Category: Susie’s musings

Our friend Renee has a beautiful back yard and front yard flower garden. Renee works hard, pulling weeds and replanting, and the result is beautiful. She has butterflies galore! Last time we visited her, she cut a ginger flower and brought it inside. I could barely restrain myself from hovering over the flower vase while Chuck and Renee watched movies on TV. "Susie, what are you doing in the kitchen, again?" Renee would ask…. "Smelling the ginger." I would reply with a silly grin. Finally, after moving into our new house with a big back yard, winter breezes, and a pandemic, I have finally dug a garden spot and planted flowers! Come on butterflies! Well, first, the seeds have to sprout and flower… but it will be this year. A Covid garden is something positive that isn’t torn up and reboxed when a puzzle is finished, or returned to the library when Chuck and I have finished a book. This morning I watched Sunday Mass, walked with neighbors and …. after planting seeds, I finished a puzzle and we are watching football! Busy busy! I hope we can continue with safe football! I hope we can find joy in small creations that keep our hearts happy. God bless us!

I remember when we moved to Lake Placid, my duty was to go to Xfinity to get signed up for service and to get necessary hardware. I started up my little car, rolled down the windows and took off for Sebring! As I rounded the corner onto Catfish drive I thrilled at the sight of Lake June on my left. The lake stays with us as we weave around it through orange groves. Then we make a big right turn at a circle and continue along the lake side to route 27 north and on to Sebring. I continued that day with my windows open! What freedom I felt in that blowing wind. All alone on the road. wind and orange trees and lake. I still feel that way … except I’ve noticed there have been big smelly bumps in that road of pleasure. Have you ever caught "that smell?" You stop and check the bottom of each shoe. "What did I step in? is your murmur. Well I caught it again today and yesterdy as I drove yesterday to vote and today to Sammy’s Pizza. WOW! This is big time bottom of your shoe smell! The orange groves get fertilized this time of year. With cow manure. It is pungent! Ah!!!!! Another time of year the growers spray pesticides (I think they do that as there is another smelly time, but it’s not manure….). So I wonder if moving to the outies, to the sticks, is indeed better for us than the smoggy oily smell of our big city. I don’t know which is better. Well yes i do. There is no noise. A traffic jam is 3 cars waiting for the train to go by when we are headed "into town." My belly is full of a lunch time Philly cheese steak sandwich, and, I’m so happy. May all of you get Philly cheese steaks or whatever is your comfort food! Look up! The clouds are beautiful today. Enjoy!!!! God bless us!

Since Chuck and I often bought cruises 3 years in advance and took long car journeys north and west, we always requested ballots for voting by mail. We were often the center of attention at cruise dinner tables, or once at a B&B in England when we lounged around on election day and foreign people asked us lots of questions about our voting process. People don’t understand our electoral college… It’s hard to explain that it kept things even between north and south when slave owners could vote with a heavy impact of being worth more than one vote…. A man was counted based on how many slaves he owned… So a plantation might get 100 votes but have only one man voting. A slave was worth 1/3 or 2/3 of a human being. The census is super important today as it decides how many "votes" a district gets based on how many people live there. I encourage anyone who didn’t vote yet to get your one vote counted… and to study the electoral college and the census. It’s up to "the people" to change things if we want to be counted!

Yesterday at 815am I left the house and got into line at the Lake Placid Community center (the Town hall) to vote with a Rosary and only got in 3 decades. I wore a mask and social distanced… When we entered the hall 5 at a time it was a little crowded but we were moved around and out quickly…. I turned in Chuck’s ballot, turned in my mail in ballot and said I wanted to "punch the ticket." They handed me a pen and I filled in the little circles on the ballot. I wrote on my ballot, slid it into a computer, and got out!!!! Home one hour after I left the house! I used a double dollop of hand sanitizer at the town hall and washed my hands at home. Back to the routine of walking for one hour and … I am done. I might glance at the last debate (I taped it). or not. I don’t know. I don’t want to get irritated by bad behavior. I want to remain calm and hopeful. I pray for unity and kindness. I hope and pray we will not dissolve into shouting and obstreperousness. Good word isn’t it!!!! Stubbornly resistent to control! What is it I want for us? What did I want to say in my last blog if it wasn’t clear enough? We have a moral standard. It was delivered in the early Old Testament. If one believes God speaks in Scripture then we have our standard. We don’t need a bunch of written rules (laws) with addendums…. We have the basics. No killing. No stealing. This includes no anger that kills the soul. And we have the words of Jesus and his Apostles after him… Love one another. I pray for peace. Let us all ask God to cover us with His Grace! Pour out Grace Lord.

