Author: Susie

Good morning dear readers! Two topics this morning, but both wrapped up under the name of working with love…. We have a great big hallway closet that could be a baby bedroom or a third bathroom. Instead it is filled to the brim with stuff that I literally stuffed into it when we moved to Lake Placid… Everyone has a closet, room or at least a drawer full of stuff that you would like to dump into the trash…. It’s been there so long that you aren’t sure who or what might also be living in there under it all… OH! But we have to go through it because there are photos that we used to have on our walls (when we had more wall space), and things we bought as gifts, 5 or more years ago. That stuff is meticulously being taken out of the closet as we speak by my dear Chuck, and he is stacking it in the dining room. In the old days, this activity would have had a short shelf life as we entertained on that table, a lot. But now, I can walk by the pile and avert my eyes. Pretend it isn’t there…. Ah! Pretending it isn’t there is as easy as pretending what is happening at our southern border isn’t affecting me.

In the old days when the Jewish people were sitting in Babylon, they only had memory. They used to tell stories of God who has compassion and loves us. One of the stories is the Book of Daniel. This is a great story. As children I am sure we read about Daniel helping the lion who later on didn’t eat Daniel. We read about Daniel’s 3 friends with those wildly different names Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego; names we loved to repeat! They were put into a burning furnace because they wouldn’t bow to false gods. They persisted in their faith in the One God of Israel. Please read Daniel! In the story of Susanna (chapter 13) who was falsely accused of committing adultery by 2 lusty old bad guys, Daniel saved Susanna with cogent argument. He was willing to stand up before Jews who were willing to condemn Susanna because "elders" accused her. Daniel stood up because he was filled by the Holy Spirit with courage and strength. Much later on in time, Jesus will stand up also and have enough compassion for a condemned woman to face the crowd who already have stones in their hands. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." (John 8:1). The people wanted to condemn Jesus for breaking the Law. An adulteress must be stoned. But compassion rules. The men guiltily shrink back and slink home. The message in this is when we love, when we have compassion, we are stronger. Someone commented about the crisis at the border that Congresspeople come to the border and see the crowds and feel sorry, but then go back to Washington and continue to fight and call names. Divided by politics, we fight bitterly and the condemned languish on concrete floors at the border. What are we afraid of? Attack the problem with love!!! Work together in Love as God wants us to do. Do we not believe in God? If we don’t then we are finished. Is it love when we criticize and call names? Is it love when we hate each other in the name of politics? Is it love when we refuse to work on the problem that drove the people lying on the concrete ground at our border from their homes in the south? Let us work together in love. Dredge that love up from the bottoms of our hearts to solve problems. Let us read the "stories" in Daniel and let us grasp the incredible faith the men in the oven had in a very strong God. Grasp God’s offered hand and get up. Get to work in Love. God bless us! Angels with us.

YEP! Except for the snow storms raging in the NW, it’s spring. So, quite to my dismay, spring cleaning has begun. It all started with me squeeling, at a relaxing Chuck, "Can’t you SEE the dirt on your bathroom rugs?" (He owns the guest room bath and I do my best to own the master bath!) Well no, he couldn’t see it…. He’s been complaining about the looks of the storage closet off the living room/bath area that, if you open the door, you better step back. So, I made a list… Either clean the guest bath, floor and toilet, or start emptying the storage closet. So, what does he do? He goes into the dresser drawers in the guest room where I’ve stuffed all the jeans and sweatshirts that don’t fit. I’ll go ahead and blame my bigger belly on a year of Covid depression. I have friends who lost weight, so what’s my excuse besides wine and ice cream?

