Sometimes I feel I would like to tell all that happens and then it seems … boring, mundane, not exciting, ordinary. Well how much of life is ordinary? About 99% interrupted by 1% sheer joy or sheer terror. Here on Big Pine Key the sky is an amazing shifting creature; blue with amazing white clouds and suddenly black with fierce winds. My friend said her chairs were all messed up; did I go over and move her furniture? No, but I have all my furniture laying down, and I found one of my chairs in the neighbor’s yard. I have to bring my door mat upstairs every day as the winds pick it up and shake it like a hungry dog shakes his prey and then drops it over the railing – not interested in the flavor of an army green door mat. So is our life… My friend Linda is being tested by an onerous burden of pokes and prods. Nodules in her belly and lung are being aspirated and tested. That is awful, but it has brought us all together in church praying for our beloved. How many times are we hit by the disorders of nature? A lost pregnancy, a cancer warning, a badly broken bone that leads to discovery of brittle bones and a blood disorder? All of these are the jarring 1% of life that call up sheer terror. The other side of terror is Joy. Joy is the smile of a baby. Joy is the first flowers of spring poking up through the snow. Joy is the sign of God’s presence. Joy is seeing someone smiling at me, and me happily accepting this homage to my humanity. In our chapel at church we have a wonderful icon wherein the Blessed Mother holds the child Jesus close. One of her hands cradles his little bumpy and her other hand holds his hand. One of his sandal straps is broken and hanging off his foot. We look at that little broken sandal, and then we look up at 2 angels who are holding the cross, nails, a whip… and we realize that Jesus didn’t want to go to the Passion… so he runs to his Mother and she sweeps him into her arms, and she quiets his fears. I run so hard and so fast, so frightened am I, that I break my little sandal. You sweep me up, you hold me and you wipe away my tears and my fears. … …
We have a new priest at St. Peter Church on Big Pine Key. After 26 years as Pastor, Fr Tony retired and left us in the competent hands of Fr Randy, a convert from the Baptist faith. He came to the priesthood as a widower with 2 children and several grands. How exciting this new phase of our lives will be! Already we women have advised him: ditch the black shirts, get some sandals, wear sunscreen, remember to drive only 25 miles per hour, and watch for turtles, deer, chickens, and iguanas crossing the road!!!! God bless our priests and ministers.