I just opened my blog and found I have now had 250,003 views.
A quarter of a million views!
I've been averaging over 250 views a day this month.
I thank you all. Your support encourages me to keep writing.
And since I wore my winter coat again today, I needed good news!
So, I'll write on, trying to make the profound trivial and the trivial profound. And everything in between interesting and straight-faced humorous.
Thank you all for sticking with me....
Shalom.
Be well and stay well.
Today about 3, the clouds came and winds that blew the trees crazily.
Then came the snow, very hard and fast, nearly covering outside our house in Cheshire, CT.
Just as suddenly, it stopped--both the wind and the snow--and in 15 minutes it all melted, leaving everything wet--and the sun came out and the sky turned blue.
A snow squall, I think it called.
March in New England is like that.
It's 20 degrees colder than it was this time yesterday.
I blame Daylight Savings Time.
I got up at my normal time but it was an hour later than it should have been.
DST throws me off for days.
It must have caused the squall.
Just me talkin'....
Bern wore a shirt today that said: "All who wander are not lost".
I really like that.
I remembered Dion's song "The Wanderer".
In there somewhere it say, "I roam around, around, around, around...."
Wandering and roaming are good things.
"Wandering" and "wondering" are not that far apart in spelling or meaning.
"Letting your mind wander" can turn up all kinds of things you couldn't have found through logic or directness.
I sometimes just drive around Cheshire, wandering, finding streets and places I've never seen before.
I heard a long piece of NPR today about how valuable 'day dreaming' can be for adults. Kids do it all the time, but adults, when they have spare time, are usually looking at their phones or a screen.
Day dreaming, roaming and wandering can open up areas of our lives and the world that aren't accessible any other way.
So 'wander', my friends. 'Day dream' and 'roam around, around, around, around....
Trust me, you won't be 'lost', but you will be deeply 'enriched'.
Wander and wonder on, beloved....
Since it's been so cold so long, I'd forgotten how annoyed I get by people walking up and down Cornwall Ave. talking with their phones on speaker.
The last few warm days, days for being out on the porch and deck, I've been reminded how much that annoys me.
Get you friend to come walk up or down Cornwall with you--don't have them on speaker phone.
It annoys me.
Most things about cell phones annoy me:
*people on their phone in the super market asking about what cereal
*people on their phone in the car, driving like idiots
*people looking at their phones while in a restaurant
*people on their cell phones in any public place
I remember the days before cell phones.
Now those days seem like days of a more wondrous time....
Today was the warmest day of the year so far--up at 60 or so.
I love it!
I know it won't last--this in March in New England-anything could happen in the next 3 weeks.
But today was a hint of times to come and gave my heart hope.
In our country, too, we are coming out of a long cold spell into a kind of Spring of Biden.
The Covid Bill passed and was signed. Other bills are in the works on gun control, opening up voting as the states are trying to shut it down, making unions easier to start, minimum wage increase, and more and more.
I listened to a report on line today that said Republicans are attacking (falsely) the 'cancel culture'--Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato head, even Pepi LePew--because they dare not attack Biden. He's too popular with ratings like today's temperatures, high 50's and 60. Higher than the previous president ever got.
(By the way, none of the things they're talking about was 'cancelled'--all were decisions made by the companies who own the rights to the products.)
So, Spring is on it's way in more than just the weather....
It has finally passed and will do immeasurable good for so many in America.
And it passed, as always, with no Republican Support though 76% of Americans and a majority of Republicans in the country were in favor of it.
If you need a hint of how divided this country is right now, consider this: a bill that will enable more vaccines, give money to millions of families--taking some children out of poverty by tax breaks, pay rents to prevent evictions, secure unemployment benefits through September, help small businesses and provide states and local governments with money to deal with the pandemic--ALL OF THAT, was not supported by a single Republican in the U.S. Congress!!!!
Take a breath, beloved, and ponder that.
Ponder it well.
That's where we are right now.
Alas.
Today was my first visit to do a service at Trinity, Milton.
(They record the service and video it on Tuesday or Wednesday to show on line on Sunday.)
I was up earlier than I like--7:30--so I was already feeling sluggish. Nothing like what was to come!
I got lost and had to call the church and have someone come meet me to lead me there, so I was over 40 minutes late!
Then, when I was getting my vestments out of the car, I couldn't find the Prayer Book with my sermon note--less than a page, but so I didn't leave anything out.
I have an older Prayer Book, so I had to use that.
But the 6 folks there couldn't have been nicer. They kept telling me not to worry about getting lost--"folks get lost out here all the time...."
It was the first time since pandemic that they received communion--wafers in a box so I hadn't touched them and wine in little plastic glasses.
The church is lovely and the music is wondrous.
It started out like a disaster but ended up a really good day.
(Only thing was: it felt like Sunday all day to me....)
