At the beginning of the Covid lock downs we joked about sitting around in our pajamas… I am in the crowd that didn’t go back out as soon as Florida said, "It’s OK!!! Go out!" I remained isolated with Chuck for almost a year. I didn’t go to church for a year! The first time I went to church with mask on, in April 2021, I was freaked out with being around people! I have been going daily ever since, with a short stint of yoga taking the place of Mass. Sometimes we have to choose… and I chose Mass over yoga due to my need to talk with Jesus there in church and to pray the Mass. I miss yoga as it is great stretching. OH! so great stretching and breathing. Now, with 30 pounds too many on me, and both knees swollen and in great pain… I’m starting a diet that includes "no drinking." I became a ""it’s 5 o’clock; time for wine" wino. I was drinking too much after 5 o’clock and eating ice cream sometimes twice a day, and eating too much on my plate. Anxiety does these things to me… My choice: daily Mass, walking every day (as soon as I get my knees back – I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday.) Let’s see: No wine, diet, No sweets, No bread or pasta or white potatoes (you know the ritual.) Get the weight off the knees. Keep praying. Let’s see what good that does!
It’s a choice to stop drinking, to remain positive. It’s a choice not to say anything awful. Not to complain. It’s my choice. And I have to add in No worrying. My friend and I are reading the Bible! I read with my friend Kathy for two years in a row, we read the Bible twice! But now I’m reading from a different perspective. My friend asks hard questions like "Why is God vicious?" I wince when he asks questions like that and I patiently say, "God is not vicious, weather and nature can be vicious". In the very old days, 4000 years ago, People had to explain natural phenomena like floods, fires, earthquakes, famines, rampant diseases… add some you think of. Every civilization has flood stories and they were oral until writing was invented. "Back then," 4000 years ago, the stories were oral. When it thundered when I was a little girl, we used to look up and say, "The gods are bowling." Zeus threw lightening strikes. Mother Earth holds up the rain when she is angry. They weren’t such peaceful gods!!! So I gently remind my friend that in the Bible, written by man and inspired by God, God or priests of God are trying to tame a people who are accustomed to sacrificing virgins and babies to get a rainfall and good crops. "Here let’s give Mother Nature a choice virgin…" Today is not nearly as uncivilized is it? Oh yes it is! Men and women are mean. They shout evil stuff. I get sad when I hear the ugly things about the President or Vice President. I try not to get engaged except to say, "I have one vote… otherwise there’s not much I can do about the border, the Covid, etc…" Like that. Try to be at peace in our hearts. Try to keep ugly words in until I find some weeds… and then spit the ugliness out onto weeds. Maybe our venom would kill weeds…. Hmmmmm. God bless us. Angels with us. Peace in our hearts.