Author: Susie

We had quite a drama this weekend, but all has turned out beautifully! On Friday afternoon, our cousins Laura and Dennis came to visit with their sweet, albeit large, white shepherd, and cute, albeit active, blond cocker spaniel. We put up a light fence around the walkway area to keep the curious dogs away from the nesting area, and we put up a doggie fence between our house and Mike’s to keep the curious dogs IN. All went well for about 35 seconds after we settled down when the duck, creeped out by a sniffing cocker spaniel, took off for regions unknown. She hung out under Mike’s big tree and occasionally went swimming, for the whole weekend. This morning, Monday, when family and dogs left, Chuck and I took down the fences and started praying. A mama duck with small teenagers was near by, and our displaced Mama was hanging out with them so I went out into Mike’s yard with bread crumbs and drew them 1/2 way across Mike’s yard toward our house. Then I left them for about 15 minutes and went back out again casting the crumbs into my yard. Sure enough the hungry little teenagers came a’running, and the 2 females with them. Our mama duck hung back, but sat for a long time watching the teenagers eat. Chuck and i then left for morning walks and when I got home, I peaked out the window and…. she is on the nest!!!!!!! Now if nature works right, those eggs should hatch this week, as it takes about 28 to 30 days for hatching. We found them on April 17. Today is 28 days…. I don’t know if a nest can be un-sat on for 3 days. All we can do is wait. As if this is all that consumes us!!! We will be going to Northport Florida on June 7 to eat a last meal with Dennis. Chuck says not to call it a last meal. Sounds too ominous. I mean… He has to be on liquids only after that meal until prostate surgery on Friday. Chuck and I will baby sit the 2 dogs allowing Laura to take her hubby to the hospital and feel free to stay there until surgery is finished and Dennis is settled into recovery. One overnight is planned and he will be back home Saturday the 10th. Dennis is a big teddy bear of a man. I can’t say "big" any more. He has lost 100 pounds he says in 10 years…. but it sure is a good thing to be entering our 70s at a good fighting weight!!! Hope you aren’t too hot as this spring has been hot in South Florida. God bless you.

Today on EWTN the homily began with a little story. A mom was afraid to let her little 1st grader walk to school without her, but he insisted, so she asked a neighbor to follow him, discretely, at a distance. The neighbor agreed, wanting to get some exercise walking with her toddler. So the little boy and his neighbor friend walked every day to school followed by the mom’s friend and her toddler… Finally the little boy’s friend asked, "Have you seen that lady and that little kid following us every day?" He said, "Yes, that’s my mom’s friend Shirley Goodnest and her little girl Marcy. Mom is afraid for my safety so she makes me pray every night: ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy will follow me all the days of my life’; so I guess I better get used to it" … Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. All the churches in the Catholic world will be reading from the Gospel of Saint John chapter 10 where Jesus says… "the shepherd calls his sheep by name, and leads them…the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice…I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved." The pharisees didn’t understand these words of Jesus… they did not listen to the shepherd’s voice. We really can’t hear God’s voice either because our ears aren’t "tuned" to hear it. Right now I have windows open and I can hear birds calling and singing, but I also hear traffic, a clock ticking, the neighbor’s air conditioner humming… In the silence of a Sunday morning, human noises and nature noises. God is speaking way down in the center of our beings. CS Lewis and Fulton Sheen both talked about the chaos of the noise and not letting God’s voice go unheard… Find the silence. I often tell people "Go into a church" where I look for the tabernacle and stare at it. Look at it and try to "center on the tabernacle." There, in the silence and concentration, recollection… find the silence where we will hear the Master’s voice.

Today the mother duck still sits on her nest. We’ve become a little more bold, hanging laundry, dragging palm tree branches out of the back yard to the garbage cans, but we are still not walking on the pathway right in front of her nest. She is quite a patient mom. I know I’ve talked about this before… but my goodness, watching this gestation process right under our noses has been interesting. She sits, fluffs, turns, counts eggs, turns the eggs, fluffs, sits. Repeat. It’s supposed to take 28 to 30 days… Well we found the nest out there on our return from cruising; it’s been 21 days. Any day now girl! Let us see those little yellow chicks!!!! May you all feel the patience of waiting and gently wait and listen. God bless you.