I have written about vitriol and vicious words, about rumor, about the separation of us caused by words of accusation. All this caused by discussion of the upcoming election November 3, 2020. I have written about gentleness and kindness; about working together. I have talked about coming together in kindness and working for solutions. I tell my friends to stop "calling names," as I cannot bear accusations against fellow human beings. Maybe the "name calling" helps the accuser to "get it out," but it is not my way, and think about it? What would Jesus say? Jesus said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Matthew 12:25) We are a divided house. If my friends talk politics I often find myself backing away at their accusations. I say they are name calling. We are divided. I won’t argue, nor will I say ugly things, even if I’m thinking them in my heart. When people label me, say I am left or right, red or blue, etc, and they label me, "a democrat…", I say, "no, I am not that; I don’t really accept that label. I am a child of God." We are the same family, children of God, yet we stand on sides of a divide and we feel we have to raise our voices in order to be heard across the divide. While fires rage in the West, people are yelling at each other and tossing molatav cocktails and setting fires in cities, in anger. I thank God that I have eyes to see, and ears to hear, but lately, I have turned the "news" off. My church, the Roman Catholic church is divided. I am accosted and talked to, as if I am in error. Ladies with whom I served and worshipped (I have not been to church since March), they tell me to "come on in, you will be OK" and they accuse government of closing churches. Government closed everything to keep us from catching Covid from each other, now churches are open, and I am protecting myself. Without a vaccine, I don’t feel safe. I won’t go back into church until I feel safe. My friends say "Of course, You are voting for…." "You must vote for…" We stumble around each other with me talking about love and kindness as they look at me askance and pray for me… I believe in the sanctity of life, but in a different way. I believe I must uphold the non negotiable value of life, in the womb, and on the death bed. This is the essence of the moral law handed down by God. We all have received this law written on our hearts. God wrote it there when he knitted us together in our mothers’ wombs (see Psalm 139:13). Anyone who has voted or will vote in the next 15 days should consider abortion. Imagine if there were no need for Roe vs Wade or the Hyde Amendment. Imagine a world where delivering a child live and then killing it, had never even been considered. Just writing the words makes me shudder, but that is what late term abortion is. There should be no laws and no court issues. God already wrote: "Thou shalt not kill." We stare into an abyss as we write law defining, "how much and when we can kill". OK so…. rather than a law or court issues; what options do we have for women who don’t want their children? We must gather the funding to care for the women who are considering abortion. Convince the women we will care for them, feed them, educate them, train them for jobs if necessary, deliver their live babies and create adoption solutions. Deliver live babies. This is not to be labled "Socialism." This is answering God with a big "Yes!" God who said, "Take care of the widows and orphans." "You shall not harm … orphans…. I will hear their cry." (Exodus 22: 21) There is a film called "The silent scream" about the pain we inflict on badies when we abort them. Can you imagine God hearing those silent baby screams? The unloved child in the unloving mother’s womb is already an orphan. Give the orphan to a loving mother! The law was written by God! "No killing." We can’t erase the law written by God even if we break the tablets and don’t allow them to be displayed. OH but where will we get the money? I asked the question on Google and I got two answers "Between 560 and 614 billionaires live in the US" — the most of any country — and they control the most wealth. The internet lists 4 American men, Bezos, Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg with about $412 billion. I can’t even figure out how much money is $412 Billion? How many zeros? a billion is one thousand million. A lot. Wow!

We are driven to killing and it is a Supreme Court Ruling that allows that. We fight vehemently about this law that enables us to kill small children… Yet it is written in our hearts that we do not kill. How can we all stop killing and yelling and get back to what the Founding Fathers wrote, "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." How can we get back to Life? Back away from the abyss. Grab the hand next to you. Choose life and speak about Life. It is the ultimate kindness and gentleness to choose life. If vitriol is all you can come up with when you talk about the November 3 election, then close your mouth and pray. In Scripture, in 2 Chronicles verse 14, it is written that God says, "If my people will humble themselves and pray… I will heal their land." We will be healed. The whole of Deuteronomy is Moses’ goodbye to his people whom he led out of Egypt under God’s protection. Moses writes: "For this command is not far from you… it is not up in the sky… it is not across the sea… it is in your mouth and in your hearts… Love God… walk in his ways… Choose life" (Deuteronomy 30: 15-20). Choose to speak life not hatred. Whatever the result is November 3, choose Life; Be at peace; Pray to God. Find a way to believe God directs our life. Find a way to work with God. May the Grace and Peace of our Lord be with us.

