Sunny Saturday

I got up early this morning to make a salad for a Christmas gathering I am attending later in the day. I call it Jody's salad, in honor of my ex-sister-in-law, who gave me the recipe. The Christmas party is a "border crossing" experience in the lingo of JustFaith, the faith and justice group I am sort of leading. The four women who are participants in JustFaith with me, include two religious from the Sisters of Notre Dame, an ex-religious, who is now an Associate of the order, and 1 other Associate - besides me, also an Associate. We are an eclectic little group, in spite of the fact that we are all of similar religious persuasion. We have very different life experiences, which we shared when we went on retreat together in September. I am ostensibly the leader of the group, because I attend to the logistics of getting us together, and mind the syllabus that comes from the JustFaith office. But in actuality, we sit and talk every few weeks about matters of faith and justice, and I am a participant like everyone else. I look forward to our gatherings, though the drive up to Chardon is quite a haul, especially from Kent, when I leave from work.

Today we are meeting with a group called L'Arche, which is a group home for the mentally challenged. We are going to spend a couple of hours helping them decorate their home for Christmas and then have a meal with them. I'm not sure how I will react to this immersion experience. The idea is to walk in someone else's shoes for a bit. Will this "taste" of someone else's life really change me? That is the idea.... But we'll have to see how I feel about it after it is over. I only know that driving to a new place by myself is a bit stressful, and I have been thinking about the drive rather than the experience most of the morning.

I have a huge grocery list sitting on the frig right now, and after visiting L'Arche, I intend to go grocery shopping. Going to the store on a Saturday night should be pleasant, as I expect the store will be quite empty of patrons. That's the way I like it.

I was thinking I should find a Christmas icon to put on this page - because I like icons, and also because I want to test the picture capture of this blog application.



Byzantine icon adopted into Catholicism as Our Lady of Perpetual Help
This is the image of Mary in the chapel down at Walsh U. I have a glass disk with this image enclosed, upstairs in the reading nook.

Well, it looks like this blog application posts pictures very well.