So there he was in the drawers in the guest room and I was scrubbing the toilet and floor of a really small bathroom (about 4×8 in size). That’s all done and I look at that closet. He is removing blankets that I have thrown into big black garbage bags and stuffed into the closet. He is taking the blankets to a secure place. Do you remember the year when everybody got or gave 3 of those snuggy blankets that you can put your arms through? I’m saying got or gave 3 because I have 3 of them. I have beautiful hand made quilts displayed in the living room (my sister made them) and 1 on our sleeping bed. We have afgans, and about a million "throws." Pillows, millions. sheets, towels. Here we are paying the price of downsizing to a smaller house. What I "should have done" is throw everything away in Miami and buy 2 of everything in Lake Placid. New. Never mind how many bottles of mouth wash, alcohol, body and bath wash, baby powder and hydrogen peroxide are stacked on the dining room table from that giant closet… (I have a story about hydrogen peroxide) let me digress to the day Chuck and Mike were working on our roof in the back of the lake house and I was digging in a garden in the front yard. Mike came running to find me yelling, "You get towels and I’ll get the hydrogen peroxide!!!." I hurried out back and there was Chuck bleeding mightily from an ear wound. Mike and he lost control of a very long board (a 10×12) and it dropped, taking a part of Chuck’s ear with it. Chuck was bending over so the blood would go in the grass and not on his shirt. Some of you know, "a job isn’t done until Chuck bleeds." (50 years of this people…. Chuck and I had our 50th wedding anniversary during the Covid year.) We got fun!

So anyhow that accounts for the 5 (yes, count them) bottles of hydrogen peroxide I have. Where was I? I finished about 2 shelves before I threw myself in a chair and grabbed the computer to write to my spring cleaning friends. In Lake Placid, spring comes with wind. We get the "tail ends" of the storms that sweep through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and up and out on the upper east coast. Well darlings… time to get back to work. Wait until he gets to all the art work and photos stacked in that closet. I didn’t do myself a favor when I stacked it all in the closet. Keep safe. Get your shots (I get second shot at end of March then Chuck goes.) God bless you. Angels with you.

Hi my dears. Today the church celebrates Saint Joseph, the earthly father and protector of Jesus. He married Mary even though she was pregnant even though Jewish law said to put her out into the streets and even to Stone her for adultery. No! He accepted fatherhood of the child of God. Thank God.

Speaking of children of God, I want to speak to the dead Asians in Georgia. I just heard a congressman said it isn’t a hate crime, that Words used against Asians do not matter. What Trump said about Kung flu and Aisian virus and other Trump rhetoric was not affecting us, and I say it has. He opened up our mouths with his hateful rhetoric and allowed us to speak as he does. Thank God the news agencies are not reshowing him speaking to "prove" what he said. He criticized and taunted and "teased". Maybe I am sensitive because my father was a "teaser." I was quick to tell my husband and some friends early on that teasing hurts. I am hurt when teased because I believe what comes out of our mouths is our truth. Please this day pledge to "police" your tongue. God bless us. Angels with us.

There are many types of spouting. It means to expel or gush. I often refer to God’s Grace as pouring out, but there is also the negative spouting out of our mouths that hurts. So there’s good spouting and not so good spouting! I get crazy sometimes when I get into arguments with friends, and I spout my "Stop criticizing, and wait for 3 1/2 years and then VOTE!" Spouting… It’s pouring out our anger and our desires!!!! You have heard a small child screaming "I want," so: Let’s all spout, to God. In prayer. I recently took a lump just below my eyebrow to my opthalomologist and he said it needed to come off. We must take our lumps and bumps to doctors. If we want them off we have a right to get them off! So he numbed it with two shots and started "snipping" I could hear the snipping…. snip snip… clip clip… I was supposed to hold on to two balls, but instead I held onto the sides of my thighs. and I prayed. … I spouted to God and Mary…. "Hail Mary… Help me and help my friends." I prayed for friends and family. Just over and over. Even mentioning their names is good. 45 minutes worth of praying kept me sane! I did not think about what is happening now. I think that’s the best way. So let’s take this to the streets: My friend and I go back and forth … she is extreme right and I hope that I am mid moderate. I just ask for black and white to both be discussed and maybe a gray area be found. The news agencies cover the news, but if we look closely we will see Steve Bannon and Trump right behind the scenes in some cases and we need then to be careful if we are spouting because we are with our president for 3 1/2 years and it doesn’t do any good to shout negatives. Enough! Get along! Find solutions. God bless us. Angels with us!!!!!

