Month: July 2021

To begin, Chuck and I have remained unscathed throughout the pandemic and the financial crises that have plagued the past year and 1/2. Amazing it is so long that this country has been at war. First it was politics. Lost friends dot the landscape as people can no longer talk without getting cut and bruised. Rather walk away? Might be a wise choice rather than suffer continual hurt. I and my friend Karla both have wonderful walking friends we can talk all about stuff and get positive reinforcement for our thoughts. Amidst the turmoil of political discord we have "Pandemic". Should be written in capital letters as, "it’s not going away…" and might be the final scathing of our nation and the world. People downright fight over vaccination and fraudulent "facts". Remember Pilot asked, "What is truth?" just before he allowed Jesus to be crucified. Will that happen here?

I remain steadfast on what is the truth. God made me (fashioned me in my mother’s womb) and I am a good person because God doesn’t make junk! I have been adamant with friends on vaccination, on the fact that we can vote every 2 years, and on the fact that everything "they say" is not lies. If I lived the way some people do, so bitter in their souls, I would curl up in the stink and crumble. I have threaded the pandemic needle and lost a little bit of comfort, but I am holding on with prayer and talking to good friends. The CDC says we are at war, and I believe it. The vaccination is allowing breakthroughs. That just means we have to remain vigilent. Keep praying my friends. Keep your equanimity! Wow what a great word!!!! I shall live by this today! Equanimity ( Latin: æquanimitas, having an even mind; aequus even; animus mind/soul) is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. Keep balanced. Learn to do a yoga tree! God bless us!

In the past few days in Mass we have been reading from Genesis 41-44 and Matthew 10… The similar messages from the experiences of Joseph and Jesus are: big mistreatment, but the message: Forgive the ignorant who hurt you and others. Let not your hurt be an obstacle to following God’s will. "But." we ask from our pain: "what is God’s will? Is it for me to be hurt?" We have been criticized. We have been working hard to do good against a tide of angry mobs who say it’s all a fraud. What we are doing is all a lie. Rejection hurts… But God says, "Pursue the Good, the True, and the Beautiful." God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, has given us intellect, will, memory, and imagination, sight, smell, and the other senses, all gifts to help us sense and see the Beauty God makes. Why do you think we love gardens so much? As children of God, our mission is "to take care of the garden"… So many images of farmers and wine makers in Scripture richly show us the efforts to plant seed, to grow grain, to make bread. To grow grapes to make wine. To make the staffs of life. "Go!" Jesus says. Tell the others." In my weakness, I ask, "what is my grain? What am I supposed to make? Where does God send me? What does God want me to say? How do I respond to God’s command to go out and teach? How do I respond to the Good News?" God’s commands are clear, "Take action boldly! Speak out, and if your word is thrown back at you with snears, shake the dust of that town from your sandles and move on…" I imagine that means we are not to take any of the snears on us as burdens. We are to shake the rejection off.

Over the past year, I have often been shocked and hurt by the accusations of fraud and lies by and in the institutions that I depend on. In Matthew 10, I am told that I am to shake that dust off while I am not to criticize or let the contrary thinking weigh me down. I am expected to pray a lot. I am expected to look for pure love and gravitate to that. I am to recognize my temptation to hang back yet to try to change people’s minds… I try to break the bonds to the past and move forward. There is something in me that tries to change things! Sometimes it seems that my efforts are useless, and I am small; my efforts are like grains of sand on a beach. The beach is the size of … infinity. But my grain is important to my God who made me to do that little bit. How kind he was to make me and give me my moment in His Sun! God bless us!

My sister, (bless her!), looked at a photo of me with a finished puzzle, and she wrote: "You look good! Your hair is very natural." And I wrote back, "I never intended to get fat and go gray." Yes indeed, gray is natural at my age, and I "let it go during pandemic," first because my hair stylist who cut and colored my hair took the time off to protect her child from infection, and now, it’s been a year and 1/2, and I’m gray and fat. Ice cream twice a day and wine at night, coupled with TV movies and all fat broke loose!!! But I started yoga class and WOW! even though the scale doesn’t show loss, my shorts are falling off! Also there is no ice cream, chips, or cookies in the house. Yoga or walking every day! My yoga instructor left exactly at 930 one day for an appointment and I worry about her as she fought cancer and now will have an eardrum fixed from an accident. So… "how was appointment yesterday?" I asked, boldly. "Oh! It was a haircut and color!" she said. "WOW! Beautiful!" And I set off for her hairdresser who is right next door to Sammy’s Pizza! Most people I see in town revolve within 5 miles from home, and near Sammy’s. So, I feel like with 2 Covid shots completed, back at church, doing yoga, and a hair appointment looming, I’ll be "back." It’s like dress up when we were little! Go for it! Wear those dress up shoes, get color, and, for me, get hair style!!!! God bless us all. God bless the lost people in Surfside.