Idolatry

Do you know what an idol is?  I was surprised that a man in my scripture sharing group didn't know what an idol was.  Maybe he did, but he didn't associate it with idolatry.  He didn't connect idol to idolatry.  He was reading aloud Colossians 3:5.

Is the Statue of Liberty an idol?

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.

And he couldn't pronounce idolatry. He stumbled over the word.  We pronounced it for him.  He tried again.  And again.  Finally, after many attempts,
he succeeded.

And this man is no dummy.  He's a normal, intelligent person who actually is an avid reader.  However, he's very secular and new to reading scripture. He was born Catholic but only recently has he become interested in the faith. 

Once he got the pronunciation of idolatry down, he asked, "What is it?"  This gave us the opportunity to explain that idolatry is the worship of statues.  This discussion led to idolizing, power, fame, money, work, etc. 

So what many people consider a simple word, idol, as a word everyone knows, led to the realization that many people don't understand the word.  Who knows what else the secular world doesn't know?

Nightmares

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets gave me nightmares.  Literally. I read it to keep up with my granddaughter.  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was written by J. K. Rowling.  It is the second in the series. 

Harry and his friends are at school and messages are left on the walls announcing that the chamber of horrors is going to be opened.  Students are literally petrified. 

The bad guy takes the form of a basilick, which is the king of serpents in this fantasy.  The basilick kills you by looking at you in the eye.  But don't worry.  Harry Potter has many more books in the series, so you know he wins in the end.  So I'm not telling you any spoilers.

Anyway, I had a hard time sleeping last night.  I kept having nightmares of snakes.  (How do children read it?)

Too Preachy

So I'm the only one in the world who doesn't like "Lift Up Your Heart," by Fulton J. Sheen.  Sorry.

I chose this book to read for Lent.  That was five months ago!!!  I'm sorry I wasn't that into it.  I found it dated.  I often wished the good bishop were present with me so I could argue a point, or present a different view.  I ended up not reading but rather skimming along and stopping to read what interested me.

I remembered him on TV.  My family never watched him.  Whatever was on the other channel, that's what we watched.  He didn't interest us as a family and I still aren't interested.  Sorry.

ZNH

You are never too old to learn.  Today at Mass I learned about zananiah.  The gospel was the parable about the weeds. Matthew 13:
24-30.  The homilist explained that the weeds that were sown were particularly insidious because they look like wheat for 2/3 of its growth.  This wheat in early Hebrew was called zananiah.

Naming this weed zananiah is interesting.  In Hebrew it is ZNH. 

References in periodicals archive?

The vanishing Hebrew harlot; the adventures of the Hebrew stem ZNH.

The Hebrew stem ZNH (as translated into the Latin alphabet) has a generally accepted lexical meaning of "commit fornication, be/act as a harlot.

In other words, it had the equivalent of F#*! You.  Interesting that it was used by the enemy of the sower.

Scriptio Continua

By late antique copyist - late antique manuscript, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15074137

This morning at Mass, Father explained that early scripture was written with the words all smashed together.  There were no spaces, no punctuation, no paragraphs.  All these rules were added to make readers able to read.  Wiki explains:

Before (and after) the advent of the codex (book), Latin and Greek script was written on scrolls by enslaved scribes. The role of the scribe was to simply record everything he or she heard, in order to create documentation. Because speech is continuous there was no need to add spaces. Typically, the reader of the text was a trained performer, who would have already memorized the content and breaks of the script. During these reading performances, the scroll acted as a cue sheet, and therefore did not require in-depth reading.

While the lack of word parsing forced the reader to distinguish elements of the script without a visual aid, it also presented him with more freedom to interpret the text. The reader had the liberty to insert pauses and dictate tone, making the act of reading a significantly more subjective activity than it is today. However, the lack of spacing also led to some ambiguity because a minor discrepancy in word parsing could give the text a different meaning. For example, a phrase written in scriptio continua as collectamexiliopubem may be interpreted as collectam ex Ilio pubem, meaning "a people gathered from Troy", or collectam exilio pubem, "a people gathered for exile". Thus, readers had to be much more cognizant of the context to which the text referred.

.......

