Almsdeeds and compassion filled your life with their splendors

Irish Rune of Hospitality

I saw a stranger yestreen;

I put food in the eating place,

Drink in the drinking place,

Music in the listening place

And in the name of the Triune

He blessed myself and my house,

My cattle and my dear ones, and the lark said in her song

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise,

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.

"St. Martin of Tours was born in Pannonia (Hungary today), the son of a pagan soldier in the Roman army. Martin joined the army, and also became a catechumen. While in the army in France, one bitter cold night Martin shared his military cloak with a naked beggar, and that night Martin had a dream: he saw Christ wearing the halved cloak he had given to the beggar. Soon after, Martin was baptized and left the army, determined to be a 'soldier of Christ.'

He became a hermit, and founded a hermitage at Liguge in France. He was elected bishop of Tours because of his reputation for holiness-and because he was already famous for his miracles: he is said to have raised a dead man to life, to have cured a leper with a kiss, to have conversed frequently with angels and with saints. At his episcopal ordination, some complained that he was not a nobleman, and he had 'dirty clothes and unkempt hair.' (He was forever giving his nice things away to the poor.) Be that is it may, Martin's holiness was universally recognized, and when he died in 397, he became one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint."  from Evelyn Birges Vitz's, A Continual Feast: A cookbook to celebrate the joys of family and faith through the Christian year

In Blackwater Woods

It is a chill, blustery, gray November day here in Davenport, Iowa. Upstairs the children are munching on their before breakfast sack, an Aldi knock-off of Kashi's Go Lean Crunch cereal (because I am that ridiculous) and creating with Legos. Thomas has constructed the archangel Michael and Death and brought down the dragon he shaped out of beeswax yesterday; a big fight out is imminent. Today I am deeply grateful for these little ones, my precious children, with their tiny jammies, their sticking up in the back hair, their silly jokes, their curiosity, and the beauty of their imagination. Today I am content, thankful for the first sip of the coffee my husband made just for me like he does every morning while I am huddled up asleep in our bed (because he is that kind), for the oversized, blue, fluffy robe enveloping my body- the robe that was my father's briefly and now is mine-, for the potato soup and loaf of molasses bread that we will offer thanks for this evening and then consume. Today I am thankful anew to be alive, to be exactly where I have been placed, to be given a new day, a new chance to love. May God help me. Peace and goodness to you all on this Wednesday.

In Blackwater Woods

Mary Oliver

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning 

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able 

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

Halloween 2011

So nothing terribly original like last year's costumes of Dr. Omar and Johnny Cash (though Russell was initially planning on dressing up as Joan of Arc until he was wooed by the bright colors of the clown costume our neighbor Leah gave us). Although Thomas did don a Grandma Johnson original.

Boo at the Zoo

Halloween Eve trick or treat

Elliot as The Pirate

So I totally know why people are terrified by clowns. Russell's make-up artist, aka Jared, in retrospect decided that covering up the eyebrows was not a good idea. 

Lucia, of course, insisted upon being Mary Poppins but also wanted to wear the princess dress our neighbor gave to us. Leslie, this is the Mary Poppin's hat that Jared would wear for the reading of the book.

For the record (because there was some confusion), Thomas is Robin Hood, not Peter Pan.

A friend to man

With Jesus. For Jesus. To Jesus.

-Mother Teresa

The House by the Side of the Road

Sam Walter Foss

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn

In the peace of their self-content;

There are souls, like stars, that swell apart,

In a fellowless firmament;

There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths

Where highways never ran;

But let me live by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road,

Where the race of men go by;

The men who are good and the men who are bad,

As good and as bad as I.

I would not sit in the scorner's seat,

Or hurl the cynic's ban;

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road,

By the side of the highway of life,

The men who press with the ardor of hope,

The men who are faint with the strife.

But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears

Both parts of an infinite plan;

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

Where the race of men go by;

They are good, they are bad, they are weak,

They are strong,

Wise, foolish - so am I.

Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat

Or hurl the cynic's ban? -

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

For any locals, Michael at the Oaks of Mamre is in need of blankets to hand out. You can contact him or me if you have any available. Also, if interested, you can read more about the Catholic Worker movement here. And the Orthodox Peace Fellowship here. Peace and goodness.