We gathered under a poster depicting the soldier angel St Michael the Archangel with his foot on Satan’s chest. We all had our Rosary beads and we prayed on the sidewalk outside the police station at Lake Placid. I thought about this gathering in some towns in the US. It might not be peaceful. We might be jeered for supporting the police; for praying for peace. We ended the morning prayer with a rousing hymn… "God bless America." Acknowledging God as Creator and Father, we left that site in peace to return to our isolation. I thought for a moment that I got too close to several people…. Just in talking and meeting new people. It wasn’t 6 feet separating us. OH what has become of us that we cannot shake hands and hug? Sunday morning on CBS did a beautiful tribute to the baseball player who shook hands with Jackie Robinson as Jackie crossed the plate after his first home run. That handshake was the first of what didn’t happen at that time! It was 1946 and white people didn’t touch black people. Now once again, we can’t touch due to virus and I miss it! It will be a while before we can hug, and I pray for peace and a good vaccine! We lay before the Lord our necessities: Cure this land of virus. Cure this land of prejudice and hatred. It’s hard to keep faith in hard times, but we must keep looking up to the sky, to the Cross, and realize that our Creator walked on this earth and promised he is with us!!! We are reading the book of Job in daily Mass… "God it hurts," Job will say, but Job will not lose faith or disrespect God. St Peter wrote that we must cast all our cares on the Lord for he loves us. Let us enter the last month before elections with prayer for our country and our leaders. Be humble and do your jobs!!!! The rest of us: VOTE!!! God bless us.

My girlfriend Bonnie celebrated her ….. birthday yesterday! I remembered back to when we were 14 in the locker room in the gym at Southwest High School. 14 years old… debating Elvis vs the Beatles. Debating boy friends. Debating … well what do teenaged girls debate? I remember her mom coming in to tell us to get to sleep when I slept over. 14 years old… Then I met Chuck and Bonnie knew him from when they were "really young"… My Matron of Honor 50 years ago… We have kept close along with all the wedding party except George who passed away this year. Chuck and I keep friends close. Seek the old friends during this time of isolation and find out how they are doing!!! I ask Bonnie "How are you kiddo?" and she answers… "Fine". Bonnie has been through more than I have. She lost her husband while I still baby mine. But, she will survive. as we all will. It’s our job. Happy day all my "Old friends"… God bless us.

Today I joined my friends from St James and actually some others from the Baptist church which is wonderful!!! We met outside the Lake Placid Police department and prayed the Rosary asking for help from St Michael the Archangel and the mother of God, Mary, for our police… We pray that we hold on to the Joy that Jesus promises if we have faith. Have Joy because we are safe in God’s arms. He made us… Would he ever let us go?

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus orders the disciples to fish some more and they tell him they have been fishing all night and got nothing… But, he says, "Go!…" and they catch enough to sink a ship! Jesus says, "Go out into the deep", and .. because they trust God, they go. This is going to be a tough month and it is going to require a lot of prayer for us to stay sweet and sane! Remember, God pours out Grace always. Be calm. Stay sane, and be kind. God bless you!

We expanded our dock a few months ago and moved the boat lift to the other end allowing us a bigger shaded space than the original had. But as some know, when wood is laid, it needs to be sealed and perhaps colored. Chuck did as much sealer as we had and then we had to order more. It came and it sat. The shine was off the installation. The Joy was gone… So I said; "I’ll paint it." It has been SO HOT, that a morning walk wipes me OUT, but there is a tropical storm coming… maybe just a tropical depression, but it provided wind this morning. Ah! wind!!! If the sun shines here in Lake Placid, and the wind is still, we rack up temps in the high 90s. Out I went and along came Chuck to open the can. Then he proceeded to watch and advise… Soon, he thought I would fall off the dock and I said, "You are right," looking down off the narrow place I was standing…. handed him the roller and said, "if you will do this part, I can pull weeds." Now this was a Tom Sawyer of sorts, but i still had to work… I weeded the back shrubbery and cleaned up 4 orchids with some new mulch. Then into the showers. Now the big storm is coming in from the south and we will have bad weather for a day. God bless us and protect all my dear neighbors and friends.

