March for Life 2013

A few weeks ago, I attended my first March for Life in Washington, DC.  For those who may not be familiar with what this is, here is a brief but informative article about the event: 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/25/abortion-march-for-life-washington/1864051/

Growing up in northeastern PA then teaching in southcentral PA for seven years before relocating to North Carolina for school, I was only 3.5 hours away from our nation’s capital as a child and 2 hours away from the city as a young adult.  It’s funny how life works that I would make the trek and experience my first March when residing in NC and driving 300+ miles to get there.

And what an experience it was..!  After getting off to a shaky start (I had frantically lost my wallet prior to the trip), my car of friends and I made the trip north to DC.  Kevin, Scout, and I dropped Marianne off at a Metro (subway) stop on our way to St. Catherine Labouré parish in Silver Spring/Wheaton, MD. 

We got to the church halfway through the mass and managed to slide into the pew where my godfather and his wife were sitting.  They live about 20 minutes from the church so it was great to visit with them briefly after the mass ended.  We also met up with other new and old friends from the area, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey that night while eating pizza and enjoying refreshments in the school cafeteria before heading back over to the church for Adoration with the Friars of the Renewal from the Bronx.  The church was round, wooden, and just the kind of style of church I prefer.  The guitar playing and singing of the Friars was beautiful and the church was packed with teens and young adults.  It felt like a large version of the Young Adults retreats I enjoy attending at Malvern Retreat House in Malvern, PA.

Molly drove from Harrisburg and back to Harrisburg that night!  I was so excited to have spent some time with her during Adoration.

After Adoration, we filed over to the school and enjoyed a concert by Matt Maher and his band.  According to Wikipedia, Matt Maher is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist (who happens to be Catholic), songwriter, and worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada.  He  later relocated to Tempe, Arizona and has written and produced six solo albums to date. Three of his albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart.  Hearing Matt’s testimony and beautiful songs was a great way to end a long day of travel.  The concert ended with the Friars singing one of my favorite songs after closing prayer, Mighty to Save, another retreat favorite of mine.

I took several videos but unfortunately, they won't upload here...so the pics will have to do for now...

Around 10:30pm, us girls bid adieu to the boys who slept across the hall in the library in the school in which we were spending the night and set up our sleeping bags and air mattresses in the 8^th grade student lounge where we were to sleep.  We later learned that the boys promptly went to sleep and didn’t even learn each others’ names.  Us girls, on the other hand, stayed up until 12:30am sharing life stories and talking about our faith.  1 was from NYC while her sister-in-law resided in NJ.  2 originally hailed from Seattle (but didn’t know one another!) but currently live in Philadelphia.  1 drove from the other side of Maryland to come to the March with her brother.  1 drove from Philly as well and Scout and I were the only ones who made the trek from NC in the room that night.  The 8 of us eventually fell asleep around 1am with some of the girls getting up at 4am to leave and the others following suit around 7am since we had to vacate the lounge by 8am since it was a school day after all!

This was my view as I slept along the wall on my plush air mattress in the 8th grade student lounge!

The school provided us with a variety of snacks and breakfast foods and sent us on our way with a packed lunch in hand for the March.  The hospitality shown by the school principal and other staff was outstanding and we certainly got more than enough with our $30!!

After a mishap with parking at the Metro, my godfather graciously offered to drive us to the Metro if we parked at his house.  Grateful and anxious to get to Mall area in DC, we accepted his offer and were on our way to the action an hour later and began to sightsee.

 

I was pointing to the best state ever.  :)

This was a great spot to people-watch and warm up when taking a break from being outside...

 It has been a couple years since I made the trip to DC and I usually do it in warmer SPRING weather…not during the harsh FREEZING cold winter conditions we experienced that January 25^th morning and afternoon.  After taking in some sightseeing spots, we ducked into the Smithsonian - National Museum of Natural History IMAX to try to warm up…where on a whim, I bought a sparkly purple dragonfly pin using money my little brother had given me to commemorate this moving emotional trip.  I had read somewhere that the dragonfly, in almost every part of the world, symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.  Additionally, I recalled that the traditional association of dragonflies with water (think of how the dragonfly scurries across water) tends to represent an act of going beyond what’s on the surface and looking into the deeper implications and aspects of life.

