a prophetic voice-

Life has been very ordinary lately...nothing exciting, nothing to pull me out of my everyday patterns...nothing to astound or astonish... just the same-old, same-old. And yet...when leaving for the medical center early the other morning to be with a parishioner prior to her surgery, I saw the palest white sliver of the new moon shining in the eastern sky. And yet...I received photos from my dear friends in Rwanda, taken at their graduation from their Master's program at the University in Kigali, along with loving words of thanks for the small (my word, not theirs) part I had played in this wonderful accomplishment. And yet...I talked with two hard-working painters at our church, both doing a lovely job of painting the sanctuary, obviously proud of their work and taking special care with it, admiring our centuries- old building. And yet...I received two puzzles in the mail from my sister- jigsaw puzzles to "feed" my newly-reacquired appetite for them. And y...

Yes, we're here, after 24 hours of travel time and nearly 40 hours without real sleep. Last night the bed at the Wildebeest was so welcoming and I slept until 9a.m. for the first time in years. No apparent jet lag...and a slow,pleasant day today, doing a few errands, catching up on email, reading, and talking with people here. For those of you in Carolina who continually complain about our roads being under continual construction (and I am one of you), after riding down a main road near here and watching our driver doing potholes and serving into the non-existent shoulder the road countless times, I pledged never to complain about our roads again. The people here would think they were in heaven driving I-85...while we Carolinians mutter under our breaths and curse the NCDOT. All a matter of perspective, I guess, but we Americans have so much for which to be thankful- and too often aren't!  Tomorrow we head to Rwanda to visit with friends and meet our newest grandmothers the...

Some days, like today, I am grateful simply to be alive. Now, I wish I could say that every day, but truth be told, all too often I can find something about which to kvetch or complain or bemoan…the work needed by my gradually-deteriorating lovely old house, or my declining bank balance, or my seeming inability to lose weight, etc., etc., ad infinitum. But not today. Today, I am so, so thankful to simply BE who I am, how I am…with all my faults and failings and aches and pains and signs of advancing age. Here I am…HERE…NOW…and all I can say is a heartfelt, “Thanks be to God!” You see, I have a beautiful friend, only 43 years old, who has been dealing with the terrible diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) for nearly two years, going from an active, non-stop wife, mother, friend, volunteer par excellence, etc. to life in a wheelchair, with deteriorating speech, the inability to do almost nothing for herself, periodic difficulty breat...