Good morning! For our 50th Wedding Anniversary, I bought Chuck and me an American Road Trip puzzle. 1000 pieces travel from East to West, North to South, include Alaska, but not Hawaii. When we plug in the Statue of Liberty or Niagara Falls we have to talk about visiting there. As we plug in the Grand Canyon or Montana and the great Presidents on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, we remember the drive home from Kingman Arizona with me coughing in the front seat with pneumonia. Yes, we missed the great Mount Rushmore and the beautiful Yosemite, but we have still done A LOT!!!! I think all the memories led me to consider our favorite cruises… And I came up with Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Ahhh! I used to buy 2 cruises and cruise 21 days back to back. Those certainly were the old days weren’t they? I would sit at my computer and make plans; writing on 8 1/2 sheets of paper our daily drive if it was across the US, up the Mississippi or across routes 10 or 40…. Or the ways to get to and from the cruises; the events on the cruises. Ah yes, those were the days. Now it’s "shall we walk all the way to the park or walk down to the Dollar Store and back on Anderson drive?" It’s not "go to show," it’s pull weeds or work on puzzle. Buy yesterday as we sat on our dock, it was just like our balcony!!!! Only here we can see turtle noses!!!! Thank God. What’s your memory? What’s your dream for 2021? God bless us!

I have said so many times for us to quit labeling each other… "A democrat", "a republican", "a liberal", "a conservative", "A Jew for Jesus", and more. So I ask, "Why can’t we just say what we want and go for it?" Doesn’t everybody want life, love, freedom, safety? What happened to us that we are fighting and shouting? I’ve watched almost all of the Conventions. I taped them on DVR so I could watch during the day without nodding off to sleep… and don’t you know I missed night 3 of the RNC when the nun spoke. So I’m now watching night 3… I need to hear what she says. She "was" a democrat and is now voting republican. It is on one (most important) issue. The right to life. That might well be a deal breaker. I understand Kamala Harris on whom many of us have pinned our hope, supports abortion into the 9th month of pregnancy; abortion of a viable life.

On night 3 of the RNC, a Mother spoke of her OB/GYN asking her to abort her baby because he was a Down’s Syndrome child, but she would not end his life, rather she fights for her child getting "an equal seat at the table" claiming children’s needs must be met the same as anyone’s: life, education, love. Life first. In case you missed night 3, here is Sr. Dede Byrne’s speech:

Good evening. I am Sister Dede Byrne, and I belong to the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Last Fourth of July, I was honored to be one of the president’s guests at his Salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice, an instrument for human life. And now here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you’d better be careful what you pray for. My journey to religious life was not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. In 1978, as a medical school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition, and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq and in Washington, D.C. Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself. But I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have all been marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn. As Christians, we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of the cave. It is no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what he said was not politically correct or fashionable. As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. We must ask ourselves: What we are saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless, voiceless life? As a physician, I can say without hesitation: Life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I am not just pro-life, I am pro-eternal life. I want all of us to end up in heaven together someday. Which brings me to why I am here today. Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America’s pro-life community. Moreover, he has a nationwide of religious standing behind him. You’ll find us here with our weapon of choice, the rosary. Thank you, Mr. President, we are all praying for you.

I’m listening to the news to see what the 2 conventions are proposing, and I’m hearing some accusations, bitterness, and name calling. There is a lot of we and they… Whatever happened to The United States that the fore fathers tried to establish. It may be that uniting 50 different states isn’t working? Maybe the Federal government just isn’t up to governing us any longer??? Should states care for themselves? I am sent out into the garden to look at what God did in creation… bugs and flowers, sunshine and storm. As he created, he sat back and looked and said "It is good!" (6 times). When he finished, he looked around and he said, "It is very good". (see Genesis 1). We live today with bugs and flowers, sunshine and storm. We are praying now for the Gulf coast about to be attacked by storm. We live with good intentions and angry gensures. What we live with is nature and reality. The reality of life is messy. Let us pray for what we need to live – food for the hungry. Beds and books for homeless children. Peace. Health. A cessation to name calling and blame. Love sees what we need. Let us pray for our leaders to see what we need: Peaceful dialog, dignity, loving care, justice, openness to Grace. What else? You add your needs. God bless us. God bless America.