 Though paleographers disagree about the chronological decline of scriptio continua throughout the world, it is generally accepted that the addition of spaces first appeared in Irish and Anglo-Saxon Bibles and Gospels from the seventh and eighth centuries.^[7]:21 Subsequently, an increasing number of European texts adopted conventional spacing, and within the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all European texts were written with word separation.^[7]:120-121

Non-pulsed or Non-plussed

All these years I've been using non-pulsed for non-plussed.  "Pluss" doesn't make sense to me. 

If a shrieking noise makes everyone jump, except me.  My pulse didn't skip a beat.  Aren't I non-pulsed?

or

Non-plussed?

Marsh Girl

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens begins so sadly that I cried for the little girl.  The girl is Kya or Catherine.  She is abandoned by everyone. Literally.  Everyone she loves leaves her.

This thought did lead me to contemplation.  Doesn't everything leave, eventually?  And that includes us leaving others too.  It's part of life.

There are happy moments too and it does end happily.  Kya grows up and falls in love, a couple of times.  Her rough beginnings mold her into a self-sufficient, strong woman.

It has a surprise ending.  You will still enjoy the book.

I have a question for those who have read the book.  Near the end, the police pick up Tate.  Why?  Did I miss it?  The next chapter goes on as if Tate wasn't picked up by the sheriff.  What happened?

Why Them and Not Me?

Instead of just giving you the link to this most excellent article I found it worthy enough to copy and paste it in its entirety.  What Pope Francis thinks of prisoners.  This Article is from Aleteia, February 7, 2019.

AFP PHOTO / OSSERVATORE ROMANO/HO

Pope Francis (R) kissing the feet of a young offender after washing them during a mass at the church of the Casal del Marmo youth prison on the outskirts of Rome as part of Holy Thursday. - es

Pope Francis had an audience with the staff of the Regina Coeli Correctional Facility in Rome, and this is what he told them:

~

…

I express to each one of you my acknowledgement and that of the Church for your work alongside the detainees: this requires inner strength, perseverance and awareness of the specific mission to which you are called. And another thing. It takes prayer every day, that the Lord may give you good sense: good sense in the different situations in which you will find yourselves.

The prison is a place of pain in the dual sense of punishment and suffering, and has a great need for attention and humanity. It is a place where all, Penitentiary Police, chaplains, educators and volunteers, are called to perform the difficult task of tending to the wounds of those who, on account of the errors they have made, find themselves deprived of their personal freedom. It is well known that good collaboration between the different prison services provides an action of great support in the re-education of detainees. However, due to a lack of personnel and chronic overcrowding, this painstaking and delicate work risks being in part in vain. Workplace stress caused by pressing shifts and often distance from families are factors that weigh down a job that already involves a certain psychological burden.

Therefore, professional figures such as yours need personal balance and valid motivations, continually renewed; indeed, you are called not only to guarantee the protection, order and security of the institute, but also very often to bind the wounds of men and women you meet on a daily basis in their sections.

No-one may condemn another for the errors he has committed, nor inflict suffering that offends human dignity. Prisons need to be increasingly humanized, and it is painful instead to hear that very often they are considered to be places of violence and illegality, where human evil rages.

At the same time, we must not forget that many detainees are poor people, without points of reference, they have no security, they have no family, they have no means to defend their own rights, they are marginalized and abandoned to their destiny. For society, detainees are uncomfortable individuals, they are rejects, a burden. This is painful, but the collective subconscious leads us there.

But experience shows that prison, with the help of prison workers, can truly become a place of redemption, of resurrection and of change of life; and everything is possible through paths of faith, work and professional formation, but above all with spiritual closeness and compassion, following the example of the Good Samaritan, who stooped to care for his wounded brother. This attitude of closeness, that finds its root in Christ’s love, may favour in many detainees the trust, awareness and certainty of being loved.

In addition, a punishment, any punishment, must not be closed; it must always have “the window open” to hope, on the part of both the prison and of each person. Everyone must always have the hope of partial rehabilitation. Let us think of those serving life sentences, even for them: “With my work in prison…”. Give, do work… Always the hope of rehabilitation. A penalty without hope is useless, it does not help, it provokes in the heart feelings of rancour, very often of revenge, and the person leaves worse than when they entered. No. It is always necessary to ensure that there is hope and to help to see beyond the window, hoping in rehabilitation. I know that you work hard, looking to this future to rehabilitate each one of those who are in prison.

