With a little help from my friends
 
All of you please accept my thanks for your prayers and good wishes. They make a difference. It makes a difficult time easier to endure. I think I can physically "feel" prayers for me.
 
Here's something I've been meditating on; it has to do with being in a dim or dark place in my life. At these times, God might be right there; Jesus might be knocking at the door of my heart, but my own spiritual malaise makes it very difficult to feel that nearness, to be aware of that presence.
 
When I can't grasp the light to cut the darkness around me, when I can't seek the face of God, I can still see God's light reflected in the loving people around me.
 
At church tonight, I looked at the face of Mother Marvelous, who gave us a scare with her health this past week. When I look in her face, I see the light of God and the love of Christ. It is here, in the world. It is in her. It is in Deacon S., manifested in a different way, and in the Rector in yet another way. It's in adorable Doria, who shines with the light of a city on hill, though telling her that embarrasses her. It's in so many at that church.
 
This is what keeps me going through the dry times, and why it's so important to be in community, in a caring family of faith.
 
***** 
 
A friend sent me an article that was published in Newsday last week, an article by Jimmy Breslin called "As the List Grows, Bush is Unmoved."

Breslin is passionate in his disgust for Bush, and in his empathy for all the young lives wasted in Iraq for a war that shouldn't have happened.
 
Even back in the days when I thought there might actually be weapons of mass destruction that needed to be removed from Iraq, I vehemently opposed sending in troops. Didn't we learn anything from Viet Nam? There are smarter and better ways than the cowboy charge.
 
Breslin's is a powerful indictment of the man who "wanted to be a wartime president."  Well, the man got his wish, but not exactly the way he wanted, I suspect.
 
I guess Bushie thought there would be more glory as a 'heroic' wartime prez, and the public easier to manipulate in a wartime situation -- gotta stay patriotic and support the shrub, whatever he does. It's amazing.
 
Here's the link to the article, published online at "Common Dreams."  http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0715-08.htm