SusanPeabody.com

In Kenab, north of the Beautiful Grand Canyon, we decided to see a Canyon called Peek-a-boo in Kenab. It is amazing… Multi colored rocks starting with pink and orange and multi layering into white… Like the Grand Canyon it was carved by water. The earth in this area was covered by water that went away with great force. Oh how I wished I had paid attention in science and geology to see this happen!!! Our guide showed us fish and snail fossils in the limestone! He showed us water marks and Earth Quake lines!!! I brought out 3 colored rocks. We decided to get ahead of a storm that is possibly coming with snow… We are headed for the great Park Yellowstone which is a giant bubbling future volcano. We are going to go see the Badlands!

I pray for our country as I watch the questioning of Merrick Garland…. My mind is on our natural wonders… but my heart is troubled by politically charged rhetoric. Our country is embroiled in jumping, rambling threats, and yelling… incensed by political anger. I pray that we settle down. Ask a question and wait for an answer. Get answers and believe what people say. God bless us.

Today we will move into the Grand Canyon. We will stay for 4 days while artists paint the beauty of the reds, oranges, browns, yellows and every color in between. This country of ours has amazing beauties, and the Grand Canyon IS AMAZING!!! but there is little water to sustain… We have driven through a lot of barren land… Any water there is, is buried underground. To me, the Colorado River, from a helicopter, looked small and sandy…. The helicopter guide/pilot said, “when the rains come, it will swell up and become blue and green again…” As we drove across Texas and New Mexico, I complained in my heart about the dry wasteland. I had hoped I would see cattle… but no!!! Just dirt. So if anyone says, “we have plenty,” we need to realize that, what we have left, must be husbanded. Remember the dust bowls… It could happen again.

I don’t see much news, but I am talking to Europeans who tell me that, if they look east, the war Russia is waging isn’t going to end soon. War to them, and it shouldn’t be, is like a fact of life. Pray, the big bear Russia stops thinking they can just “take.” We don’t talk about the internal war in the United States, but on my mind is a government shut down… I’ve heard about that and an impeachment on snippets and bits of news I hear. Please… Let’s build bridges and improve the highways! The interstate entering Texas from the east (I -10) is absolutely horrible… I do not think that is what Eisenhower meant when he established the interstate road system. Let’s stop fighting and get to work… together. My dears, after weeping over September 11, let us build America with love!!! God bless us!

We are runnin’ down the road, standing on corners… There’s a flat bed ford with a girl!!!! Well no girl at this time, but there was when Jackson Brown and Glen Frey wrote “Take it Easy” in 1971 and released it in 1972. Yes! We are in Winslow Arizona, a small part of route 66 is under our feet, and we’ve taken pictures of every mural in town! A beautiful 9-11 Memorial waits for a ceremony tomorrow. We are staying in town for that.

Chuck and I visited the 9-11 memorial yesterday in Winslow, Arizona. We stood in the shade under a lone tree and talked to a parks ranger and a corrections officer. As we talked of “where we were at 9:01 am on September 11”, corrections inmates had volunteered to replace some flags of the countries of the people killed in 9-11. Previously it was all American flags, but there were people of many origins killed in the atrocities of 9-11. Flags fill in squares representing the two towers, the Pentagon, the field at Somerset County, Pa where flight 93 crashed… Chuck and I have visited the field of flight 93. There was a pregnant lady killed, so her unborn baby is a 9-11 angel also. Pray that hating and killing stop. Pray that the killing “stops with me”. When I see someone of whom I don’t approve due to his progressive evil attitudes, or his conservative evil attitudes, or his religious belief, let me remember he is my brother. He is made by God; child of God. If he’s gone astray, well there was a time I went astray also. Did that make me evil? I pray not.