Two weeks ago we first saw Mama duck on the nest… and she is still there. I go out and hang laundry and look at her with her head tucked under her wing. She trusts that I won’t hurt her from the distance of the laundry line… She gets up occasionally and moves the eggs around, fluffs and spreads feathers around the eggs, turns the eggs with her beak and settles back down… Meanwhile, speaking of patience, Chuck and I have lost our cruise weight… but have now without eating very much still not lost any more weight… we wish we could get rid of our belly fat, we walk and skip dessert, but … oh boy they make whole commercials about getting ready of belly fat, and still it clings to our bellies.

We are planning our next trip to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota!!! We will go to the top of Michigan, visit our friends Tim and Kyla in Clear Lake, Iowa, and visit friends who live on a farm in New Hampshire before going down to New York to catch the Queen Mary 2 round trip to Quebec. A long summer vacation across America. We are skipping the submarine convention because "been there done that in Orlando" and we have a sick friend to visit in Iowa. Enjoy planning for a wonderful summer! Praise God for springtime and birdies!!! God bless you.

She’s still there. Faithful Mama duck. Sitting in that nest in the pouring rain!!! You know how people say: "water off a duck’s back", well that’s the way she is treating the torrents that are coming off the eaves onto her back. God bless the little creatures who are doing their best to make our world a tweeting, chirping piece of heaven!

Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, was a beautiful celebration as we are still celebrating Easter in the church. Today we heard the brash statement by Thomas that he won’t believe in the Risen Christ unless he touches the wounds and even puts his hand in Jesus’ side. How rude when you think of it…. "I don’t believe you survived that awful suffering and that you live; let me see the wounds, let me touch them, put my hand inside the wound." WOW! And yet Jesus was so gentle and loving. I think Jesus inspired Thomas to doubt so all of us doubters would have an example. When the time comes when Jesus reveals himself to us, in a small blessing or in a large bright miracle, let us fall down and say, "My Lord and my God…" As an exit hymn we sang, "I believe you are the Son of God… I believe you are the Lord." Pray for the many who don’t believe Jesus is Lord. Be kind. God bless you.

Continuing… Mama duck sits on that nest almost 24 hours a day. She rotates… Occasionally she gets up and repositions herself…. tail to the lake, head to the wall. Head and beak out towards the lake, tail to the wall. Occasionally she gets up and takes a walk and we notices a very militant male duck takes over strutting around the area of the nest and huffing and puffing….When she returned one time, I happened to be watching and she stood for a long time looking into the nest…standing over the nest, as if counting those eggs!!!!! We’ve all seen mother’s pat their bellies as we humans gestate for 9 whole months… pat pat… "I’m here little one. Just grow and don’t worry about a thing." Ah! Mother love. God bless mothers.

I went to the Keys to put a second coat of paint on the garage doors at 2061 Coral Way but it was raining so instead I painted a ceiling fan at friend Linda’s house… I helped empty bags and boxes into Linda’s new home in Port Pine Heights on Big Pine and I visited and floated in Michele’s pool…. visited friends Joan and Marj. A totally decadent wonderful 2 days and then returned to my dirty disheveled house! Before we left on the cruise we emptied 3 5 drawer file cabinets (that is a total of 15 legal sized file drawers) and piled all the files….. in our dining room. Meanwhile the dust bunnies, sensing our lack of attention, went into a mating frenzy….. So today… ignoring the piles of files, I’m dusting and sweeping and doing laundry that I’ll dry in the dryer so as not to disturb Mama duck, and Chuck is folding up shirts from his closet that "well. just don’t fit any more"….. Floors cleaned of dust bunnies, I will attack the files while Glancing out occasionally at Mama duck and being inspired by mother love. Or instinct… In any case. God is good. Have a wonderful spring! God bless you!

