Month: January 2017

I forgot to publish this yesterday!!! This was before our big dinner party yesterday! At this time in our house, Chuck and I have his sister (Thelma) and 3 cousins (Kenneth, Carol, and Barbara)! Chuck and Kenneth are outnumbered 2 to one, but Kenneth seems in 7th heaven as he watches CNN and reads the papers and eats donuts (which Chuck buys faithfully every day! Today all women got on computers and finished cruise sign ins and now we are debating what cash we will need for a 9 night 10 day cruise on the RCCL Navigator. Carol peruses the day trips, Thelma looks over her shoulder and doesn’t want horse back riding or walking "helmet diving" on the bottom of the ocean… Carol will be zip line riding over our heads as the rest of us lounge on the beach. We all will sit together at dinner and I am sure the waiters will love us. Meanwhile CNN is telling of Obama vs Trump in spades. I just heard, "He is no friend of democracy," I shiver to think who he is talking about… Bless us O Lord… We women are not really listening… we just pray occasionally. We are now off to Walgreens where the women will buy a bunch of travel size goodies, Sue will go to the bank to cash in all the 20s everyone has given me for small bills, to the post office to begin the mailings of 2017 birthdays, and … where else? OH of course the grocery store. It takes a lot to feed this army. Actually we are a vegetable eating family so veggies look out! Dinner tonight will be ham and ziti and family and friends from afar … We are eating like we are on a cruise ship! God bless you!

When I return to the house at 8:30 after morning Mass, Barbara (cousin house guest) always asks what was the message of the day? and today it was easy! Father stood up to give his homily and he said, "Does everyone remember the first line of St. Paul’s letter?" "Beloved: This is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another." (1 John 3:11). And so it goes. It’s been written and even though it’s something we don’t understand and find very hard to do… Love one another, don’t get caught up in worldly angers. Maybe even skip the daily news papers and news channels. If we all did that, there wouldn’t be any anger in the world. There wouldn’t be any evil! Life is about love of enemy, love of the poor, love of the rich, love of all of creation, love of God. All of it! The full of creation! Love it, or leave it. Don’t stand around grousing or complaining just raise your eyes!!!!!

I just waved bye bye to cousin Carol as she laughingly rowed off in neighbor George’s kyack! She is loving the lake while Chuck and I rub our arms and utter, "brrrrrrrr." It’s a little chilly here on Westwood Lakes this morning: 66 degrees, with a high projected of 81. Carol is out there on the crystal clear lake with the ducks. Loving.

Today we are taking down the Christmas tree and picking up all the pine branches I have strewn about as we don’t want any spontaneous combustion while we are gone. We will also unplug all the timers that automatically turn on and off the lights. Today we arrange for mail and newspaper pick up by neighbor Kathy and ask her husband George to put out and bring in the garbage can next Monday. We are off tomorrow on a 9 day cruise. Think gentle thoughts for us, family reunion party off to celebrate 90 years of life for Kenneth on the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas! If I miss a few days… Remember! Be kind. Love one another! God bless you!

Have we ever done this? Have we wanted to dial **Quick and get what we want… slim thighs, no belly, well beating heart, more money, successful lawsuit… dial **Quick!!!!! When my doctor tells me I must choose… Healthy eating and exercise or fat and sluggish. I complain, (whine?) "I want ice cream and champagne!!! I want to stay up until midnight! I want it all! I want, I want I want!!!" Do we go like this to prayer? Do we only pray when we want something? I’m reading a book on Mercy which asserts that God wants for us… "only good, only health, only joy… dignity and sonship", but what do we do? Either ignore Him or even say… "He isn’t here." Who can look at the many Christmas displays of Baby Jesus held in his loving Mother’s arms, guarded by Joseph… heralded by angels; who can look and then forget? Why do we have to understand everything about the miracle-mystery of creation and Emmanuel – God with us? I have a friend who tells me "a spoon is a spoon… I can bang it and make noise; I can feel it." "True," I say, "We can’t see God, or even hear his still small whisper… " But men and women who lived 2017 years ago saw and felt his touch and they wrote about it… witness and testimony and we have their words today in Scripture. So if you don’t believe, please grab a Bible… any Bible, and look at Genesis (first book), and then look at John (the Gospel back in the New Testament). Look, read… We have a great witness in John. Please read, and remember way back when you were little and someone sang… "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!" Listen and believe! Be kind! God bless you!

