Wednesday, January 21, 2009

"Tis a balmy 13 degrees out today. Wow! Could this be our January thaw?
As I move about the house I find reminders of my little Tweetle Bugs. Claire left her "cell phone" in the bedroom. Clay left several pictures of his artwork on the refrigerator. The crayon box is open and sitting in the middle of the living room along with several coloring books. The kids don't get as many toys out now that they are older. They used to take the toybox and dump it out on the living room floor. Now they head for the "craft" bucket.

Claire loves to watch the family DVDs that I have been making with Harold's flip video. She won't watch "Christmas at Aunt Judy's house," though. She was traumatized by the visit we had from Santa. He was a little scary. He had a very strange accent - a mix of Russian and Middle East. I put the DVD in yesterday and found Claire hiding behind the chair in tears. I quickly took it out and put a "friendlier" video in.

I'm still getting used to this new lifestyle. I had a whole hour and a half to work on the prayer quilt yesterday. I felt rich.

I visited the school yesterday to drop off an order to the gal who took my place. I had mixed feelings. I really don't miss the job. I think what is hitting me is that 13 years of my life went by just like that. It seems like only yesterday that the superintendent called to tell me that I had the job at the school. So many changes took place in that time - I graduated from Davenport, 3 kids graduated from High School, all 4 graduated from college, 3 got married, all 4 bought houses and have moved out, 1 had children, 1 more is expecting. It boggles my mind how fast it goes. So when I go into the living room and see signs that children have been there, I am sometimes momentarily transported back in time - to when our kids were little - and I feel caught in a time warp. I almost expect to see McRudy, Beeps, Neener Bean, and Super Sam the Baby Man come running around the corner - and then I hear the back door open and it is Sam the grown up man stopping in to use our internet to check an online car auction. Time is fleeting.
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Today is an anniversary of sorts. Today I think of Joseph. He was a surprise baby and he was due on January 21. We lost him through a miscarriage on August 28. Joan, Gil, and MaryAnn gave us a seedling fir tree in memory. That tree is huge now. Joseph would have been 16 today. Yes, time is fleeting.
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Word of the day:
Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and martyr
Gospel
Mk 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue.
There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand,
“Come up here before us.”
Then he said to the Pharisees,
“Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”
But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel
with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

Thoughts from the cornfield:
I'm wondering if among the numerous laws and precepts that the Pharisees were so familiar with, there was anything about mercy and compassion. What would your reaction be if you witnessed a healing such as this?

God bless our troops!

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