Last night we watched the University of Miami play football. YES! Football has begun! A UM player, Kam Kinchens, was hit and lay still on the ground. The entire stadium stood. I read this morning that he is OK. A hair’s breadth harder hit or twist might have had horrible results. After the trauma… he will be OK! Despite football rivalries; despite bad things that might have been done to us by certain schools, despite our grievances, I pray we love. Just enjoy the game! Try to teach good. God bless us! Have a good weekend dear friends.

This Sunday morning Chuck and I were up at 5am to get ready to drive friends Rick and Penny down to Tucson airport. When we got back to the hotel, I met with a convention person who was holding two presents that I won yesterday, and then Chuck and I sat down in the lobby to have coffee. Chuck said, “What time am I taking you to Mass?” I said, “not going…” I examined the computer for a Mass after 9am but couldn’t find a nearby church or a 9am Mass. Why, that was not acceptable! so Chuck said, “Tim, can you help us?” The guy who parks cars and is a wonderful source of what’s what and where, was passing by. He slid into a chair next to us and asked, “What can I do for you?” “We need a Catholic Mass,” Chuck said, do you know of any nearby? “Of course!” Tim volunteered, I’m Irish Catholic from birth!” He whipped out his cell and found St Elizabeth Ann Seton, “Not too far from here. Mass at 9am.” I was astounded. They were not on my search. Chuck bundled me into the truck and I walked in to another beautiful church. “Angels?” you ask? Referring to the title…

Every day, we are surrounded by angels. They are whisking around, trying to help us. If we don’t believe in them, or don’t want to do the right thing, the angels can’t help us. Is Tim an angel? No, but he’s letting his angels guide him to help me.

Speaking of helping others… the first reading today is from the Book of Jeremiah (chapter 20). God chose Jeremiah to preach when he was very young. “Oh no, not me,” he said to God, “I’m too young. Nope, can’t.” Sound familiar? The Lord wouldn’t take no, and delivered a “You-Me small-Great” type speech, and the Lord sent Jeremiah off to preach. But his own people couldn’t stand his words, and they ended up throwing him in a well, and, according to some commentators, his own people killed him. The message of the Book of Jeremiah is that we must do what God asks. Speak out! Speak of the love of God. How will the little ones know if we don’t speak? We must spark the love of God in people with words of love. Now, I have a friend who once told me, “All you talk about is, ‘love love love!'” I was shocked at his words because, what else is there in Jesus’ teaching? He didn’t turn on his killers who gave him horrible injury. “Father, forgive them.” “Love one another.” I usually try to let Jesus do the talking. A few days ago, the Gospel talked about Jesus really letting the Pharisees have it…”You hypocrities! Taking all the good, and not teaching the little ones.” Our priest today ended with some amazing words, “Let your lips, stained with the love of Christ (the Eucharist you receive here) speak God’s words.” “Lord of all gentleness… give us Peace in our hearts.” Angels with us!

Yesterday in the lobby of our hotel in Tucson, a woman dressed in a beautiful Native American Jacket played a big wooden wind instrument. Plaintive music filled the lobby. I was drawn to her Native American Spirit!  She was beautiful! Later, a man took over the piano and played Navy songs!  “Anchors away, my boys!!!”  We have a great heritage. Let us thank God for our lives here in America. Let us not say our country is evil and dying as some people do, let us not hate… rather let us take care of each other no matter what political beliefs are. Rather, let us use the power within us to save and bolster our country, with Love. 

I was brought up in Miami… I lived my young married years in the Keys… Big Pine Key … We spent a lot of time in Key West surrounded with Jimmy Buffett music. My friends and I sang Keys music and loved Jimmy. Today he is “another one gone…” Let us rock to the music and believe in the magic and beauty of God’s beautiful creation… He was only 76 at his death. When I hear of a death like this… I say, “He was young!” When I say this, people look at me… gray and scar-faced and they think, “What does she know about young?” Maybe it is the young at heart years we lived. While my boyfriend was in the Navy, on a submarine, “deterring war”, I was engaged in reading literature and loving California dreamin’, flowers, protests of the Viet Nam war, oh dear! We lived through assassinations that scarred our hearts… and we had to survive.  Now I beg and pray that people love and try to be happy.  Today I tell sailors how proud I am of them, how much I love their patriotism, and how much I love our country.  God bless us. Lift up your hearts and say… God job America. Thank God.

