"Thank God And Greyhound"

After 43 years of marriage the day finally came. The day my wife announced that she was moving back to her mother’s house…going home to mother...moving out…leaving… and I was OK with that.

It wasn’t like Roy Clark’s “Thank God And Greyhound she’s gone”. While I am pleased that she is leaving it’s for an entirely different reason. Her almost one hundred and four year old mother needs her. Almost blind and almost deaf she still lives at home but someone needs to be there and I am pleased it can be my wife.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for a loving mother-in-law and her daughter.
For such a wonderful and undeserved gift is not fodder.
I will miss her…and it’s only a pittance to pay for the hereafter.
Thank you, Roy Clark, for making me chuckle and all of the laughter.

12/23/10… Happy 43rd Anniversary… Mary Owen…I love you.

The Shortest Day

On the shortest day of the year…the winter solstice…I pedaled into a strong headwind and struggled to make the 6 AM Mass. It was T-shirt weather and the brisk breeze carried off the heat and sweat generated by the vigorous turning of the crank. After the readings I was able to catch my breath and listen to what Monsignor Harold said. “Christmas makes no sense…nothing about Christmas makes any sense,” says he. Finally someone admitted what I had been thinking for a long time. Christ coming into the world the way he did is not what I would expect God to do. If I were God I would have flown in on Air Force ONE, had a big limousine and a bunch of Secret Service men waiting to take me to a four star hotel. But God chose to come as a baby…born to an unwed mother in some retched barn full of stinky animals.

What do I know? I do not understand why, but I am glad He did it. I am glad he came for the poorest of the poor, for the lowest of the low…for me.

I’ve decided that it does not have to make sense. I am comfortable being the most foolish of the foolish…the fool of fools…a fool for Christ.

God’s nonsense makes more sense than the wisdom of the wisest men.

As usual, my preparing for Christmas was limited to eating lots of Christmas cookies and Christmas candy. So again this year you will not receive a Christmas card or gift from me.

Merry Christmas to all

Some Things Never Change

As I sat on my tailgate…I lifted the tab to the rim and pulled back slowly…per the instructions on the can of Van Camp’s Pork and Beans which had spent the morning on the dash of my truck warming in the December sun. I wiped off my spoon with the clean underside of my shirttails and dug in. The taste of that first spoonful took me back to my childhood…just as if it were yesterday…the memories flooded back…memories of a blissful time when all was right with the world. It was a simpler time before fast foods…before TV…a time when the family all ate dinner together. Those pork ‘n beans found their way on to our table with amazing frequency and I loved them. They were especially good on the family vacations when Mother would put the can in the back window of the car…by noon we would find a roadside table and enjoy that wonderfully warm tomato sauce and pork flavored bean. My dad referred to those beans, as “the musical fruit” and he would recite his favorite limerick. “Beans, beans the musical fruit…the more you eat the more you toot.” What great times. Our caring parents kept us kids on a short leash and well sheltered from an ugly outside world. Life was not so messy back then. As a “grown up” I tend to do what I want to do…and that’s what gets me in trouble.

Well…some things never change…our Father’s love and Van Camp’s pork ’n beans.

Dear Father God…give me the wisdom to stay on that short leash, listen to your words, follow your rules and enjoy this blissful life as a child. Amen

Burr...

The Weather Channel reported thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit, calm winds and a clear sky. So I jumpstarted my day with a bicycle ride to morning Mass. It was a wonderfully refreshing morning with a heaven full of stars. I was able to locate the “Big Dipper” high in the northern sky…inverted with its outer rim pointing down toward an indistinguishable North Star…supposedly lower down in the haze toward the horizon. I couldn’t help but wonder how the old sailing ships ever got to their destination without a Tom-Tom, Garmin or Magellan. Fortunately I knew the way to church and then on to the “W” for breakfast…breakfast with the old men who sit around drinking coffee and discussing the world’s problems (myself not old enough to drink coffee).

As I pedaled home the sun’s rays pierced a crystal clear blue sky and glistened off of the snow white frost covered roofs. I took a deep breath of cold morning air and thought…this is a day the Lord has made.

You’re the star and guiding light
You’re the one who lights the night.
Thank you Lord for this day
It is You that shows the way.

Amen

Mental Health Days

Monday I decided to take a mental health day. It seems that if I go to work too much…I start taking everything too seriously and get all bogged down in stuff that isn’t even my concern…and that diminishes my productivity. So I was going to hang out at home and work on my writing…hone my skills as a serious writer. After several hours of staring at a blank page, sharpening every pencil I owned and making multiple trips to the fridge to look in…I decided I could never be a real writer. Fortunately the phone rang and a customer called with an emergency…so I gathered up my tools and spent the day doing stuff I was more comfortable with.
Today is Friday and my wife wanted to know how many mental health days I was going to take. Well…that’s the beauty of being self-employed…working for yourself. You can make your own rules about mental health days. As long as my belly button is not touching my backbone I can take as many days as I want.

You are the one, who answers my plea,
Thank you Lord Jesus, for taking care of me;
Back in the day, when I had not even a clue,
Now I realize that it was you.

For all of the times when things were fine,
For all of the times when I was blind;
Thru all of the trials and all of the test,
Now I realize you’re the best.

Amen