INFUENCES

It was a relief when Kim decided to go to the walk in clinic as I for one was getting very worried about her very sore throat. and her tiredness.  The doctor said it was probably mono and she is started on penicillin and will have a blood test to-morrow.  She was told she should not go to school as she is contagious..  This is tough when she is just starting.  We are all going to be very careful and use special soap etc.

It is so hard to get the depth of this  very deep canyon.  I was  up on the bridge at Cougar Canyon a few blocks from home.
I went the short cut way which was easier.  I am still walking but again just a short one and will have to gradually progress a little farther.

I was off to U.C.W. luncheon yesterday.  Not really feeling like going but fortunately I am able to choose so much of what I do.

They ask how I am.  I tell them I am fine, a little bit up and down.  I laugh to myself as I think that is truer than they realize and yes I was being honest!  A wonderful group of women I enjoy being with because we have a lot of fun. 

I think that we are all influenced by the things we read whether it is the newspaper, a novel or a true story.  One book that I have been reading is "A Paradise Built In Hell" by Rebecca Solnit.  It is about the extraordinary communities that arise after a  disaster.  "It makes a compelling study for the ability of ordinary people to collectively surmount the direst challenges".

Disasters like the earth quake in San Francisco, New York's 9/11, the Halifax explosion, the Mexico city earthquake  and the Hurricane Katrina.  There were others too.  She travelled to the areas after a year or two in order to find out what had happened to people immediately after and then in years later.

Doris Day (9) who was shaken up in the San Francisco earth quake, and home alone when it happened was one of the chapters.  Parents had rescued the other children and she had been left alone in the house which was shaking violently.  A miracle she survived!

In 1930's she wrote that what she remembered after was most plainly  the human warmth and kindness of everyone afterward.  For days refugees poured out of the  burning city and camped in Idora Park and the race track in Oakland.  People came in their night clothes and there were even new born babies.  People and all the neighbors were busy from morning to night cooking hot meals.  They gave away clothes  and blankets with generous hearts. 

This was a life changing experience for her as she continued to reach out and help the poor and needy later in life.

She had experienced years of poverty herself as they ended up in Chicago.  She felt everyone should take on   "helping the lame, the halt and the blind not just special groups like the Salvation Army".  She believed in loving and caring for your neighbor there was the gift of an abundant life, the one Jesus talked about.  She had a yearning for God and for this love.  She was a radical and found that the church did not have the same visions she did.  Neither did the man she fell in love with and they parted ways.  Her soul longed to express joy and love that comes from knowing your purpose in life, a complete sense of self expressed in  helping others.

"She wrote that people have a great need to reverence not only creation but a Creator from whom all love flows."  She and a friend would open Houses of Hospitality to meet the needs of the poor personally.

This is just one story of how suffering can be transformed into courage.

When one is doing the right thing determination and courage come and influences for change are possible.  Just one of many stories.

Thursday.
I plan to go visiting and arriving with a milkshake today.  Praying that Kim will feel a little better but I know it will take time. 

Dad went  on a long bike ride to Boundary Bay Airport and came home exhausted but pleased with himself.  He and Pentali were riding on the dike at about the same time on a perfect day.