I encourage you to carry out your important work with sentiments of harmony and unity. All together, Directorate, Penitentiary Police, Chaplains, educational sector, volunteers and external community are called to march in a single direction, to help raise up and nurture in hope those who, unfortunately, have fallen into the trap of evil.

For my part, I accompany you with my affection, which is sincere. I have great closeness to prisoners and those who work in prisons. My affection and my prayer, that you may be able to contribute, with your work, to ensuring that prison, a place of pain and suffering, may also be a laboratory of humanity and hope. In the other diocese [Buenos Aires], I often went to the prison; and now every fortnight, on Sunday, I make a telephone call to a group of prisoners in a prison I visited frequently. I am close. And I have always had a sensation when entering a prison: “Why them and not me?” This thought has done me great good. Why them and not me? I could have been there, and instead no, the Lord gave me a grace that my sins and my shortcomings were forgiven and not seen, I don’t know. But that question helps greatly: why them and not me?

I heartily bless all of you and your loved ones, and I ask you, please, to pray for me, as I am in need. Thank you!

Stay and Fight

Bishop Robert Barron has written a little book, Letter to a Suffering Church, to give people hope and reasons to stay Catholic.

The book is only 100 pages and divided into five chapters.  The first one hooks your interest.  Barron explains that the scandals that have gripped the church for the past thirty years have to be the work of Satan.  It's so diabolically clever!  I agree and have thought so for a long time.

The second chapter shows that bad popes, bad clerics, bad behavior, have been with us ever since Judas kissed Christ and Peter denied Him. 

The third chapter is more of the church's ugly history.

Barron says the fourth chapter is the most important.  Maybe.  I don't know it was over my head.   This is the chapter that explains why Catholics should stay and fight.  It probably says we should stay because of the Eucharist. I know that's why I stay.

"The Way Forward," the last chapter, is full of hope. We owe it to the victims of the scandal, to those priests falsely accused, and to our children.  The Catholic Church is too wonderful, the fulfillment of Jesus' promises, to not stay and fight for it. 

Remember Jesus winds in the end.

Hospitality

LECTIO:

Reading 1GN 18:1-10A

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre,

Many times hubby has remarked that company should come over more often because that's the only time the house gets thoroughly cleaned.  I won't admit that there's any truth to that statement, at all!  But you get the point.  

Are we hospital to everyone or only a select few?  We should behave like Abraham and go all out for others.

ORATIO:

Lord, help me to be more gracious and welcoming to all.  Help me understand their needs and try to fulfill them.

CONTEMPLATIO:

In what ways can we exercise welcome for those in need?  Help me to see and understand, especially regarding the crisis of immigration. I am open to help where I can.

RESOLUTIO:

I think I will prepare more food than needed when I make my family's meals and bring the extra to my friend, Donna.  That way, whenever someone unexpected shows up, I'm ready.

My Rebuttal

If you didn't listen to the last essay on yesterday's post's link, then you won't understand to what this essay is referring.  But I think you will be able to put two and two together.

The Conversion on the Way to Damascus (Conversione di San Paolo) is a work by Caravaggio, painted in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome.

The last radio show closed with a piece explaining creativity.  St. Paul was used as an example of a creative spirit being utilized.

It was claimed that St. Paul was a phony.  On the road to Damascus Paul, who was an Ebionite, suddenly got a brilliant idea on how to win fame and fortune.  Instead of fighting the followers of the Nazarene, he would join them and make money off of them.

This claim sparked my creative juices because this depiction of Paul is contrary to the current popular depiction of Paul.  Historically, Paul is one of the most important figures in Western Civilization.  His letters give us knowledge of the culture, politics, and religion of the first centuries, and his biography in the Acts of the Apostles makes him a hero.

