Where the name of my blog comes from

I've reprinted my first blog several times.

The name "Under the Castor Oil Tree"  comes from the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh to save the people there.

He refuses go and gets swallowed by a whale and spit up on the shore of Nineveh. He preaches to the people and God saves them.

Jonah is unset and tells God, "You brought me all this way just to save these people!"

God puts Jonah under a Castor Oil tree to calm him down but then sends a bug to destroy the tree and leave Jonah in the hot sun.

It's a book of the Bible that has no resolution.

Jonah is in the sun complaining.

And the book ends.

I often feel like Jonah--carried by a whale to be an Episcopal priest and having no idea why.

Jonah and me sit under the castor oil tree together.

And with you, I hope....