Hope of spring

What did I see yesterday? Why, a flock of geese heading NORTH!

Need I say more?

The hardest teaching.....

The Gospel reading from Sunday mass. This is a very hard teaching to swallow as we begin the season of Lent. It is the ideal, what we all want to be, and continually fail to become. It is quite easy to be a good person in America, as the majority of our society is "good". So this teaching should really hit home with us. How often do we get angry, hate people who aren't like us, figure that folks in jail "deserved it" or they wouldn't be there, and spout our superiority with every word. We refuse to be kind, refuse to be reconciled, refuse to reach out to those who are different, those who are in need, those who are alone.

Gospel
Lk 6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”

Weekend Update...

Friday and Saturday was the Novice Hoe-Down at Park Hill / Park Hill South for Jordy. She ended up with a 4th place in Puff. (Public forum for you non-debaters). Great job! She was of course in a rush to get home and get ready for Courtwarming Dance. We tried a little pull back style, but it just didn't work out. Started from scratch with a wash and style and it looked FABULOUS DAHLING. Gorgeous daughter in a fantastic dress.

Saturday I just laid around reading Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. Woke up at 3am with a migraine that just wouldn't quit. Ugh. We did make a short appearance at our church sweetheart dance, but surprisingly (hah) didn't dance.

It was REALLY nice to sleep in Sunday morning. Kids had youth band at the 6pm mass, so we didn't have to get up early. Ahhh. I got up at 7am which is late for me. Mass was great. The youth band just gets better all the time. When they first started last year it was a bit of a shaky start, but they really sound great now. They get lots of applause. Oh, last night they had the "hand choir" who are a youth group that do signing at church. Very cool.

Today, back to normal, back to work. Rode my bike this a.m. for the first time in awhile (indoor bike silly). I need a rack for my car for my outdoor bike!

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Here's a review I found on Amazon for one of my favorite books:

Doomsday Book is set in 2054, when time travel is run of the mill but everything else is, rather implausibly, pretty much like the present. The only real exception is a random collection of tech gadgets such as video phones and laser candles. Kivrin, a female undergraduate history student at Oxford, is to be the first person sent back to the Middle Ages (to 1320), because — wait for it! — no qualified historian is available. Everything goes wrong with the mission — the bungling incompetence of the academics organising it is, unfortunately, quite plausible — and she is delivered instead to 1348, the year the Black Plague reached England. Meanwhile a flu epidemic has hit 2054, and Oxford is quarantined. The bulk of the book consists of parallel accounts of the two epidemics and this is worked out much better than the time-travel setup.

Despite the weaknesses in the science and the implausible 2054 Oxford, I enjoyed Doomsday Book a lot. I much prefer well-written books with lousy science to engineering manuals dressed up as novels. I'm not sure it deserved its Hugo and Nebula award double, but Doomsday Book is definitely worth a read, especially if you are interested in epidemiology (used to produce a rather clever detective problem) or medieval English history.

A book review by Danny Yee © 1993 http://dannyreviews.com/

Random thoughts

• I was hoping to get out to Martha Lafite and bird watch while snow was on the ground. That would make it a LOT easier to see the ones that hang out under shrubs. Didn't make it, so I am hoping for a Friday night snow sometime so I can get up Saturday and try out this plan. Finally figured out the Manual Focus setting on my big camera. That will be a big help since my auto focus seems to like to pick a tree branch instead of the bird that I am trying to photograph.
• Steve filled out his 9th grade enrollment papers. Wow! I hope he gets to take the intro to Design and Engineering classHas it really been 9 years since kindergarten? Jordan didn't have any trouble choosing classes for 11th grade.
• Girl Scouts - we made baskets out of newspaper. That was very fun. Next time we are going to Modge Podge them. They really turned out quite nicely. Although I must say, the amount of effort you put into it, and the patience, directly relate to the aesthetic outcome.
• Sweetheart dance is coming up Saturday night. Same night that Jordan has courtwarming. Her dress is fabulous! It was such fun trying on dresses. I have heard stories from other moms about spending DAYS and trying on over 100 dresses. Luckily we don't go to those extremes. Just tried on 5 or 6 and were done in about an hour.
• Super bowl. Jordan got to do a service project, making valentines and treats for a local nursing home. They also had a youth party up at church but she came home early as they only had one video game, "madden". We had a good time. The Willbanks and Kieffers came by and watched some with us.

Fear

I'm not afraid of changes. OR..... do I just try and convince myself of that? Do I really mean it when I say "fear is the mind killer"? I guess conquering fear is a life-long process, kind of like being a perfect person. A long, long road.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Frank Herbert, Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, "Dune"

Decision Time, sad goodbye

After two nights trying to train for a different PRN position at the hospital, I threw in the towel. I realized I just wasn't up to working 60+ hour weeks for the next month. So, sadly I have to say goodbye to my 7 year employment with the hospital. I will still be able to transcribe as I have time and from the comfort of my home office. I just hate letting go. It makes me sad. I hate endings, losing things, losing friends.... I know it's for the best and don't need any convincing.