Two Deadly Viruses
The resurgence of COVID-19 cases is . . . daunting. So, too, a new tidal wave of Potomac Fever is stunning.
Is anybody really surprised?
In some ways, I feel like I am in the middle of a recurring nightmare that puts me in a panic.
The dream I have had has different scenarios, but the same theme – final exams loom. I am unprepared, and unable to find the room where the tests are administered. Fear of failure and summer school loom large, waking me up.

It’s Finals Week?
Now, I don’t have this dream as often as I did. However, this year, 2020, is filled with the prospect of exams from classes I didn’t even know I was cutting.
I wonder what remedial classes would look like if we make it to summer school!
These are the interesting times, I suppose, in which some wished we might live.
Yet here we are, dear reader: alive and connecting through words, and pictures. Being alive, not hospitalized or in a rehab facility is a bigger blessing than I ever imagined.
“Mamma says gratitude helps us to see what is there instead of what isn’t.”
― Annette Bridges
There is plenty of what isn’t everywhere I look – thank you, God for what is. Just enumerating all I too often take for granted calms my nerves, and reorients the SELF-ABSORPTION we seniors can lapse into. Self absorption, at any age isn’t attractive; but it does reflect the times: times when everybody seems to be doing what they feel like doing.
Who knew an ancient biblical observation would be so spot on describing our times? (Judges 17:6 )
Countering A Resurgence and Tidal Wave
I am grateful for plain-spoken gardening tips that help me counter the resurgence:
. . . [R]emember how the many hard situations in our lives that seem like poop in the way they affect us or in the way they make us feel. But poop turns into the compost that makes the soil of our faith grow. I know it is a crass illustration, but it is real and true. Think about it! ~ Thankful for what Hard Times Teach, Martha Grimm Bady
So what’s the poop in my life today? Isolation? Fear? Exasperation?
How will I, by God’s grace, work them into the soil of my autumn’s garden, expectantly? That might help me sleep more soundly, huh?
Psalm 121 has never been a more practical spade in new ways . . . especially in the New Living Translation.
Do you have a “composting” tool you recommend?
Rest well, friend . . . And don’t cut any classes!

Skipping the Pity Party Today, Anyway

Just for Today