A Many Day Update

 Friday, July 2, 2021

It is cooler today, cloudy.  I hear birds singing outside our windows, talking in quick chirps to each other.  Today is a fish day for St John of Shanghai and San Francisco.  I love St John.  I know a lot of my readers are not Orthodox Saints may not be something you are familiar with really.  Basically said, a Saint is one who allowed Christ to be within him or her self to such a degree that they gained great holiness and God uses their prayers to help others.  Orthodoxy does not, to say it in perhaps a unique way, though I did not come up with the idea, but anyway, it's that we do not believe in non-linear time like some people do.  Just because some one had departed this life does not mean that they are not absent from us or that they cannot pray for us when in heaven with Christ.   St John helps so many.  I went to his church were his body rests and when I was near by to him I felt such joy and peace.  That's what it is like to be by a Saint, a deeply holy one alive or alive in the next life that we are not in yet ourselves.  

So for St John we had fish for lunch.  And I went on a walk this morning (instead of swimming) and am working on my writing project and other things.  

Monday, July 5, 2021

I never finished my blog post.  Here I am again.  

Tuesday night, July 6, 2021 

I never got father than two sentences yesterday! The heat is back, it hollows me out like a limp dish rag needing a good wash and, if it were a long time ago and not a rag, a good bit of starch put back in!  I am reading, again, A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L'Engle.  It is not an easy book, as in, reading of the deep and shocking tragedies in this family's life, while fiction, is quite vivid.  But I don't think one can fully understand L'Engle without this book.  I am realizing what a summation of her oeuvre this book really is.  I have read a lot about and by L'Engle, and am seeing the various interests and strands of her work and thinking and this novel really brings many of them together.  I know enough about her to know she hoped to write more novels, but her age, with further health complications prevented her.  She lived until 2007 but 1996 is her last year for a novel to come out, which is the one I am reading, A Live Coal in the Sea.  It's hard to know who to recommend her novels to (they are more intense/dramatic/difficult than most of her YA books, esp Wrinkle in Time).   She deals with a lot of relational problems, including in and outside of marriage and it's often messy like life can be. So not for everyone.  

I am relieved to say I finally have the dishes done again and the kitchen counters more clean.  It's a constant struggle to keep up with clutter.  I think it will be a struggle of mine for all of my life most likely. 

I've been swimming at times, early in the morning.  I can tell that I am tired and I don't push myself to do anything stellar in terms of laps.  I just try to keep going. 

July 7, 2021

I went swimming again.  I am praying for a friend who is waiting for some much needed good news.  I was really glad for the pool this morning.  I am finding summer days to be a bit hard.  It's partly the heat, we can't open our window shades and that always makes me feel a bit closed in. 

But we are having fish curry for lunch! I wish we could have gone to liturgy this morning but the long drive and other things it just could not happen, sadly. 

It's another hot day today.  We are keeping cool, the AC is on but also we have a fan.  

So the book, black is the colour of my true love's heart ... it's a great mystery book.  But it also serves another purpose at our home.  Our family motto, you may or may not know, is 'we tease those we love' and my Husband had such a happy smile on his face that I had to ask him why and he said, 'go look at your computer' and there was the BOOK.  I began it years ago, leaving it for my Husband to find as a joke.  He got it out of our library yesterday and left it for me.  Of course now it's my turn to return the favour... :) 

I know this is not a fun topic, but I am concerned about the d-variant in the ongoing pandemic.  All I know is that it is not over yet and we must keep looking to Christ... I feel like we have been in a world-wide war and the war is not yet over, no matter how weary we are. 

But I also see God's mercy along the way and we must not lose hope.

God bless and protect you all my dear blog readers!