Thinking there would be a recent Vessel Schedule, I didn't check out the ship's name with binoculars, and it doesn't clarify to legible when enlarged, so I can't tell her name to refer to the schedule about her size, where she came from, what she's loading (standing high in the water, she's obviously arriving to load, not to unload), how long she'll be here, or where she's going. No matter, eh? Joe's here, I'm having a cup of Lucky Goat coffee in my new coffee mug which, at first glance, looks endearing like lovely Blue Willow, but peering closer there are threatening monsters, including one wielding a mace and having a go at me, another apelike, another crocodilian with sharp teeth and a huge froggy mouth, a creature like R2D2, and pteradactyls in the sky. Over against the compellingly peaceful scenes in Blue Willow, it does not look a warm place to live and love, or even to be. But it holds my usual three-cup coffee perk instead of my having ...

202212252057, 8:57 pm on Christmas Night, three hours left in the magic. Joe's plane has left Charlotte, NC and Tass and Jeremy have headed to FortWalton/Destin airport to meet him. Completion of the family gathering is running late here. We have Joe's bed ready in my study/office/den and, because the HVAC keeps that room coldest in the house, and because Joe is prone to getting chilled, a new electric blanket on the bed for him. Winter weather, meteorologists called it a bomb cyclone, snow storm, temperatures here in the, what? low twenties, high teens? Joe was expected Friday, then Saturday, finally got out of Louisville to Charlotte on Sunday Christmas Day, and now enroute to the Florida Gulf Coast where we should be greeting him with a short sleeve shirt and a glass of ice tea. But Christmas Weekend 2022 did a number on our part of the world.  It's no complaint, more people are dead than alive, Life Is Good, and we are happy and fortunate to be here! Besides, I remember...

  “The king shall come when morning dawns, and light triumphant breaks” - - it you were here Sunday morning, November 27th, you may remember we sang this as our opening hymn to welcome Advent, and I used it to introduce the SHEKINAH, a Hebrew/Jewish notion of God's glory present on Earth with God’s people.  Advent comes to fulfillment at Christmas, when we light the Christ Candle, which some of us see (I DO) as symbolizing the SHEKINAH, the Light of Christ the Messiah returning at last! It goes back into Genesis, the Beginning, and a long story. I want to remind you:  Genesis 15, Abram/Abraham in the terrifying darkness, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch, the presence of God consuming Abram’s bloody sacrifice: Shekinah! Exodus 3, God confronting Moses from the burning bush: Shekinah! Exodus 13, forty years in the wilderness, God present for his people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night: Shekinah! Throughout the Book of Joshua, God empowering th...

  Holiday plans include activities and food. Joe just texted from Louisville, Kentucky that he's at the gate, his flight still listed as On Time. If it goes, and if the connection in Charlotte works, we should be greeting him at ECP airport at noon. It's a family event, Joe is much loved, was always piled on by mobs of little ones, his visits excitedly anticipated by all, and Kristen is to drive us to the airport. Ray, Britany, Lilly are expected this morning, I believe to organize the cooking for tomorrow's Winter Feast. Actually, it's two days, Sunday and Monday, 25 & 26 December. Mind, we have ham, turkey, beef; our Winter Feast is not like the Autumn Feast in Harfang, land of civilized giants in "The Silver Chair" of the Narnia chronicles. Harfang, where humans are a rare and choice dish on the Autumn Feast menu, but, to Puddleglum's upset and distress, marsh-wiggles, frog-like pessimistic Narnian creatures, are listed as stringy and tough. Puddleg...

Yes, I'm too early up, but it's a day of life to live, love, anticipate, and enjoy - - Robert Frost is right "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep"  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening BY  ROBERT FROST Whose woods these are I think I know.    His house is in the village though;    He will not see me stopping here    To watch his woods fill up with snow.    My little horse must think it queer    To stop without a farmhouse near    Between the woods and frozen lake    The darkest evening of the year.    He gives his harness bells a shake    To ask if there is some mistake.    The only other sound’s the sweep    Of easy wind and downy flake.    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,    But I have promises to keep,    And miles to go before I sleep,  ...

  Misty, sort of misty this morning. Except for the red flashing light the U S Coast Guard installed last spring to mark the burned out shrimp boat, an all gray day. Gray but not blah.  Busy POD for today, tomorrow, and Friday, and weather, the temperature, forecast to plunge into the low twenties for Christmas Weekend. We are, I am, so glad we no longer live in a house,  with pipe-bursting worries, dripping faucets, potted plants brought inside, beloved plants covered, cars winterized (well, we did bring in all the plastic bottles of water, but no tire chains, no snow tires, no snowplows &c), no show shovel, I gave my heavy overcoat away nearly forty years ago when we relocated home to Florida from Pennsylvania. A condo, 7H with a situation including outlook on StAndrews Bay that perfectly suits my personality, this is the best of all places for an octogenarian who's looking forward to my eighty-eighth Christmas.  Wishing you also long years.  Another ...

  Ah! This morning, Fr Richard Rohr's  meditation (below, scroll down)  quotes a thought from Madeleine L'Engle in which she stands outside her cottage and contemplates Creation, Creator, Universe, and Us. It's concise, and as close as I remember reading to what I also see but try in vain, and frustration, to express in rambling rumination that goes on and on and on. For anyone who may be taken aback by her assertion that "Christ called everything into being,"  it's not yet Jesus of Nazareth, nor is it a messiah (Greek, "christ") anointed in David's line; she's talking about the Word, the Logos of whom Gospel John says, "In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through the Word, and without the Word was not anything made that was made. ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." John goes on to clarify that the Word (Logos) that becam...