From my patio here in Tucson I see cactus, sand, and orange flowers. I was worried the other day coming across lower Texas and New Mexico that all I would see is brown dirt… and I’m getting used to it. Today we will visit the Sonoran desert. Two days ago we saw the “bone fields” where unused airplanes are preserved in the desert dryness, but I saw rust on those beautiful old planes. Yesterday we went to a presentation of a new memorial that is still in the building/planning stage… The USS Phoenix will be preserved in downtown Phoenix as a memorial to Cold War submariners. The Phoenix was commissioned in 1981 and taken out of service in 1998. She has been cut into parts… and her parts are already rusting. The memorial presenter said: the goal of the memorial is to teach the youth of America about the Cold War when we tried to deter and prevent nuclear war. He said: “we did our job!” submarines patrolled the deep and stayed in hiding. The goal of the submarine secrecy was to keep “the Soviets” from knowing where we were so they wouldn’t “start anything.” A lot happened towards keeping the peace during the Cold War: NATO was founded, the Berlin Air life, the Cuban missile crisis, The Warsaw pact. Our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps grew. We held off war “with the Soviets.” But can we continue? The submarine parts are rusting from the inside out… Even the dry desert can’t preserve “things” from rusting….

Can we hold off war in a time when nature is rusting our memorials from the inside out? I am one person smiling and talking, praying for peace while war rages in many hearts. Real hate rages as “the right” calls the “left” “evil,” and the right… remains silent to some extent. I put the words in quotes because, to me, the words do not represent reality. Rather the words are labels. I think we are all human beings, children of God. Trying our best in very small ways to preserve peace. May the Peace of the Risen Christ be with us today. God bless us.

This is a test of creating a post with a picture.

At the beginning of a new paragraph, Type / and then select Image. Then click on Upload. Find the photo on the computer. Either double click on its filename, or single click then click on Open. Wait until the spinning wheel stops while the file is being uploaded from the computer to the blog server. When the spinning wheel stops and the picture shows up clear in the post, you’re done. To add more text below the picture, click on the + below the right corner of the picture and select Paragraph. To add another picture, click on + and choose Image. Click on Publish to make the post live. Have fun. Once you’re done learning how to do this, on the right side of the vertical menu, next to Visibility, click on Public. Click the circle next to Private. A pop-up will ask if you want to Privately publish the post, click on OK. Now you and I can still see it (because we’re Administrators) but the public won’t see it. Have fun.

I guess this sounds silly, but I do love to play with little kids in church… Today, in a beautiful small basilica in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a family of pregnant mom, dad, young girl (about 8 years old?) and 3 boys (maybe 8 to 2 years old) moved in next to me at church. For some people this might have been a reason to move, but for me it was an “oh my gosh how cute” moment, and “oh my goodness, she’s pregnant again?” I moved my large new straw hat with flowers that Chuck bought for me at the market to give room to mom, and one little boy instantly took an interest in the flowers on the hat. I showed him the flowers stitched into the straw and then proceeded to pay attention to the readings. As the homily was winding down, I handed my journal and pen over to the little guy and showed him I meant it is OK for him to draw on it. He proceeded to draw a big careful circle, another circle… a few things that looked like feet…. not sure. I figure him at about 4 and he had amazing control of that pen. I took the journal back and wrote “Beautiful” and his mom wrote, “a tractor by Max.” A tractor? OK so the boys are farmer’s children? Good big round tractor. Children just need to be played with. Meanwhile… this reminds me of the need to care for little ones… On 3 separate days, I have rescued 2 small beatles and a small spider from the pool I was swimming in. The beatles and the spider were sitting stunned in the water in front of me, and, wondering if I might get bitten, I scooped them up and walked over to the edge of the pool. Dump them on the pool deck and say, “shoo, you are OK!” The spider was the funniest. He lay still and then he began shaking out his legs, one, two, three, etc. Finally, all dry, he made his first jiggly step, and he was off. Just a little hand up from a bigger friend is all the little ones need. I’m off to the pool now. It’s a sunny day in Las Cruces. God bless us.