That being said, attacks against Paul have been surrounding him ever since he took that fateful journey to Damascus.  Usually, claims against Christian heroes pop up around Christian holidays.  Movies, magazine articles, books, social media, etc., will promote these ideas to sell their products.  You will hear that Paul was a Greek and became circumcised to win the favor of a Jewish girl;[1] Paul was a false apostle, Jesus was a twin, Jesus was married, Paul was married, etc.  All this is nothing new.  Some people like to rain on parades.  Wait for Thanksgiving when you hear that we shouldn’t be giving thanks for democide.  It should be a Day of Mourning.  Or, Columbus Day should be renamed Indigenous People Day.

However, this is not the subject of my essay.  My inspiration was the ending of last month’s reading with the statement, “And that’s the truth.”

What!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing everyone can agree on is that Paul was not stupid.  If what the Ebionites say about Paul making money off the followers of this New Way, is true, he must have been stupid.  Jesus was poor.  His Apostles were poor and the people they attracted were mostly poor.  It wouldn’t have taken Paul long to figure out that there was no money to be made going around preaching Jesus’ Gospel.  Paul was physically persecuted; he was beaten, stoned, left for dead, shipwrecked, imprisoned[2] and had to work as a manual laborer to support himself.[3] Where’s the money?  And this isn’t Paul’s personal claims, Paul’s life was witnessed by many others: Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Timothy, Luke, plus many Corinthians, Ephesians, Athenians, Romans, Philippians, Galatians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Hebrews, etc..

Personally, I think common sense would tell you that Paul was legit.  Let’s say Paul did create a scheme, as the Ebionites claim.  Then where did Ananias get the command to go to Paul and baptize him? Where did that come from?  Let me relate the event:

(Paul is in Damascus.  For three days he’s trying to make sense of things.) Now there was in Damascus, a certain disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold he is praying.’…But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to the saints in Jerusalem. And here too he has authority from the high priests to arrest all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for this man is a chosen vessel to me, to carry my name among the nations, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.[4]

Ananias probably exclaimed, “Are you kidding me? No way, Jesus!”  because Saul would have killed Ananias. Where did this idea come from, if not from God, Himself?

Another factor is that the other apostles accepted Paul.  Peter and Paul argued as teachers do: about dietary laws, circumcision, etc.  But Peter argues as one would with a respected colleague.  Paul was accepted as a bona fide teacher.

And what about Paul’s miracles: A man in Lystra with crippled feet, who was cured,[5] a possessed girl who was being exploited by her masters and Paul freed her,[6] the boy who fell from a great height and thought dead,[7] In fact, Paul’s miracles were so numerous that people just touched Paul with their handkerchiefs to take to others who were diseased, and they were cured?[8] Where did Paul get this authority if he were a false apostle?

Finally, there’s Paul message itself. Paul always taught the Old Testament and Jesus’ Gospel. No one said differently, especially not the other apostles. Paul lived in the same time as the other apostles and they vouched for Paul as specially chosen and anointed.

That being said, Paul does have his opponents: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Romans, the Hebrews, the Ebionites and some other Gnostics. The animosity between these groups and Paul was mutual.

The heresiologist[9] Origen, said the name Ebionites is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “poor.” The early Christians, especially Paul had a field day with the name, saying that the Ebionites were “poor in understanding!”

Unfortunately, the Ebionites faded from history and all we know of them is from their opponents. The Ebionites were Christian followers of Jewish laws.  No wonder the Ebionites and Paul butted heads.  The Ebionites insisted on circumcision and Paul taught that circumcision wasn’t necessary. The Ebionites also taught that Jesus was born as the eldest son of the sexual union of Jesus and Mary.[10] But the subject of this essay isn’t the Ebionites’ beliefs.  Let’s just say that Paul and the Ebionites were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

As I mentioned previously, sources refuting our accepted iconic ideas are nothing new. You will hear: new gospel found, Jesus’ grave found, even Jesus’ body found! Actually, nothing is new. Those who don’t know history, repeat it. There were many writings that didn’t make it in the Bible. Who knows the exact selection process?

                Why wasn’t my story accepted by that magazine? Why wasn’t I hired? Why didn’t I get
                that scholarship?

