Take out the trash/make a salad

 

Tuesday is a sort of busy day.

From 9:45 until 11 I'm on a zoom meeting with friends and colleagues in ministry.

I have to take out the trash.

I have to make a large salad for dinner.

All of that should translate into improving life.

Friends and colleagues are obvious--we need human interaction even if it's on a computer to keep our thoughts and goals on track.

But we should also take the trash out of our minds--things we don't need to ponder, things that scare us and hold us back, things that turn good-work into no-so-good.

And we should make a salad of our lives every day. Slice up and add those things we need to get done, things we've forgotten, things in the back of the refrigerator of our mind and heart.

And dress it all with hope and wonder and love.

Take out the trash, beloved.

And enjoy your salad....

 

Grandmaw Jones

 

Looking in a drawer for something else, I came upon a photo of my Grandmaw Jones. (I know my computer doesn't like the spelling of her title, but that's the way I said it in my youth!)

She lived up on a long hill in Conglentown, West Virginia, across a dirt road from my uncle and aunt's house.

She had an outhouse, which I thought of today when I went to the bathroom at Trinity Church and found the heat wasn't turned on in there. At least in the outhouse, old bowel movements warmed things up a tad.

Her name was Lina Manona Sadler Jones.

The picture I found looked like a school picture, but she was at least 80 in the photo, so I don't know what it was from.

She was a great cook and a great Grandmaw.

At the end of her life she lost some of her sensibility and was out wandering around when aunts and uncles and cousins found her.

I miss her even now, all these years later.

Maybe I'll see her again if there is a heaven when we die....

I hope so....

 

Kindness and Generosity

 

Bern when to the grocery store this morning and was checked out for over $80 when she realized she had forgotten her purse.

She asked the clerk to set it aside and she'd go home ("I live close to here....") to get her credit card.

But the man behind her said, 'I'll pay for it.'

Bern told him she'd only be a few minutes but he insisted and paid for her groceries.

She told him, "I'll pass it on...."

And he replied, "I know you will".

The kindness and generosity of that total stranger was enough to thrill Bern to her inner being.

She almost cried when she told me about it.

Nothing is like kindness and generosity--we need more and more and much more of that in our world.

Be kind.

Be generous.

It will make a big difference....

 

 

 

2026 begins

 

The year began 'cold' here in CT.

The warmest temperature yesterday was 21 at 9 a.m. It went down every hour from then!

We didn't watch the 'ball drop'. We never do.

Did watch some football--Go Indiana!

Still cold today and more football to watch.

Hope your year started well and gets better.

2026, for goodness sake!

Time flies when your having fun--or even if you're not....

 

900,000!

 

Today I passed 9 hundred thousand views on my blog!

Thank you for being part of that. I appreciate it greatly.

Today, also, lots of wind and chill.

I long for June or July on days like this.

I took out the trash and re-cycling this morning, hoping they don't take New Year's Eve off.

But taking it out is part of my re-gaining what I did before my illness and surgery.

I'll also cook two dinners this week. Bern and I used to share them equally, but I'm working my way back.

Bern is scared of salt--for my sake--since I was told to avoid it.

But I'm coming back, beloved. I am!

Next year I'll be 79 years old in April. I never imagined what it would be like to be this old.

 It's not too bad, but I feel the years.

Stay young, beloved....

 

And now, rain....

 

Thankfully it's not cold enough for the rain to be snow. But it has been raining ever since I woke up and it's early afternoon now.

With all the snow on the ground--that the rain isn't melting much--the whole landscape seems wrapped in low lying clouds.

The year is almost over. A new one hovers near.

In all that, I read a hilarious interview with Steven Colbert on line.

He was asked who he would change bodies with for 24 hours.

Immediately he said, "President Trump. And I would resign."

Then he wondered if Trump--who hates Stephen like he hates all comedians--would be in his body?

Not a good thought, I'd say....

 

I've told you before....

 

Sunday without church is both a 'day off' and a conundrum.

Sitting at home on Sunday is, after so many decades, strange.

But I like a day off.

Caught between my two different emotions.

Sure, I could go to church here in town.

But I don't.

I've told you before, I keep practicing my priesthood SO I'LL GO TO CHURCH!

I'm an odd priest, perhaps....