How true this is when thinking of the pro-life movement and abortion…think of the damage that is done beyond the physical, after the act of an abortion or taking the morning after pill.  What do you say to a woman who possibly aborted or prevented the only pregnancy she may experience because at the time, she was too afraid to face the consequences of her or someone else’s actions?  I read recently that someone had a conversation with God and said, “God, I’m ready for my soul mate.  Please bring me to my soul mate.” to which God replied, “But my child, I did send you your soul mate 20 years ago but you aborted the soul mate.”  I know for those who may be for abortion or for a woman’s right to choose, you won’t like what I’m saying here.  Yes, rape is horrible.  Yes, if you can’t afford to have a child, it will be difficult to raise the child (possibly in poverty-like conditions).  Yes, it may be dangerous to continue with the pregnancy if it presents a life threatening risk to the mother and/or the child.  However, if the child were outside the womb, and he witnessed a heinous act, or living conditions were less than optimal, or she had an illness that caused the mother and/or her to be sick, would a woman still be allowed to have a choice and to pick up a gun and shoot the child to death?  Or perhaps I should ask, would the mother be allowed to take an instrument of torture and twist off this child’s head, then proceed to pull off the child’s arms and legs, limb by limb.  I am not trying to be disrespectful or blasé about this but we need to talk about abortion for what it is….murder.

So, when I look at this sparking dragonfly, I can’t help but think of my own transformation in trying to embrace God’s will for my life, whatever that may be, of moving past the regrets of not accepting His will in my early 20s and the choices/actions I took then, but in forgiving myself for past wrongs, and for trying to look past the surface.  Dear God, help me to be more forgiving especially of myself and of others.  Usually, it seems that it’s easier to forgive others than to accept yourself. 

So, after we warmed up and people watched in the Smithsonian, we bundled up and braved the elements to go outside again and track down Marianne.  The speakers were inspiring and I was particularly touched by the “Silent No More” folks.  Once we were a group of 4, we set out and started marching.  I was amazed at the sheer number of people and the positive energy of everyone &  loved seeing where people were from and at one point, was shoulder to shoulder with people from my old parish in York , PA!!

There were some super heroes at the March!  ;)

The banner is from my old church!!

This is what we drove home in...frigid winter weather!

In spite of our best attempts, several friends and I were unable to connect but we kept in touch via text messages.  It was awesome to realize that other young adult friends of mine from NC to NJ to Philly were walking the same walk I was as we trekked on in the snow and freeeeeezing cold.  Did I mention it was really cold?!

Lisa, a dear friend from Lititz, even texted me saying she spied me on EWTN’s live coverage of the event!!  How fun!  She also wrote about her experience with M4L…check it out here.  By mid- afternoon, we were ready to head back to my godfather’s house and get started on our trip back down to NC.  We thawed out and enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate thanks to Reggie and Uncle Bill while scoping out the weather situation on TV.  Turns out Greensboro and High Point had gotten slammed with an ice storm the majority of the day with schools closing or being released early that day while we were marching amidst the snowflakes and freezing temps.

We made it back to Kevin’s apartment around 12:30am and were on the road 45 minutes later (yes, it took THAT long to scrape the ice off our cars)….what a whirlwind of 24 hours!  I will never forget the experience of walking with 650,000 other pro-life people in our nation’s capital that was barely covered in the news (yet we all know about the fake internet girlfriend of a college football player), my first (and last) time eating at a Popeye’s on the way home, sleeping in a Catholic school student lounge with 7 other new friends from all walks of life yet united by our faith, mingling with the Sisters for Life and the Friars the night before, and getting in some unexpected quality time with Reggie and Uncle Bill before heading south.  

So, all in all, the March for Life was a healing experience for me, and something I would like to do again...especially with my future family should I be lucky to have children some day.  In the meantime, let's all pray for an end to abortion!!