Football has been on our TV non stop since Christmas! The ‘Canes and the Seminoles won their Bowl games and then it all became a blur of games. Today we all picked Penn State and watched two brilliant teams rack up more than 100 points. Today we have seen 2 freshman quarterbacks play great ball in the Rose and Sugar bowls. Boston Patriot’s Tom Brady didn’t play in 4 games due to suspension for Inflate gate and he is able still to lead the number one pro football team in the country. They sure mopped up the field with the Dolphins… I like football and I’m always on tender hooks about injuries (hate injuries). My nephew plays and we pray for his safety. Such a violent pleasure football is!

We are getting ready to go on a cruise with cousins Barbara and Kenneth from Connecticut (they sure are enjoying Florida sunshine!) Cousin Carol flying in from Ohio tomorrow, and sister Thelma who rented a car and drove into central Florida to find some Seminole fans to watch the bowl game with. We have to admit we all went to bed at half time and we are happy Thelma had someone to play with! I’ve enjoyed our company so far. I have a buddy to walk with and we go shopping and buy pretty things. For example today was a big shopping day at the book barn (a used book store), Sketchers, BJs, and Good Will, actually bought books, shoes, pants and a bathing suit and shirt for Chuck!

It’s time for bed. Tomorrow will be another exciting day as we need to walk 10,000 steps, pick up Carol at airport, and pick up Thelma at the rental car place! Too much excitement so far this year!!! Have you made a resolution yet this year? Tell someone and share your excitement and success with a friend!!! God bless you.

Last evening, Chuck and I dressed up and headed out to visit Rob and Virginia Klein, old friends from the old law firm. Both look hale and hearty as opposed to Chuck’s and my rather chunky physical fattness…. Both Chuck and I are "living the good life" on the too much calories side, but I’m trying to remedy that with walking 10,000 steps with our visiting cousin Barbara!!! We drove home at 10:30 and cheered in the New Year on our back dock with Barbara and drank champagne! Happy New Year was cheered in with 30 minutes of lake side fireworks. Thanks neighbors!!!

Yesterday morning, as I cooked breakfast, words kept going through my mind…. "April is the cruelest month… mixing memory with desire…" I went immediately to Chaucer, where Chaucer opened his world of stories and poetry (Canterbury tales) with "April with his showers sweet, the drout of March has pierced to the root, and bathed every vein in such liquor of which virtue engendered is the flower… then people long to go on pilgrimage…" The world of Canterbury Tales is situated in an inn when pilgrims gather and are asked to tell stories! Some bawdy by Chaucer’s standards. This is a piece of literature that English majors read in full, and students struggled with as it is written in "olde English". But the memory and desire stuff also comes from the "Wasteland" by TS Eliot who wrote on a more pessimistic note:
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain;

Chaucer’s tale is for fun, but Eliot is known for his intense pessimism… when the season turns to spring.. we are stirred to move, but many don’t want to move rather stay under the forgetful snow. Desire stirs up memory, maybe of what we didn’t do, can’t do, or maybe of what we have done and shouldn’t have… All that is to be forgotten as the New Year begins. Today will be a day of memory. Sunday morning television is remembering those who died, most recently the beautiful Princess Leia Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds,the beautiful mind Gwen Hall, Edward Albee and many many others, gone. So the memory… Now the desire. "What do I want to do?" you ask? I remember my neighbor Bill who said… First be kind. So let us shake off the covers of the past and go out into that shower of rain (or snow!) and be kind. Surprised and with passion! God bless you!