Author: Susie

We went out on the lake last evening in the dark to see Christmas lights! Dark comes early now with the time change, and it was dark by 620 pm. By then about 6 houses on our lake were lighted. Now when you live on the lake you have a double obligation. Light the street side for the walking and driving public and light the lake for boaters! Sunrise also paints the lake with color. This morning it is pink and blue, sometimes it is gold. This season is special because despite the outright obvious commercialism that begins with Halloween, to encourage us to buy buy buy, many people still put up lights and angels and little Nativity scenes, and reindeer, and my neighbor George drags out the candy canes even though only half of them still light. Grumbling, the guys work to fix broken strands, and snow men, candy canes and little drummer boys come to light. Our little drummer boy is missing. Perhaps he’s on a shelf downstairs in the keys house… Walk around your neighborhood after dark and make new friends by hanging on the fence and looking at the reindeer filled mangers (I saw two of these on a walk yesterday!) It’s hard to find lighted donkeys and cows! Let’s get the lights up for it is getting to look a little bit like Christmas! God bless you.

I’m thinking of my northern friends and relatives as we finish up the decorating! Chuck’s barroom is festive with lots of Santas. The entry way has the Nativity and angels galore! The kitchen is full of plates to fill – maybe I’ll make cookies… and cups to drink yuletide cider and coffee. The dining room table is beautiful with red and white and gold!!! We are using Aunt Trudy’s and Loretta’s decorations too! Ahhhhhhh! Christmas is coming! December is our planting time and I planted an herb garden yesterday mostly in pots and it has rained ever since…. I hear the little plants sputtering sppptt spppppttt…. I can hear them treading water from here! I look out the art room window at my garden and I am inspired to Thank God because despite the rain, my plants are doing OK although they might need wringing out. Chuck had to loosen the tie on the boat as the lake is rising. We are thinking of Noah… I keep watch for a giant iguana called Grandfather by my neighbor Kathie. He ate 1 1/2 of my giant beautiful hibiscus flowers the other day so I keep watch for him! "Get out old man!!!!" I shout hopelessly as he munches! I hope Christmas decorating is going nicely for you dear friends and family. We can’t put up outside lights yet… we might get electrocuted with all this rain! Weather is absolutely soggy and the weather map on the TV news shows a cloud with lots of rain all week!!!! More soup? probably. rain rain go away!!! God bless you.

I just put a pot of vegetables on to simmer. I’m playing winter, for if I step outside I’ll sweat to death in the heat and absolute humidity. It has been raining for two days and I am sure the wet atmosphere has contributed to our 100% humidity. Rain, rain go away. And then I think of Minnesota and Michigan…. and I imagine the brrrrrry snowy atmosphere so I am not complaining about our heat. In silence, listening to the rain drop, and the occasional sodden palm frond or coconut fall from the trees outside the kitchen window, while I chopped onions and garlic, carrots, celery and some veggies with winter squash that I roasted a few days ago, I thought about my northern friends doing the same thing. Put the chopped things into a soup pot with some left over turkey broth from Thanksgiving, a dollop of red wine, some black beans in juice, some water. Bring to a boil… While chopping those pesky onions (and weeping) and those carrots and garlic and celery and looking out at the rain, I realized this is the best way to celebrate Advent. This is the season when we must stop and just gather our harvest, and meditate. As we chop the vegetables, don’t DO anything else. Think about… the veggies and Thank God for his blessings. I go to daily Mass so I am "forced" to thank God, for I often forget to thank God and ask for help. I told my sister Sarah about a mistake I made that made me bounce the mortgage check! I got that 6:30 am message "insufficient funds" on my cell phone and freaked. OOPS! Wonder how much that will cost. So I said to Sarah, "Guess what I did at 6:30 in the morning when I saw that the bank tried to pay my mortgage, but got insufficient funds?" She said, "Well Susie I imagine that you prayed, for that is what you do." OOPS again. Nope, I didn’t. Instead I went to the safe, took some cash to the bank. I had to wait until 9am as I didn’t have a debit card at that bank (I do now) to make an ATM deposit… and I solved the problem myself. OOPS, I guess I forgot who I am. I’ve counceled others, "Pray first." and here I am solving my own problems thank you very much. It’s the old, independent "I can take care of myself" routine that we girls learned at our working mother’s knee… "Be able to take care of yourself," mother counceled as she stirred the oatmeal with the wooden spoon just before she went off to work. That’s another story. So what is this all about? This morning in Mass we read from Isaiah who quotes a lot of promises saying, "thus says the Lord God:"… this morning’s reading was especially to the point (pointing right at me), "Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard regarded as a forest…And out of the gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see… For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off, those whose mere word condemns a man… (those evil ones will be cut off)… Now Jacob (that’s us who believe in the Lord as God) shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale… they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob… Those who err in spirit shall aquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction." (Isaiah 29:17-24)… I’ll talk about that and what it means to me in a second. Then we read the Gospel according to Matthew 9:27:31. Two blind men followed Jesus and cried out, "’Son of David, have pity on us!’… Jesus said, ‘Do you believe that I can do this?’ ‘Yes, Lord.’" "Do you believe that I can do this?" When I "fixed" my money problem I did it on my own. I didn’t thank God for my astute wisdom in realizing I had cash in the safe that I could quickly deposit in the bank. I did not thank God that there is cash in the safe. I didn’t even think of God. And here is Isaiah saying, all those evil people, don’t you worry about them, in fact, Jesus asks us to pray for them… don’t worry about those who can’t see God or Jesus, don’t worry about those who "err in spirit" or "those who find fault" for "Says the Lord God" they shall aquire understanding and they will receive instruction! YEA! How liberating that is! Isaiah very carefully lays it out for us all over his very long book… but here, read chapters 7 and 9: First, in chapter 7:14 Isaiah describes the Virgin birth when he promises a the child named Emmanuel, and in chapter 9, Isaiah names the child for us… He is "the great light", he is "Wonderful Counselor", "God Hero", "Father Forever", "Prince of Peace." Today, I thanked God for reminding me that I believe, and I prayed, "Lord help my unbelief" that he can take care of things. The Lord can take care of the unbelievers that I worry about. He can take care of the blind who can’t see him. He can take care of me. So go, read the wonderful amazing promises. Then go make some vegetable soup and take a lot of time chopping those vegetables! Happy Advent. God bless you.