Selection is arbitrary. I’m sure if a gospel were written by a woman, it was thrown out--there went the gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Acts of Thecla. Maybe a source was just repeating what was already said. For sure, some writings were just too crazy to be acceptable and others, like the Ebionites, were considered heretical. The early church fathers who collected the different sources to collate the Bible couldn’t accept everything. The Bible is a big book as it is! But these sources are still around and will surface every now and then (especially around Christian celebrations) as “newly found.”  They are not new, they are old sources that weren’t chosen to be in the canon of the Bible. Sorry, history is written by the winners, and thus today’s western culture is shaped by the societal ideas and ethics of Paul and the other apostles of Christ.[11]

One last thought regarding the Ebionites and Paul is expressed in a famous metaphor expressed by Jesus warning us against false prophets and how to identify them.  It is Matthew 7: 15: By their fruits you shall know them.

Fruits represent the outward manifestation of a person’s faith and behavior and works.

Faith of the Ebionites – doesn’t exist any more.
Faith of Paul—one of the most influential people in human history in shaping Christian thought.

Behavior of the Ebionites—rejected by Jews and early Christians.
Behavior of Paul—performed miracles, martyred for the Faith.

Works of the Ebionites—never popularly accepted and died out.
Works of Paul—thirteen of the New Testament’s twenty-seven documents are Paul’s letters and the book of Acts is his biography, which adds up to half of the New Testament.

 

So be it.

And that’s the truth!

 

 

 

 

---

[1] Paulproblem.faithweb.com/ebionites.htm ; The picture of Paul as a disappointed lover is a typical creation of the folk imagination.

[2] 2Corinthians 11:23-27.

[3] 1Corinthians 4:12, 1 Corinthians 9:18, 1Thessalonians 2:9, Acts 18:3.

[4] Acts 9: 10-19

[5] Acts 14: 7-9

[6] Acts 16: 16-18

[7] Acts 20: 9-12

[8] Acts 19: 11-12

[9] Opponent of heresy

[10] Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities. Oxford University Press. 2003, 96-99.

[11] Tabor, James D. Paul and Jesus. Simon & Schuster. 2012, preface.

Your Opinion?

I'd like you to listen to this half-hour show, paying attention to the last essay.  Thank you.

What did you think?

https://www.mixcloud.com/waw5114/senior-story-hour-show-10-june-209/?utm_campaign=notification_new_upload&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&utm_content=html

Questioning Young People--They Don't

The problem of why young people aren't interested in religion is because they don't think of the questions religion has answers to.  At least, not yet.  Young adults don't ask "Why am I here?" or "What's the purpose of my life?" 

The big questions are for mature adult thinkers and the young are too busy studying, working, parenting, etc., to have the time to question.

Let's pray they grow up to ask questions.

Young People In My Family

Community Building (1)

Image from Wikihow

Put a bunch of people together and soon disagreements will arise. Living in community is not easy, just ask our friars and nuns. So it is with my "cloistered brothers."  It is gotten to the point of becoming uncomfortable, so James decided to do something about it.  Once a month, the community gathers for a Community Building Workshop.  This is the first one.

Conflicts, problems, and challenges face us. Sometimes we argue over politics, sports, religion, space, etc.  It's life and community is life.  The first thing we change is our use of community.  We are going to look at it as a verb.  Yes, community is work.  Ask any coach.

All communities involve four things: forming, storming, norming and transforming. The first stage is dreaming.  This is what we are doing presently.

On the piece of paper that was given to you write down a problem you see in our community.  Use separate papers for more problems. 

Then stand up.  Crumble your paper into a ball as small as you can.

Now throw it at James!

Since we are a Catholic Community, these paper/problems will be picked up and placed at the foot of the crucifix.

See you next month.

Hopkins is Relateable.

Because of this article https://peggyhaslar.com/2019/07/11/loathing-and-hopelessness-juice-and-joy-gerard-manley-hopkins-secret-sorrow/ I read about Gerard Manley Hopkins, I'll give him another read.  This is a post on Sparrowfare, a blog about literature and grace.  I've always considered Hopkins too esoteric, but Sparrowfare whets my poetic appetite.

Good News

Father George Fitzsimmons talked about evangelism.  What interested me was the origin of the word.  He said evangelists etymology is derived from the Greek.