You have heard of the battles Mamas fight to protect their babies… well… we arrived home and I was sorting through laundry when I heard a commotion out back. Chuck and our neighbor Tami had just been "attacked" by a very frightened Mama duck who has built and filled a nest right up against our house, underneath a painting of a big sword fish I painted on the back wall… she’s resting practically on a very busy walkway between our house and Mike’s house. What creeped out the Mama duck was Tami bringing my plants back from a holiday at her house. Tami pointed at the duck who was walking back and forth down by the lake… Then we saw why the duck was upset. She had dug a hole and feathered the nest with white furry feathers and filled it with eggs! They lay very vulnerable and exposed to our wondering eyes. As I watched from inside the house, peering out a back window, I worried about the vacated abandoned nest, and wrote to Mike and Kathie asking them not to walk over to my house, and asking how long it takes to hatch eggs…. Mike’s reply was naughty… "30 days to hatch, 10 minutes for an omelet." Meanwhile… our beloved neighborhood kittie Peanut who used to come by 3 or 4 times a day to get petted, to chase birds, to eat mousies… was hit by a car and is gone… I miss her daily visits, but I wonder what havoc she might have caused to the duck.

We used the front door to go over to Mike’s for Chuck’s birthday celebration and when we got home we peered out and we could see Mama duck’s head from the window. She was on the nest and she has been there all day today. Whew!!!! Big crisis. Meanwhile, the Martin house is full of singing birdies! Nesting and singing. I have had the windows open all day today to listen to the singing… Although it is hot, the singing of nesting birds is wonderful!!! I’m balancing check books and filing papers and doing laundry (not hanging it on the line lest I disturb "Mama")… May you have some happy signs of spring life in your week!!! Happy Easter. God bless you.

Rather than say coincidence Chuck and I have begun to look at "things that just match up" as more than coming from chance!!! I went to Vintages to meet Chuck after I got out of the pool… and I heard a guy speaking and I asked my "normal" question… "You sound like you are from Australia" because they don’t sound like our friends the Trewins….. "No" he said, "from Bristol." Well we began to share our western England experiences and it turns out his parents live just 5 miles south of Bill, Sally, Charlotte and Harriet in Portished. His parents live in Cleveden "a village just south of Portished." We told him the last time we visited Portished we stayed for a week and went to the same pub – the one across the street from Charlotte’s condo that is made from containers of ships… and we shared experiences. Then we moved on to sharing Bude, Stratton, and Poughill… where we visited Bill and Sally for many years. He used to be a frequenter of the beaches at Wydemouth Bay and Northcott near Sally and Bill’s farm house B&B… He has since moved to Deerfield Beach in Florida. He and his wife share a love of south Florida yet they still go regularly back to Bude in Cornwall and Cleveden to visit parents. We will be visiting our friends Mervyn and Brenda and Sally and Bill and their beautiful children next May and we remember many happy days just chilling in English pubs … Funny who you meet on a cruise ship!!! We look forward to visiting our Scottish and English friends and to sharing our lovely lake house with them!!! Look out Margaret in Scotland!!! Here we come! Happy Easter Evening. It’s time to put this ship to bed and to go home tomorrow. God bless you with peace and joy.

