A Sad Sunday

There was a catastrophic event 'round these parts today, when a gunman went into a church and shot and killed the senior pastor of a Baptist church about 40 miles from here. Several people were injured when members of the congregation wrestled him to the floor after he ran out of bullets and pulled a knife. I only just read about it a bit ago....my computer has been turned off and unplugged most of the day. We have had tornado watches and severe thunderstorms most of the day. A tornado touched down about 35 miles from here, and we had about 20 minutes of horrendous rain and wind, which blew away the storm for the most part. But the winds were 35-40 mph and gusting to 55....

I made a pot of french onion soup today, as I had some onions that needed using. Had that for lunch and for supper made fish tacos, with refried beans and spanish rice. Hubby went for a nice long hike along the watershed trail, and I stayed home and caught up laundry and vacuumed some.

The lady bugs are invading again. This warm weather brings them out of hiding, and they are everywhere. I have my little hand held cannister vac out and just keep sucking them up. The back bedroom always is the worst. And a couple of years ago when I repainted that room, I caulked all along the ceiling and anywhere I thought hey might sneak in. But this year they're especially prolific, and I'm blaming it on the weather.

I have to get up and take himself to work to keep the car. I am taking a woman to detox tomorrow at 1. She said she wants to "check it out and see it"....jezuz...but she may or may not check herself in. I can't believe I am even agreeing to go with her. But I feel sorry for her and I know it's hard. She said she would drive and I said ABSOLUTELY NOT. I don't drive with people who are drinking themselves to death. Period. Either I drive or she can go by herself.

I hadn't heard from her in 2 days, and I thought maybe the whole deal was off. But she called this afternoon and said, she has to go. She can't keep living like this.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

I wonder sometimes about the insanity going on in the world...mostly I feel like we (as a species) are evolving into higher beings. I see proof of this all around me. And then something crazy happens, and I think wow....maybe not. But it could be that it's the incredible shift that's happening that is causing some of us to go so nutso. People whose spiritual fabric is being rent so completely that they are caught in a warp of insanity for a moment. Paradigm shifts are not always easy pills to swallow, as it were. And human beings do not respond well to limbo.


I am grateful today, to be part of a community of people who truly care for each other. Love is painted all over my life today...'tweren't always so. I have freedoms I could never have imagined, partly from being a sober human and partly from being a crone. The older I get, the more freedom I experience. It's pretty cool, really-- all except for the part of seeing this old woman in the mirror all the time. lol But even that, you know, beats the alternative.

I am grateful to be sober. I am grateful to be loved. I am grateful to have kittens that are trying to open their little eyes. I am grateful for 3 pups sleeping at my feet. I am grateful for the jumbo brown eggs my Rhode Island Reds are laying again.

I am grateful to be a connected, dependent part of a great whole...a member of the family of man, and to know these things. I am grateful for my Voluntary Simplicity class which meets tomorrow. The readings were particularly good for this week, all about consumerism and when is enough, enough? I am grateful to be teachable and flexible and lovable today.

It just doesn't get any better than this.


Namaste.