I'll write tomorrow

 I need to get some sleep.

Good-night all.

I'll write tomorrow.

Shalom

 

No room for this!

 I wasn't aware of Charlie Kirk being alive before today--the day he was killed by a sniper.

I don't think I would have agreed with anything he proposed. I'm as left-wing as he was right-wing.

But THERE IS NO ROOM FOR THIS in our democracy!

No one should die in our country from a gun shot.

NO ONE!

We should all look in the mirror and realize Charlie Kirk was 'just like us'--a human being with opinions and ideas and ways of seeing things.

Someone 'just like us' was killed by a sniper.

There is no room for this in our democracy.

Guns are a real problem.

Dying from a gun shot is an even greater problem.

There is no room for such things in our country.

It must be stopped.

 

Ginger Ale

I've stopped drinking wine because of my health issues.

But I've gotten hooked on Ginger Ale!

I drink maybe 5 or 6 10oz. cans a day.

I guess I'm a Gingerhaloic....

Thing is, I don't think I've had a Ginger Ale before this for several years.

Chablis I miss you.

But G.A. is filling in until I'm well.

 

Here's another mess Trump has made

Bern went to the Post Office to mail packages to our twin grand-daughters for their birthdays.

They are both in college--one and North-Eastern and one at McGill in Canada.

To send the small package to Canada would cost $56 and provide no 'tracking'. Our grand-daughter would then have to pay almost that much to receive it.

The postal worker explained it had to do with Trump's tariffs and other moves he's made.

Trump has made it ridiculous to send mail to our closest and dearest neighbor!!!

How can our country let him do things like this?

To send mail to Mexico would probably need several armored vehicles and your life savings.

How did we let him do what he's doing?

More importantly, how do we stop it?

And soon....

 

A storm and a sermon

Some of the thunder rolled on and on. It has been raining for a while. Lightening illuminates the trees outside my office window.

It's rain we needed but we don't want the storm to get out of hand.

Tomorrow I'm preaching on a line from the Collect and something Jesus says.

The Collect goes like this: "Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts...."

So, if the prayer is answered we will Trust in only God.

Then Jesus says one of his most disturbing sayings. "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."

Wow! We must trust and when we do we must hate all we love--even our life itself....

I don't try to explain any of that. I just tell the congregation that they must seek to be "Jesus People"--to do as he did. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and worship the Lord.

They do all that--donating food and clothing, working in the soup kitchen, have concerts and invite strangers and attend Eucharist.

They truly are--this tiny little church--"Jesus People".

Thank God for them....

 

What a dope!

 I was looking at my emails and suddenly realized it was September 5th and that it was our anniversary....

Just then Bern came up the steps with a card for me.

What a dope I am! I've been so concerned with my health that I let such a vital day creep up on me...

I went out later and visited two flower shops, seeing nothing I liked, and ended up getting Bern flowers from Big Y!

Happy Anniversary to us....

 

Sad day for health

Robert Kennedy, Jr. testified today to a Senate Committee.

He lied, changed his lies and avoided answering most questions.

It is a sad day for health.

He has emptied the federal health system of real experts and replaced them with those who agree with him.

Florida, among other Red states, is making it more difficult, if not improbable, to get vaccines.

He should resign.

He even had Bernie Sanders siding with President Trump on the Covid vaccine!

Not a good day to get healthier....

 

Pondering...

 I've had health problems the last couple of months. I've probably told you more about them in my blog than you wanted to ever know!

But those issues have given me lots to ponder about.

One of them is 'death'.

I've never really thought I was at death's door in these long weeks, but it has caused me to ponder death and dying.

My mother was in her mid-60's when she died. My dad made it to 83.

I'm an only child of them and if you average their death ages I'm already above the average....

So, is it any wonder that I ponder dying while in and out of the hospital and surrounded by doctor appointments?

I haven't reached any  conclusions yet--far from it.

And I must admit that even as an Episcopal priest I have little concept of 'heaven' and 'eternal life'. Not even close.

Death waits for us all. Patient and in no hurry for us.

But it is worth pondering....

A sunny day

Sometimes I like to put my thoughts (multitudes of them!) on the back burner and just look at nature.

Today I did that on the back deck looking at our back yards, the flowers and shrubs there and just be present to the sunny day.

It works, more often than not.

All my concerns, worries, fears and dread simply goes away for a while.

It's just me, our back yard and the sunshine.

I recommend you try it from time to time.

A real oasis of calm in turbulent times.

Try it.

You'll be glad you did.

 

Can the Courts save us (and U.S.)?

 The courts of the US are all that is between us and a trumpian dictator.

Several rulings lately serve to tell us they are doing their job.

For example, only Congress can make tariffs, not the President.

I just heard Ken Burns on MSNBC talking about his faith in America as the 'best country on earth'.

I want to believe him.

I want to stand with him.

I want 'our' country back....

Pray that it will be so.

sorry about that

I shouldn't have posted that thing yesterday about my bowels!

Sorry.

Sometimes I just write without thinking. Or, more precisely, don't think until I've written.

Sometimes good but mostly bad.

I'll try to write about things that aren't as awful as that yesterday.

I could write--for example--about our president....

Oops! that's at least as bad as black poop....