I was just writing to a friend that I can’t believe we will be out on the road for 4 months!!!! Today we left Fort Stockton, Tx and drove west through flat, brown, dusty, barren land… no cows, no planted fields… and landed 4 hours later in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The land in Texas is flat, and then suddenly El Paso raises her head with expressway interchanges! We saw amazing tight expressways like this in San Antonio also… Actually Interstate 10 is the old trail between San Antonio and El Paso with Forts along the way (like Fort Stockton and Fort Davis) to provide protection for travelers and settlers. So we drove… OUT of Texas and into New Mexico. The hotel is somewhat old but the rooms are large and there is a pool! We drove around Las Cruces looking for a lunch place on a map we got from the front desk. Everything on the menu had green chiles! “Ah”, I thought, “Patience… there must be something without chiles.” There was: mac and cheese with grilled sirloin. OK can do. The air conditioning quit on the way back to the hotel! There is a Chevy dealership next door to the hotel so we unpacked into our room and off Chuck went to the dealership. Today is Friday… maybe it will be finished tomorrow (Saturday). One learns patience on vacation! Tomorrow will take a lot of patience!

How many of us have the chance to just “hang out, relax, and enjoy each other’s company.” Chuck and I drove into Stockton and I did an evaluation of where we are and when we are due in Tucson… “We have time!” I mused… We need to find a place to “wait”. The hotel we found has a nice pool, good breakfast, clean rooms… the “town” is quaint with a Catholic church with daily Mass, 2 barbeque restaurants, … and 3 saloons! Oh boy! Last night, we found an old time saloon with barrels holding up a lovely bar. We drank a Texas-made wine and enjoyed it. Chuck enjoyed a big fat Texas cigar! We decided to enjoy one more day before getting back on I10 and heading for Las Cruces.

At daily Mass the priest looked around before starting, he leaned over the altar and pointed at me! “Hello,” he said. “You are visiting, yes? Welcome! Tell us about yourself.” I stood up and introduced myself, “Sue Peabody, Lake Placid Florida, grateful you are having daily Mass! Moving on to Tucson!” They clapped!!! It’s the second time I’ve been welcomed at church with applause. Church goers welcome new friends! Jesus is waiting for us. He is even holding dinner for us! And… We get a daily totally non-political message. Yesterday, the Gospel reading was about the farmer who paid his workers, whether they started at 9am or at 5pm… the same wage. Some of the early workers complained, “but we worked a long time and those guys only worked one hour!” The priest left the podium and walked to the pews, “God’s justice is different from ours! Are we envious and jealous? Accept the new faith Jesus offers… Give up old ways. Throw away old idols. Those who have been Baptized early in life struggle to “stay clean”, but late bloomers don’t have to struggle! Sometimes they get baptized and then they die, “hired at the last minute.” God gives the gift of heaven to his children all the same! even those hired at the last minute.” Stop grumbling and “Thank God.”

Finally, my friends! Entering a church is a lot like entering a room and “choosing your spot.” I sat to the left, but I was in an air conditioning draft so I moved to the right side … In the seat back with the prayerbooks was a small slip of paper. I picked it up and it read: “Let my gardens speak for me when I am gone. Let them speak in colored whispers of all the beauty I have seen, and felt, and lived. Let them speak of my seasons of growth (watered by Emmaus retreats) and seasons of abundance. Let the fragrant blooms speak of my life and its greatest lesson: that the beauty we make never dies.” God bless us!