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We've gotten to Thankful Day and my hat is off to our friend Chris. Yesterday's launch party for her book is my first thankful. After all, if there weren't writers where would we readers be?
Because i'd missed a week at his place, the work at Carl's was as much as i could handle on Monday. Not only am i thankful Ms. JAI understood and was willing to wait, i'm thankful that in Carl's case, i'm paid by the hour.
This being the first week of the month, there are two ladies' circle meetings for which to be thankful. Ms. RW and i had planned to do the floor waxing this Tuesday, and i am thankful she had to put it off, it made me able to listen in on that meeting via Zoom.
The second meeting was Friday, and it's the one where i go see Ms. PA. Since her house is being cleaned out and put up for sale, i only see her when i go for the meetings. She thinks it's almost magic when i set up my tablet and we can see the other members of the circle group, and i'm thankful for the opportunity to visit with her. Each time is cherished as she seems to be fading fast, she's getting weaker and they've put her on palliative care.
This is one of the delightful and heartbreaking things about being human, that not all of us begin or end the journey at the same time. It gives us many opportunities to be thankful for the time we're given.
Ash Wednesday was a regular work day for me, which meant i couldn't get to our church for the noon service. Thankfully i remembered a local church of another denominational flavor (i'm not that picky about such things) not far from where Little Girl went to high school, and i knew they used to have Ash Wednesday services in the evening. Looking online, i found out they still do.
Since i'd never been to this church before, i wanted to leave in plenty of time so i could find out where to park and where to go, as well as have a few minutes to sit and relax and reflect before the service started.
Tripod SissyCat was outdoors and ran to hide when she realized i was bringing her in before leaving. While that cut into my "get there early" plans, i am thankful i found her, got her in, and still got there.
Once there, i am thankful i was able to run back out to the car and retrieve the keys i'd dropped on the way in, thankful no one else found those keys and took the car, and thankful i got back into the sanctuary about 1 minute before the service began so i didn't disturb the service by coming in late.
The Rev. Nan didn't have an actual sermon/homily prepared so much as an exercise for us to do. She talked about grumpy people, noting that we all have grumpy people in our lives that we have to deal with. As Jesus loves these people, too, it should be our joy to learn to deal gently and lovingly with them.
She also noted that sometimes we are the grumpy people. (It's true, and if you don't believe i get grumpy, just try keeping me from my first cup of coffee in the morning.) When we're being the grumpy people, it's our joy to repent and learn to deal with others lovingly, even when we don't want to.
All of us went to one of the tables set up through the sanctuary and wrote the initials of a grumpy person in our lives on the back of a cutout "grumpy man" or grumpy woman" figure. Then we each prayed silently for that person and prayed for the strength to be kind and loving to that person even if s/he is grumpy to us in the future.
We then wrote our own initials on one of the figures, and silently prayed for forgiveness for any grumpy or unkind moments we've had recently and prayed for strength to rise above our circumstances in the future and not react that way any longer. All of the grumpy figures were left at the foot of a cross on each table.
It was a unique service and i'm thankful that i got to take part.
Ms. G was still cleaning out a house she's got up for sale, and she gifted us a much needed floor lamp and a tiny dresser. Not only is Sweetie thankful to have more light on his side of the bedroom, we're both thankful for the brainstorm he had when looking for a lampshade for the odd size of this lamp, he found one he could put on there upside down, and it works!
One very busy day this week, i stopped to buy myself a cup of hot tea, a rare treat. The place was very busy, and a family that had already placed and paid for their order was waiting and looking at other goods for sale there. Mom and both kids found cups they wanted, and Dad patiently got back in line behind me while they grabbed their order that had just come up.
When i realized they had their order and were just waiting to pay for the cups, i told him to go ahead of me as i knew it wouldn't take but a quick moment and i remember the days of dealing with small children while waiting in lines. He thanked me by handing the cashier some money and saying, "Her drink is on me!" as he and the family ran out the door!
