Heart thread - 8/7/2008

My friend Sandi asks our prayers for her mother Lois whose perspective on reality advances toward a minority position, as happens to so many of us in later years, and who has begun to wander about, causing distress to the family and fears for her safety. Sandi's husband Louis, meanwhile, is back home in Texas recuperating from the trauma of losing his eye and pondering what to do next in his life. He needs your continued prayers as well. Please remember Sandi, far from both of them and concerned for each.

The Fluffy One (Eileen) bids our prayers for Rita, her grandmother, who is in hospital, and for her mother who has a hard time in the midst of it all. Eileen and the whole family are in our hearts and prayers as well.

Among the blessings of the work-travel situation is meeting new friends. One of these is my co-worker Deborah. We got to know each other one Saturday when she came to me with questions and we have enjoyed each other since then.

Deborah is not only a fellow Episcopalian but a member of St Cuthbert's Church - only the one in Houston, not the one in Oakland. With the exception of a chapel in a convent in New York State, I am not aware of any other St Cuthbert's Episcopal Churches in the United States. If I am wrong, please let me know; I'd love to hear of others.

Deborah is also the latest victim of my fiction. We talked about it and next thing you know she is in possession of one of the few copies of the first draft. Last night she treated as she, her sister, and her daughter (all three of them lovely ladies) and I dined on delicious tapas and I recounted the Chronicles of Midhris (copyright by me, y'all) orally. Today was her last day on this job as she returns to home and to teaching, her regular job. A huge thank you to Deborah and godspeed as you return to your home.

Last Saturday I talked on the phone with Phyllis, the dearest woman, who endures the progression of a brain tumor and proceeds on her final journey this side of glory. Please keep her, her husband Fred, and the family in your prayers as well.

My BFF and I are making plans for the road trip to California next month for my eldest grandnephew's wedding and general visiting of dear friends and old haunts. I am excited about this. I need a vacation and I have not been "home" since moving to New Mexico (two years ago this week). Albuquerque is my home now but I will always be a Californian no matter where I live, as it is my birth soil.


Kirstin is not up to much blogging or correspondence these days as she takes her interferon treatments. All the more reason to keep her in our hearts as she takes this challenging stretch of life's journey.

We continue to hold Elizabeth and her loved ones in prayer following the death of her mother and now the birth of Mason James, a fifth grandchild!

I rejoice in the goodness of the earth and of those who celebrate her. Check out the mycophagist and his photos here. He's pretty darned cute too but don't tell him I said so. And johnieb is sharing some amazing pics too.

Feel free to pray for the Anglican Communion if you're up for it. [I'm not.] Way I see it, Jesus will take care of the church (gates of hell and all that) and our job is to be faithful to the Gospel. So I put my energy on trying to be ever more deeply grasped by and comprehending of the Good News and leave the church to Jesus. We must continually die to what we are in order to become what we might be (grain of wheat etc.), and that is true of each of us and of our collectivities, the church being no exception. If we try to preserve the AC we shall surely lose it: reasoning based on analogy with the highest authority telling us to lose our lives if we would save them. As for calls to sacrifice, I've repeatedly offered to sacrifice the AC for the sake of living the Good News, but the bishops aren't taking me up on that offer and I refuse to do it the other way around and sacrifice the Good New for the sake of the Anglican Communion. There you have it.

Do pray for New Orleans and her people. Grandmère Mimi has a wonderful post up today.

Tandaina is finally at seminary. Hooray. And "bless her heart" (in the three falling tones manner that acknowledges she's bitten off quite a bit, God help her). I pray this grace-filled poet will bless the school and the school will bless her.

Doxy has a moving and well-written post up springing from her attendance at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and from her great heart of compassion. It merits a read. Check out this excerpt:

If you are one of the millions of Americans who struggles with your weight, you will recognize the inner voice that tempts you to do things you know in your heart are not healthy for you. Taking sexual risks is really no different than taking the risk of eating too much of the wrong kind of food---they are both rooted in human behaviors that are both deeply meaningful in and of themselves and necessary for the survival of the species. Sex and food are the basic foundations for human life--which is why this struggle is, in some ways, a Sisyphean one.

Until and unless researchers develop a vaccine for HIV, we will only combat the spread of the epidemic by recognizing this fact and developing a way to deal with it--a way that does not stigmatize or demonize those who are, ultimately, only being human.

Let us pray for those who live with HIV/AIDS throughout the world, those who love them, those at risk, the dying, the living, and AIDS orphans. Let us pray for research and a cure, and for destigmatizing disease, for an end to fear and ignorance.

I give thanks that TheMeThatIsMe is blogging again and had such a grand adventure with Mad Priest, going of to Glasgow to hear Bishop Robinson preach.

Of course, and as usual, I have forgotten so many who need our prayers and so many who pray for us (and let us define "prayer" so broadly that none feel excluded or offended by the term). feel free, as ever, to add your own requests, thanksgivings, etc. in comments.

And now, to gather up all the crumbs, a video I found chez FranIAm:



Amen.
--the BB