Good morning dear friends! Happy Easter morning! This morning we had Mass in the theater and I read the second reading and sung the Alleluia!!!!   Then leaving Mass I heard a lady telling an Irishman that she went to school in Miami with Irish nuns and an Irish Bishop….  I turned and asked her what school? It was St Theresa school where I went from 1 through 7 grades. She was about 10 years after me…. Then I found she goes now to St Augustine church where I go to Emmaus and Book club! She made her Emmaus at St Augustine and my friend Saba Millares was a speaker at that retreat. I told her Saba leads the book club and I would love to see her at meetings… (Saba: Her name is Maria and in Spanish her last name means "dolls"… Do you know her?)  By then we were in the elevator and another lady said "I went to Emmaus at St Hugh" which is a church in Coconut Grove. By now 2 men chimed in they were Emmaus brothers, and one was wearing a UM tee shirt so we did a big "The U" and by then…. I didn’t want to get out of that elevator!!!  God incidence?  I don’t think so!  We did a big "Jesus Christ is risen!!!" in the elevator and wished everybody a Happy Easter. Right now, behind me in the Centrum, the Easter Bunny is holding little children for photos…. !!!! This morning, Chuck and I were drinking coffee on the balcony at 615am…. and I commented how cloudy it was and he said, "Look! the Easter bunny!" It was a big pink cloud that LOOKED like a rabbit! So I took a photo and hurried up to deck 11 on the other side of the ship and got a brilliant sunrise photo (or 3). Thank God!!!  For his homily in Mass Father Connolly told a story of reading a story to his little niece and he said she knew all the characters and when to turn the pages … "she knew the story… but she loved being in her uncle’s lap… and hearing him read the story to her."  Then he said, we all know this story, and this week we have read the Passion twice… we know all the characters, Herod, Pilate, Peter….  we know what happens, yet we continue to read it. We know, but God reads it to us everyday so we know … We lean on our cherished Father’s chest and we feel safe listening to him read to us. During Communion the ship’s lead singer got up and sang… "I know my Redeemer lives." Who told the oceans to come only so far! Who set the stars in the sky? I know my Redeemer lives! The same gentle hands that hold me when I’m broken… they hold away death and darkness. To which I can only say.. "Thank you Jesus!" God bless you this Easter Day. Home tomorrow…. Time to go pack! Then to the pool!!!  Be kind. God bless you.

It is peaceful and calm at sea. The sun is up. Clouds are fluffy. All is well and I wish you Peace. Today dawned quiet and yesterday was quiet too. I went to the little church on Saint Maarten and it was quite still with the Blessed Sacrament in repose at a side altar. Services were at 3pm but we had to be on ship at 4 so I couldn’t make service. I sat before the little altar and gazed at Jesus for 1 1/2 hours while I read from Magnificat. He gazed back at me.  People came in to worship quietly and I realize many people felt something different as we remember the Cross and the pain that our Creator God went through for us… and still we kill him with "unlove" and meanness. So today, we get a blessed day of quiet to consider the "words in red" as a country music song said… to consider the words that Jesus said… "Love one another." Today is "descended into hell" day… tomorrow is Resurrection! We all get both.. Believe it! God bless you. Peace be with you!!!

About 2 weeks ago we visited Antigua and found it … poor. We walked up to the Anglican Cathedral to find it under construction. and then today we walked back up, forgetting we had already "done that… been there." We were standing outside and I was saying… "The Catholic church is really a long way up the hill;  let’s go back and get in the pool" when a young man stepped up (I swear he stepped out of the cemetary)… and offered us a taxi ride. After some talk we agreed to a 2 hour tour and he proceeded to take me by about 20 churches!!! The Catholic church on the hill was closed. I walked all around and tried all the doors. They will probably have services tonight for Holy Thursday but this was 9am. I was able to visit an Anglican church that had a statue of Mary but no tabernacle. We visited Nelson’s marina that was full of very pricey boats. There’s some money being spent here, but it isn’t filtering down to the people.We visited beautiful beaches and markets. Then back to the pool!!! Yesterday Dominica was even poorer. I am reminded of my friend Karen’s question, "just what did the British do for these islands?" Sad to see tiny shacks with tiny jalousie windows … inhabited and lived in and HOT!!!! and then to see the giant houses up on the hills.

We have had Mass every day and today was beautiful (The Last Supper Mass at 8am on a cruise ship). Father talked about the Institution of the Eucharist and the bread turned into the body of Christ and shared with the disciples… We are broken bread, healed by the infusion of Christ into us and then… shared with others.  Tomorrow we will do Stations of the Cross before we will go to Saint Maarten where I will attend services at Saint Martin of Tours.  Time for dinner and an art seminar and broadway show. Busy busy. Be kind. Share your wealth, talent, joy and strength…. God bless you.