Trust is Belief in the reliability, truth, strength or ability of someone, in what they say…. So can I trust? The President has given 2 speeches today and yesterday about government helping Americans recover from Covid problems…. He carries the number of Americans who have died, (527,726) from Covid, in his pocket. He says he carries the American people close to his heart. He does not name call. He doesn’t call it China virus, he doesn’t criticize those who don’t support him. He seems to care. So. Do I trust him? That is what each of us has to ask. I’ve heard some say the 527,726 number of dead is skewed for greed and miscount reasons. Maybe it is skewed. Maybe it’s only 500,000. That is 1/2 million and rising until we get vaccinated enough that the virus doesn’t have anywhere to land and grow… Biden wants us to get vaccinated and wear masks. Many call that ridiculous and they don’t want their freedoms stamped on. I wish there were a way to get over this but wishing won’t do it will it?

In his 2 speeches today and yesterday, the President did not call for prayer. Not prayer that we will heal, not prayer that we will live. He said, "the way we will get our lives back is to beat the virus…" and i said to the TV image, "No, it’s to pray." To thank God for the miracle of the vaccine. To thank God the numbers are going down.

Let us all contribute to the joy of each other. God wants to heal us. He said so in Scripture. He whispers it in our hearts. "Come to me… I will fill you with gifts of finest wheat and with honey from the rock." (Psalm 81) Stop and let the honied love of God pour out on you. God loves us without measure. He just pours it out. God bless us.

My friends and I have had some good debates. We seem to be able to talk better now that the election and inauguration are over, but we are still not on the same page. Maybe some of us are not even in the same book… i am still professing "Get safe (Vaccination); stay safe (mask)". I don’t tell anyone to get vaccinated, I just say that I got online and sent an email and waited for the emailed appointment. I did not go torture myself by attempting to access a computer registration system, or worse yet, stand in line for a shot. I prayed a lot for help because I seemed to be doing nothing!!! "I’m waiting… I’m on a list," I told my friends. And indeed, now I’m on another list, for the 2nd vaccine. Today I got into a debate about staying safe and how we act moving forward. I agree with my friend who says it’s OK to go to church. I tell her that I am glad the church is open and opening more. I’m very glad about that. As soon as I am fully vaccinated and my dear Chuck is fully vaccinated, I will return. Wearing a mask. To people who sneer and ask, "Is Fauci any good?" "Yes," I reply. I’m following Fauci and the CDC and im not calling any of them stupid. Fauci survived helping us to survive AIDS, Ebola and SARs. He has spent his life trying to protect us and we (many of us) have just done what we darned well pleased. Even casting aspersions on Fauci. He is the media picture that stands in front of a big team… 1500 Americans are dying per day from Covid, and many doctors are asking that we get vaccinated and wear masks. Many doctors have contributed to what we should we do.

We are a free country and therefore many Governors and Mayors have stepped into the mix too. Texas, South Dakota, and Florida (among others) refuse to (enforce) mask wearing. My answer: "I pray that our leaders can do good things." The world has changed so fast that we are being asked to embrace issues we never would have when we were younger. People tell me they are conservative and I’m liberal. I say…. "Don’t label me!" So the "fight goes on!!!!" We refuse to agree on much and I pray to God we don’t remain split to the detriment of our civilization here in the United States. (UH… emphasis on United…)

Take care dear gentle reader. Pray for others and ask others to pray for you. I pray to Jesus and our Holy Mother of God, Mary for blessings and their prayer. In Luke 22: 31-32, Jesus prays a gentle prayer for us…. Jesus says he prays for us… Thank you Jesus!!!!