I’m trying to write three things a day that I am thankful for. I got the idea from a book written by Ann Voskamp called One Thousand Gifts. A friend challenged her to write 1000 things she loved and she ended up writing what she calls 1000 gifts, a thousand graces, what she was thankful for and it led to a book. The effort also changed her life. It’s hard to sit and read and write when many of us have TV on from waking to sleeping. I was getting into the habit of looking at the news upon rising but I realized, as I watched bombing and shooting, that I’m not able to change anything much except my own heart… So I try every morning to grab my Magnificat (daily prayer book) and get out to the lake and find 3 amazing gifts. Often chirping birds and turtles are my companions during sunrise , and I sit and experience the great outpouring of God’s Grace as light turns from pink to sunlight and the day does whatever the weather for the day is supposed to do. During the half hour of sunrise to day, I thank God for clouds that keep us south Floridians cool and bring rain that our parched winter grass needs, I thank God for the animals and birds that treat our yard as their dinner table. I even thank God, begrudgingly it’s true, for the giant iguana my neighbor Kathie calls grandpa who eats my beautiful hibiscus flowers. If I get lucky, I see the flowers in full bloom before he crawls in to nosh. I continue the daily list for the half hour of daily Mass when I pray for those I’ve promised to pray for and always for my Mom who gave me great forward thinking and generous genes! The list could be long, but write the best three every day! Begin a 1000 Gratitudes journal and write 3 thank yous to God every day! You might have a tough time at the start. You can only write "chirping white birds" so many times before you have to go deeper! I intend to read Voskamp’s book in 2016. Might be a life changer. God bless you.

As most women know… Men lose weight faster than women do. So women, when we diet with men, We must embrace the truth that we are doing the best we can and men just go faster! Chuck and I have both lost 10 pounds but his is in about one month and mine is in about two months! Last week he walked every day with me for over an hour at a time and he takes bigger steps and walks faster… I find myself falling behind and panting and sweating, but the good part is, he wants this weight loss to happen just as much as I do, and he carries the groceries as we walk home with the grocery store as our last stop. He will not carry mulch though so I have to drive to the Home Depot! We are enjoying our Miami sojourne and the pontoon boat is in the water. Neighbor dogs wait at the gate for us at about 4pm because that’s when we go out. So dears, let’s get going walking and pontooning for health. Happy Turkey shopping! God bless you.

