Climate Change

What a beautiful day yesterday. October sun and temperatures near 80. Driving to work, the mist is rising up from meadows, lakes and swamps.

This, in sharp contrast to the beginning of the week when the nighttime temperatures moved into the lower 40's.

I love this kind of evening weather. Add a log to the fireplace.

(Be real people, it is a three hour composite crackling log.)

Climb under multiple bed covers. And, for the first time, shut one bedroom window.

Waking is a different matter. Climbing out of that warm cocoon is challenging. Throw back the covers and run for the shower, shutting the bathroom door behind me. Cats scatter in my path.

Not being one for hot showers, there is the temptation to start during these pre-heat fall mornings. I adjust the temperature upwards, but many people would still insist that it is cold.

One of the only adjustments that I make is footwear. Wood floors can be cold.

Putting on my sandals, it came to me that only months before, I was wearing them to keep my feet off the hot sand of Sudan. And, all the cotton clothes that I wore for modesty in Sudan, were keeping me warm in the States.

My computer is now keeping me close to those I left behind in Sudan. Though I recently wrote a five page handwritten letter to Sami and his mom, I cannot imagine using the mail system to keep in close touch.

What a difference 75 years make in communications between people.

There is something to be said for looking into the eyes of the person you are speaking with.

Being a witness to how your words are perceived and understood.

Not wondering if they are accepted in the same sense as intended.

Not wondering if pardon is needed for an unintended injury.


A Prayer attributed to Saint Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.