one with a skull and crossbones.
It's on order now, so this is just the first of at least two trips to Kissing Crows. :)

One more bad picture, and we're homeward bound.
As we made our way back  home the boy noticed how many hills he had climbed to get there, and
I noticed how fast those little legs can go when he sets his mind to it.

They always go away very fast whenever there's any kind of kissing going on,
and that has GOT to be awkward this time of year.

It's the Kissy-Kissy season after all,
and I'm in the Mood for Lurrrrrve.

There is a touch of the divine in a kiss, isn't there?
It's mystical, marvellous, and mysterious, that delicious,
thrilling rush of sensation when first you kiss your heart's desire...
  mmm... kisses.

 I love kisses.

Kissing is so hot

except when it's not.

The Guardian said this kiss sparked a mystery, 

but every kiss is a bit of a mystery, isn't it? 

 How is it that a simple kiss is such a powerful act?  

Kisses come in all shapes and sizes.

There's the good:

The perfect kiss (you've gotta love The Princess Bride):

Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind. 

There's the bad, 

Jesus betrayed by Judas: the ultimate smackdown.

And of course, there's the ugly.
Best ugly, less-than-perfect, not-quite-so-passionate kiss? Here's an artisanal,  ironic kiss for you.

What do you think?

unhate

Remember when Benetton had to tear down that kissy-kissy UNHATE ad of theirs 

because his holiness Pope Benedict of the inquisition objected to it?

I like the kiss in this photograph way more than I like the kissers.
The act of love, expressed in a kiss
is beautiful, no matter who is doing the kissing.
Religion and love rarely meet.

Have you ever noticed how many people hate the Catholic Church?
It's absurd.  Time to shake hands with truth, people.  It's time for a reality check, and this leadership junction is a great time to stop and take stock.

After the Pontiff's surprise resignation, the BBC examined the highlights of his papacy, including this little gem:

Amid continuing revelations of institutionalised paedophilia within the Catholic Church, in March 2010 Pope Benedict took the unprecedented step of writing a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics in which he acknowledged and apologised to those who had "suffered grievously". 

The letter went on to "openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel", and said that those guilty of abuse must "answer before God". 

The apology fell short of demands from some victim groups, who had urged for an admission that abuse was systematically covered up by the church.

You think??

Everyone knows that the Catholic church abused tons of kids, but how many people are aware of the 50,000 Aboriginal children who allegedly died at the hands of the Catholic, Anglican, and United churches in Canadian Residential Schools from the late 1800's till the 1980's and whose bodies were never recovered?  It's called the Canadian Holocaust, and it's hidden from history.

That's what you call the kiss of death.

The Church is long overdue for some radical reform.

Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  We're not going to see a different church if we continue to elect leaders from within the rank and file.  Nothing is going to get better unless we really step it up, and that is why I would like to offer to take the helm and lead the Church out of this miserable morass.

First Edict?
Use a condom.
It's the immaculate act of non-conception.
That's not spam, that's an e-dict.

Fuller was right when he said
"there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come,'
because once we reach critical mass, change is swift and inevitable.

Please celebrate the season and plant a seed of thought in your heart today.
Dream of a world worthy of the term
Heaven on Earth.