The shelter is doing well, and i'm thankful i was there to see a couple of adoptions happen as well as spend time with some really precious kitties and lovely cat people.
Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Dyanne and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.
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Today is:
Act Goofy Day -- started by someone who wanted to see how far the internet could spread goofiness
Arivee de l'Evangile -- French Polynesia (Gospel Day)
Babysitter Safety Day
Birthday of Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature -- China
Crispus Attucks Day*
Custom Chief's Day -- Vanuatu
Diasia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Zeus Meilikhios; date approximate)
Iditarod Sled Dog Race - Last Great Race on Earth® begins -- Anchorage to Nome, AK, US (1,000 miles along the historic Iditarod Trail)
National Absinthe Day
National Cheese Doodle Day
Navigium Isis/Ploiaphaesia: The Festival of Navigation -- Ancient Roman Calendar/Ancient Egyptian Calendar (Sailing Festival, honoring Isis as sea goddess and goddess of sailing, on the traditional start of the sailing season)
Scouts' Day -- Taiwan (celebration of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides in Taiwan)
St. Piran's Day (Patron of miners, tin miners, tinners; Cornwall, England; Piran, Slovenia)
St. Piran's Day Celebrations -- Cornwall, England; Kansas City, KA, US
Stop the Clocks Day -- another of those with-no-explanation web holidays that sounds like a good idea
Temperance Day -- North America's first Temperance Law was passed in Virginia this day in 1623
Wedding of the March Dryads -- Fairy Calendar
Anniversary Today:
Channel Islands National Park is established, 1980
Birthdays Today:
Jake Lloyd, 1989
Niki Taylor, 1975
Kevin Connolly, 1974
Eva Mendes, 1974
Andy Gibb, 1958
Penn Jillette, 1955
Marsha Warfield, 1954
Michael Warren, 1946
Paul Sand, 1944
Samantha Eggar, 1939
Fred Williamson, 1938
Dean Stockwell, 1936
James Noble, 1922
Rex Harrison, 1908
Zhou Enlai, 1898
Emmett J. Culligan, 1893
Heitor Villa-Lobos, 1887
Howard Pyle, 1853
James Merrit Ives, 1824
William Blackstone, 1595
Gerhardus Mercator, 1512
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"What the Butler Saw"(Play)1969
"Leningrad"/Symphony No. 7 in C major(Shostakovich Op. 60), 1942
"Mefistofele"(Opera), 1868
Today in History:
Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death, 363
Naser Khosrow begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama, 1046
English king Henry VII hires John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) and his sons to explore unknown lands for England, 1496
Smoking tobacco is introduced in Europe by Francisco Fernandes, 1558
Copernicus' "de Revolutionibus" is placed on Catholic Forbidden index, 1616
Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans to take possession of the Louisiana territory from the French, 1766
*Boston Massacre: British troops kill 5 in a crowd, including a young boy and Crispus Attackus, the first black to die for American freedom, in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later, 1770
The Dutch city of Leeuwarden forbids Jews to go to synagogues on Sundays, 1820
Samuel Colt makes the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber, 1836
George Westinghouse Jr patents the triple air brake for trains, 1872
Nikola Tesla, in Electrical World and Engineer, describes the process of the ball lightning formation, 1904
Winston Churchill uses the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri, 1946
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations, 1970
Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters, 1979
America's Voyager 1 spacecraft has its closest approach to Jupiter, 172,000 miles, 1979
The Soviet probe Venera 14 arrives at the planet Venus, 1982
The graves of Czar Nicholas II and his family are found near St. Petersburg, 1995
President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, dies in office in the nation's capital, Caracas, at age 58, 2013
A survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reports that about 1/3 of women in the European Union have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, 2014
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets with South Korean officials for the first time since taking office, hosting a dinner in Pyongyang, 2018
The journal Nature publishes a study of the second person ever cured of HIV by stem cell transplant therapy, 2019
