I've been looking at the hundreds of pictures I have in the drawers of my desk and seeing my Dad a lot.
He was a cold miner until WW2 and when he came back he couldn't go back in the mines. He worked at my Uncle Russel's grocery store (as I did) and then became an insurance sales man.
He was kind and gracious to me.
I miss him to this day.
A good man.
A miner, a soldier, a grocery store worker, an insurance salesman.
I miss him greatly.
We did Ash Wednesday at noon.
There were more people than I imagined their would be--nearly 20--6 of whom I did not know until I introduced myself.
I gave a short homily on "Ashes, Ashes, all fall down."
The music was wondrous. Passing the peace joyful.
One of the people there emailed me to say how moved they were by the service. It was their first Ash Wednesday service and they wanted to let me know how deeply it affected them.
Emails like that are a gift from God....
Ash Wednesday is upon us.
Remember the childhood saying: "Ring around the roses, Pocket full of posies, Ashes, Ashes, All fall down"?
We are dust and ashes and we will return there.
Not a hopeful day, except for Jesus' promise in Luke that if we 'do good' in secret, God will reward us.
We shall know when we know.
...is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
My sermon is called "In the Presence of God".
All the readings and the collect refer, in one way or another, to being in the presence of God.
I want the Parishioners and me to long for the presence of God.
I tell a them about my last conversation with my father--who had been senile for 3 years. He was in the hospital and we had the best conversation we'd had in all those years. It was as if we were in the presence of God and God gave me my father back for 45 minutes.
By the time I got home, the hospital called and he had died.
I went back to sit with his body. A Catholic priest came by to ask if I wanted him to give Dad 'last rites'.
My father was a Baptist and then a Methodist, but my experience of that last conversation let me be open to anything.
So, he had Catholic 'last rites'!
I'll tell people tomorrow that we are 'in the presence of God' when the bread and wine are blessed and become the Body and Blood of Christ.
I pray they'll believe me, because I believe it so profoundly.
The way our President treated the President of Ukrain today was deplorable. Zelenskyy is an ally, not the enemy.
Russia is the enemy of both countries.
Has he lost his mind?
Been to the grocery store lately?
He was going to bring down food costs, but they have gone up.
And firing the U.S.'s workforce--what evil can that do?
Even MAGA folks are turning on him and Republicans in the Congress,
About time, I would say, but it's too late for that....
God help us.
Across the street--on the north side of Cornwall Avenue--all the snow has melted in the front yards.
On our side--the south side--front yards are still covered by snow.
I've never figured out why that is--but it always is.
Living on the cold side of the street means it's difficult to put out the trash and recycle bins.
Tuesday I was having trouble getting the recycling up on 5 inches or more of snow. A guy walking down the street came over. He pulled and I pushed and we did it.
What a nice guy. He was walking on the warm side--the only side that has a sidewalk.
I should have given him a hug--cold as my hug might be.
I went to a new dentist yesterday.
My dentist for years retired about a year ago. So I needed a new one.'
The woman who cleaned my teeth was wonderful and funny.
But the dentist wanted me to have a 'deep cleaning'. That would require two visits and being numbed each time.
I turned it down.
I'm 77--how many decades do I have left.
My teeth will be fine until I'm not....
Alas....