Good morning! The readings today are filled with the word "Today." Especially critical are Moses and Jesus exhorting that "Today" is the time… Today, listen to God who gives decrees… (When we were little did we think God was the Great Rule Giver"?) Honor, Give thanks, Give praise… Do good things. Well… Moses writes: "Hearken to the Lord … and you will be a people sacred to the Lord." (Deut 26:16). Jesus says, "Love those" … who seem unworthy to me… Love as God does. Be holy. Oh dear. I am guilty of seeing for example the convention taking place in Orlando Florida, CPAC. I listened to a few speakers and I immediately felt abhorence at the jokes about things that happened like Texas freezing with water ruining homes, the election fraud, and other things. What we should be focusing on is healing the nation, vaccinations and feeding the hungry. Focus! …. and so I fume. Oh dear. What does Jesus say? "Be salt and light. Pray for those who persecute and hurt. Have great love. Do good. Be like the sun and shine out." If I focus on those I resent for their words and behavior then I am not focusing on what Jesus said (see Matthew 5). I will be filled instead with anger. A priest once said this to me, "Pray for those you don’t like. Pray for those you have "feelings" against. Then you will be filled with prayer." Then I will be filled with blessings! Take the action of love. Shine out and warm souls… Keep praying and ignore the naughty thoughts within. Ignore the reaction and the anger. Keep Praying. The essence of holiness is loving God. Think about God and his blessings pouring out on us.

Today I will enter the ranks of the vaccinated. I’m a little concerned about a 4pm appointment. Will the vaccine be spoiled if it’s left out until 4pm? Will there be great crowds.? Will the shot giver be exhausted? See how my brain goes to the negative? Oh dear. Surround me with angels dear Lord. Let us go smiling into the breach. Of course they can’t see me smiling as I will have a mask on. Oh well, I’ll wear a smart red Caribbean shirt. God bless us!!! Angels with us. Pray for Peace.

"Only" is an interesting word. It means "Single, solitary, nothing more." When we speak or think, if we say "only," "Only" is highly separative, highly dividing. Yesterday as I flipped through the channels I landed on a blurp from a town hall wherein the President remarked that "certain people" don’t know how to access the Covid systems to sign up for a shot. He named the certain people by ethnicity and color. This is separative. I haven’t been able to access the Covid system yet. A friend said, "You have to get on at 7am on Friday, if you don’t, they will be full and you have to wait." I should be singled out because I am old, having trouble, because I am not pushy! But, I can isolate for a little while; let’s help those who are hungry… they are white and black, they are Italian, Irish, African, Mexican. They are hungry because they have lost jobs in restaurants, bars, and places that serve large groups of people that are still closed or doing "only take out." Food banks are trying to find the hungry especially the children. Parents aren’t to blame. They are standing in line.

Yesterday the priest read about Jonah who went through the streets of Ninevah exhorting the people to pray to God for intercession and today we read from the Book of Esther. Tonight, Purim begins for our older brothers, the Jews. Esther was a beautiful Jewish slave and harem woman who was selected by the King for her beauty to be his queen, but she could not approach him and speak to him, or she would be killed. Esther heard of a plot to kill the Jewish people and she prayed to God to help her. Small me, Big You God, help my people. Psalm 138 reads, " Lord on the day I called for help, you answered me." Jesus said, "ask and it will be given to you." (Matthew 7:7-12). Well, what should we do with all this knowledge about Jonah and Esther?

While we are looking for the Light; trying to be light, why not consider the readings I mentioned above. Look at the way Esther humbled herself and asked her companions to pray with her. Look at the Psalmist praising God. Pray for what we need and expect, maybe we won’t realize, but, pray to accept that we get what we need. I realized today that the vaccine is a great miracle. One year after the pandemic "started", We are dispensing vaccine to everyone in the US. It will take a while as there are 320 million of us, and we need 2 doses each. I have often asked you to do the math. Thats 720 million and that is only the US. Then yesterday the WHO announced that we have agreed to help get the vaccine to Africa where in many places it has not been dispensed at all. Many people have argued against supporting the WHO and giving money outside the US when we need help inside the US so desperately, but if the world is not vaccinated, we won’t get hold on this virus. It will just continue to spread. If you don’t think that way, please pray for guidance. Me too. I am praying constantly for guidance.