Good grief Chuck! I usually get what I ask for and today I got a double dose. Chuck has lost 7 pounds which is grand great and absolutely necessary. He says he isn’t hungry. That is amazing and I am glad! Now I have to concentrate on greatest nutrition. Another thing I wanted was exercise! I got that in spades today. I’ve been walking for one hour a day for a few weeks and as a result I’ve lost about 10 pounds. We are renewing passports and we need passport photos. So Chuck said we could walk to the AAA office and get photos taken. That was a 1 1/2 hour walk. I did not have walking socks so the bottom of my right foot is a little red and sore… I am resting in easy chair! He even jogged the last block home. Today is another beautiful day and all is well here in Miami. God bless you.

"Expect more. We just have to live that way". This is the message from French leadership and repeated here in America. We Americans are asking: Do we take in refugees? Whom do we trust? How should we pray? What do we say in our prayers? Let us pray for peace in our hearts. The peace only our belief that God made us, created us in his own image can give us. God certainly wouldn’t do that work in vain. He certainly wouldn’t do that work without love. So, with faith, we remember the freedom we have to pray, to love, to believe as we feel we must. Have peace in your heart and pray that you are fulfilling your mission that God made you for. God bless you.

When I was 18 to 23 years old, I wanted to get married in a park in a tiny white cotton dress. Back then, we wore sleeveless short mini dresses! We were young and slim. I made the dress myself, and I was going to marry my rebel boyfriend out side in a garden. But Mom intervened. "Must get married in church, must have a real reception" Just like Mom used to say "must have a college education and get a good job." My friend Karen told me yesterday that we can’t tell young people anything. Maybe I’m old… Yesterday France, "a secular nation" was attacked, from within by home grown angry young men. What makes us "go away"? What makes us so angry? And what calms our wild rebellion and brings us around? I married in the church and had a beautiful reception in an amazing dress. Mother and her friends and Chuck’s family pulled me, recalcitrant young rebel, back in. We need to speak to the young about values. About God, protecting angels, faith, care for others, humility. I went to a lovely wedding yesterday where the couple stood under a beautiful, breezy cloud laden sky and pledged to ask God to be the third member in their marriage. We prayed "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." In the light of the rebellion and anger and outright hatred that caused angry young men to shoot up civilian parties in Paris, a young couple pledged to honor each other under the protection of a loving God. Let us say thank you to God every day for the blessings he pours out on those who will to see. God bless you.

I’ve volunteered a few days to help put out donated stuff for the church flea market this weekend. I have handled a lot of stuff in a giant room. A lot of stuff. If we had to "run" like many Syrians and other refugees have to run, what would we grab? I have 3 5 drawer file cabinets full! A few of the drawers are empty ( well 2 or 3 drawers are empty). Closet and several dressers full, shelving in the closet full of clothes… I need not go on and on. I’ve just "handled" all my stuff. Took everything out, put it on the dining room table, handled each top, pant, short, shoe, night gown, panty. Do I love you? Do you fit? Any hesitation? OUT! It’s exhausting. And I still have too much. I’m working on a healthy life that includes lessening the stress of over crowding (as in not being able to close drawers or closet doors, or not being able to get into the closet!) Project also includes very clean eating and walking for an hour a day or 2 hours of yard work a day. This is working itself out in weight loss! How many times do I have to begin again? That is how many times do I have to reorganize and eat healthy because my weight and numbers crept up… How many times must I begin again? Every day! God bless you.

Today we thank and pray for veterans. Of course I have my favorite veteran submarine sailor, Chuck, but there are also my uncles who served in WW II, my friends and family who served in Korea, Vietnam, and all the wars and conflicts that as citizens of this great United States, we can’t seem to avoid. Last night on the Republican debate, candidates tossed around the huge and ponderous issue of do we belong, boots on the ground in the Middle East; what are we going to do about the "thug" Putin, the Chinese incursion in the South Chinese Sea, the North Koreans who have nuclear weapons. I wish today of all days, the world powers could take a look at what happened to young men of D-Day on Normandy’s beaches, and on the battlefields of France, Italy, Kuwait, Pakistan… The list goes on and on. We must pray for men to stop watering the ground with young men’s blood and to find peaceful solutions. If left without arrogant power hungry leaders, would we live in peace, or would we find mean spirited powerful people to "protect" us? I’m afraid mankind has a long history of "wanting Kings"… God bless you.