Chelsea woke me up at the ungodly hour of 5:40AM. I took her outside long enough to do what was necessary, gave her some lettuce and went back to bed. I shut the door (A trick we have learned.) and the next thing I knew it was 7:00AM and I was raring to go. It was even light out. We had a reasonable walk but I would not let her go into the park as I draw the line at climbing over snow drifts just for a walk.

Bible study this morning. We had some very interesting pre-discussions today. Tom Keyes had watched 60 Minutes last night and informed us that according to the show, there is no longer a Christian/Catholic church recognized in Iraq. It has, according to his interpretation, become an offense punishable by death to be Christian/Catholic. If this is so, and I must do some investigating, I need to contact Mr. Bush and our representatives and find out why we are sending our young men to this country to die. We are a Christian country who accommodates other religious beliefs. We should not be supporting governments that are persecuting people for whatever their religious beliefs.

Then Peggy Feider, one of our participants, told us of an experience that she and her husband had in Florida. Their daughter lives in "the slums" (her terms). She sent them for Sunday Mass to a church just a block or so away from her apartment. Imagine their surprise when they arrived and found that they were the only white faces in the congregation. Peggy herself is a lovely blond lady. Well, they took a deep breath, walked in and took their place. Shortly, one of the ushers came and greeted them and asked if they would bring the gifts up to the altar at the Offeratory. They accepted. Then at the end of the Mass, the pastor asked if there were any visitors. (Well, DUH!) So they stood up and were greeted with a polite round of applause.

Then we got to the readings. Would you believe that they related to the two above experiences. The first was Isaiah 11:1-10 which talks of lions lying down with lambs and that God does not judge by appearance OR hearsay. Then the Gospel was from Matthew - the story of John the Baptist and we certainly could not have judged HIM by appearance, what with his running around the dessert in camel hair coats and eating honey and locusts. We decided that maybe they taste better covered in honey and would at least be crunchy.

Anyway, we need to pray for tolerance and that means that EVERYBODY may have to develop a thicker skin. Most of the time people, in my experience, don't set out to insult or disparage others. Perhaps a little understanding and patience.

This afternoon, I had my annual mammogram. Will hear in about a week but everything seemed fine on the initial exam.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth meeting. The lot wasn't plowed. That turned out to be quite an experience as some of the members were getting stuck. But it all worked out and Crunch had a plow on his truck and got most of it pretty well cleared. The meeting went quite well, even with both the president and vice president were both gone. Guess what, Bobbie let the meeting. Secretaries are next in line.

Now we are home and safe in our nice warm little house. Tomorrow is a stay at home day.

Hope your day is pleasant and safe too.

Love

Mary