Gratitude Lounge

I understand, Anna. There is a razor edge sometimes when we are aware of the duality of suffering and blessing. Perhaps the awareness our blessing functions to make our hearts more grateful and therefore more apt to reach out to alleviate suffering where we are?

I have been thinking of this recently since reading a post from the Fr Richard Rohr site that spoke of how “Jesus was not Plan B.” All that suffering! Not Plan B? Not the remedy to something ideal that humans had screwed up but an active choice made from love? That is a staggering thought.

I find, too, that when I start to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the suffering in this world, my surest remedy is to find something to do right where I am, then do it. I cannot stop the pain for all, but if I can ease it for one who is in my path, then I have affected the whole in ways I cannot begin to comprehend.

It is not in my province to reach my arms out to encompass Syria or any other hurting spot and people, except by prayer.

But there is much I CAN do. I can write a handwritten letter to a friend losing her hearing…listen with full attention to another’s story…encourage a friend experiencing struggle…celebrate from my heart with another’s good fortune…smile at a stranger…show appreciation…be present with those I encounter…BE where I am.

What we do where we are MATTERS. It does not solve, because that is not our job, but it does very much matter.

Perhaps there is an orphanage on your holiday route? Or another place of service? Maybe you could spend the intervening months collecting items that might bring them joy or meet needs? Then you could have the fun of dropping the items off as part of your blessing on holiday?

I mention orphanage as one if my dear friends who I saw last night spent much time in an orphanage as a child. Her mentally ill mother would just dump her off indefinitely at a place now revealed as an abusive prison like institution. She is now around seventy, but she still has a passion for cookies because they never got them in the orphanage. Something so simple can mean a tremendous amount!

Oh, no! You got the stomach flu AFTER the respiratory flu? I had that happen once. I think it was the H1N1 year, and they warned that the particular flu that year presented with respiratory first, then clobbered you with the stomach part 2-3 weeks later, seemingly out of the blue. That was NOT my favorite flu, I will say. ???? I hope you are on the mend for good now!

Mmmmm…smoked salmon shared with a friend…????

We discovered this weekend that our Anatolian has an absolute passion for pistachios. He got…one. (They are not great for dogs, though not poisonous.)

I have only ever seen him have this reaction with one other food — when I cook lamb. He is a food motivated dog, that’s for sure, but he was a positive PEST Saturday night!

He usually does not beg if we are eating in the living room, as we have been all winter to be nearest the pellet stove. But Saturday night? Sheesh! He was super intense — ears up, very forward, trying to look his most endearing and hungry. When that did not work, he tried putting his whole head in my lap and looking up at me like he was a SPCA poster child dog, a starving dog, barely hanging on, weakening…weakening…fading fast… ????????

It makes sense — he is an Anatolian, and both lamb and pistachios are pretty staple there. Must be in his DNA! ????

I am sorry you were hurting, Ursula, but glad the walk and caring helped. I have been finding how much the pain for me in intertwined with anxiety and shame (not feelng “enough” and old tapes playing in my head!), and even sometimes being experienced as terror in my body. When I can calm the parts that trigger the pain, the pain comes less and what there is becomes less intense. I am not all the way with this yet, but it has been a helpful discovery for me.

I mention it in case it might resonate with you due to what you have related of your recent and current stresses at home. I noticed that I had managed to get through the incident last week with much less pain than I expected, but a rerun of a frustration with my husband at end of week gave me more tension and pain than the other. It is food for thought for me!

Like Psalm 139 says, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” which I take to mean beautifully intertwined and complex, and very deeply loved!

Ohhhhhhhh, YUM! My husband and I love mango lassi! That is what first got him to like yogurt.

We also love GARLIC! We raise our own, some heirloom varieties we like the best.

I learned some years ago of something called “garlic wine” that is drunk in the Republic of Georgia for longevity and health. It is goat yogurt mixed with fresh squeezed garlic. I duplicated as close as possible with the yogurt we had available, our garlic, a little mayonnaise to subsititue the tanginess of goat yogurt, as American yogurt is often sweeter, I think, and a little sea salt and fresh pepper. Mmmmmmmmmmm! It was so good we would probably have eaten it on a shoe!