 Classical Greek euangelion meant "the reward of good tidings;" sense transferred in Christian use to the glad tidings themselves. In Late Latin, Greek eu- regularly was consonantized to ev- before vowels.

 Father George Fitzsimmons

Doesn't it make sense that a Christian evangelist is someone who brings the good news that Jesus Christ loves us, and has saved us?

Over Before It Began

Elena Ferrante's first book, My Brilliant Friend, ended with her husband betraying her.  There!  The marriage was over even before it began.  In the sequel, The Story of a New Name, Lila's new husband is revealed as a brute. Lila married at 16, so it is really no surprise that the marriage is troubled.

Both Lila and Stefano both cheat on each other.  Lila even has a child which she insists isn't Stefano's but rather the love of her life, Nino Sarratore.  Lila's married life may have begun in luxury but the novel ends with her living in a poor neighborhood and working in a factory.  It's quite a fall from grace.  But Lila did this to herself.

The novel ends with a hint to the next sequel.  Nino reappears!

What will happen next?

Confident but Realistic

The beginning of Psalm 31:

In you, O Lord, I take refuge.                     

Let me never be put to shame.

In your justice, set me free,

hear me and speedily rescue me.

and the psalm continues to speak trust in the Lord, no matter whatever kind of distress the psalmist is obviously going through. 

I, on the other hand, also have confidence in the Lord.  But I also know that His Will may be not to save me.  It is all according to His Divine Plan.  So be it.

Discombobulated

Beaver Pond

It started with my alarm NOT going off.  Maybe I slept through it?  Does the alarm on your iPhone stop ringing after a while? 

Anyway, the radio went on and that woke me up because the radio is automatic.  It goes on at 7.  I was supposed to get up at 6.  I jumped out of bed.  I didn't comb my hair.  I didn't have coffee, never mind breakfast.  I didn't brush my teeth.  I threw on my clothes and flew out the door and drove like a maniac to my daughters.

She was sitting in her car waiting for me to turn into her driveway.  She was late for work.  So now her entire day will be late.  If she is late for her first patient, then each patient after that will be late.  Her day was long and now even longer.

My grandchildren were watching TV.  I brought them over to my house forgetting that I didn't have any breakfast food.  So for breakfast, we had strawberry shortcake.  The kids ate while I got dressed more appropriately, washed up, etc.  But when it was time to leave (I had an appointment to get a hair cut.) I couldn't find my keys.  Again I was rushed!  My appointment!  I grabbed the car's spare key, gathered the kiddos and left.  I couldn't lock the door--no house keys.  Then, as I approached the car I heard its engine.

Oh no!

I left the keys in the car with the engine running.  But it was a hot July day so the car windows were opened. 

The grandchildren were excellent at the hairdresser's.  I was proud of them.

The first place we were going to was Choate Park, in Medway.  We checked it out.  There was no swimming in the pond.  There were a beautiful playground and a new splash pad.

But my grandchildren were too old for the toddlers that were there.  There were no kids their age around.  OK.  I drove us all back to Franklin.  They love Beaver Pond.  It's not crowded and it's clean. 

The kids had a great time.  I couldn't even get them to come out of the water to eat.  I tried to take pictures but my iPhone didn't seem to be working well.  It was frozen.

We spent most of the day there.  The kids made friends.  I lost my keys again but found them.  I lost my iPhone but found it.  I forgot suntan lotion.  While helping to blow up a ball, I tripped and fell--in the water!

Then the ice cream man came.  These same kids who wouldn't come out for lunch somehow managed to run out to the ice cream man!  Meanwhile, I was trying to text their mom to come to get them at the pond, instead of picking them up at my house.  But she wasn't responding.  Was my iPhone working????

I had to get the kids out of the water to go home since I couldn't reach their mother.  And that wasn't easy and took time. Misplaced the iPhone again, but found it.

Finally home.  But their mother was late because her schedule got backed up.  I was anxious for the kids to leave because I had a headache.  I had sand in every orifice in my body.  I was sunburnt. I wanted to shower and put on clean clothes (pajamas if I could) and I desperately needed to take a nap.

And now I am.