Consider that God answers our prayer out of mercy! God does not look at our merits; he loves us, and through the merits of Jesus, God pours out Grace. I can’t understand what makes a vaccine, and I haven’t stood up in the marketplace and made speeches! I feel that I am just a small person and all I can do is pray: ("Thank you God for the vaccine; thank you for flowers and butterflies. And while I’m at it God, I need help making change. I need to stop judging; stop arguing. I pray for my change.") Satan doesn’t like that when we ask for help from God. Satan likes us to be in trouble! He gets tired of our prayer! Job asked God, "What is man that you should care for him?" God is here, and He cares for us. He desires conversation with us. Tell God what makes you sad. Tell God what makes you happy. Go sit on the door opening to the Ark; Noah will let you sit there. Watch Noah work. He’s praying he can save some people. Pray for friends and family. Tell God what you need for friends and family. We won’t change them, but we can ask God to do the work! God bless us. Angels with us.

It’s starting! 3 prominent Florida Republians participated in a "runoff" election for President. Oh dear. As I freely advised 6 months ago, "You have a vote." Go for it. We all better get busy and start talking, but… Let us think for a moment about a small child named Manuel Fodera. Born June 21, 2001, the small boy developed a neuroblastoma that finally killed him on July 20, 2010. Throughout a horrible medical ordeal, the boy became quite docile as he prayed and spoke with his "friend" Jesus who, he said, resided in his heart. The boy was sure that Christ lived in his heart and that he himself had a mission to be a warrior of Light. He told his mother many things that a young child couldn’t possibly know that Jesus told him. In Isaiah 58, the prophet tells us, you will know it is a day acceptabe to the Lord when "your light breaks forward like the dawn." Think of the small boy dying, but so joyful because he saw what is truly important, and it isn’t politics, it isn’t political gain or greed. It is light and helping people. Oh how I pray I can ignore all the fighting that is about to begin for it destroys my peace. Let us continue to help others, the poor, the single families, the children. Let us think only of how we can help. Let us think of how we can be light. God bless us. Angels with us.

In my last writing I asked what does the ark Noah built have to do with Lent? One righteous man built a wooden boat and he invited us to join him. Climb aboard. It must have been pretty crowded and stinky! Aside from the noise and the stink, what else was in the Ark? A righteous man. He did what God asked. He loved. He worked obediently to serve others despite neighbors taunting him. Surely he was taunted for building the big boat in his yard! How many times he looked up, asking for guidance and strength. We don’t know. He just kept building. Called to love. Leaning on God. Hearing God’s voice. And that is the hard part.

How many of us know we have heard God’s voice? Right now my neighbor is making a lot of noise in his side yard and honestly all I hear is a saw and men talking… Out front, in my neighbor’s yard people are mowing and chopping… It’s noisy! Ah! where is God’s voice? I can’t hear it for all the distractions. I’ve heard that his voice is in my heart. In Deuteronomy (30:15) Moses prayed we would listen to God’s voice… "Heed his voice and hold fast to him", but I can’t "hold fast" to him unless I am up against him. Leaning on his chest. I would lean, and he would catch me. Embraced, I could relax.

But I have walls and thorns I have built over the years. Bad things have happened. Many people have "left the church" because of stupid things "the church" has done. Many people have been hurt by priests and pastors. My church has recently, continuously, cleaned house and the latest is the leaving of office by a so called "Conservative Cardinal." Oh yes. We all share the labels, Conservative, liberal…. We develop thorns that keep us from getting too close to what we reject. Lent is 40 days of journeying in the desert with no outside influence; just soul and God. God is trying to move us. Try to imagine a dance teacher or a yoga instructor adjusting our limbs. We are straining to pose and here comes someone who says, "Like this." and they adjust our limbs. As you are adjusted by God, what do you feel? God bless us. Angels with us.