Snow in Atlanta! Hooray!

I knew it! The moment that I wrote that post the weather aligned and the white stuff started falling a few days later. Of course, it came on the day that I already had off so no "snow day" for me. It still was beautiful and so peaceful. It made my day.

I love water in all forms.

No snow in Atlanta

We have had temperatures similar to many of my family members and friends around the country in Atlanta this winter. Even a 16 degree day, but no snow. What gives? I mean the horribly cold days are more manageable because of the beautiful snow (and the days off work). I don't get it.

They do ship snow in to Atlanta so that Stone Mountain can become Snow Mountain for Jan and Feb. Aren't we in a drought?

Oh well, Spring in Atlanta is amazing, so the end is near. March will bring flowers, perfect running weather and then soon baseball season begins. I can smell the hotdogs and peanuts already. I love the sun, however, I think I must have gills or webbed feet because I really do miss the water. Hopefully we will get some time away this summer at the beach.

Happy Lent to those who celebrate this season.

"Stay"cations rock!

Mrs. Fishy and I are living in the economic crisis, like the rest of world, and we needed a break from work, so we did the new hip and trendy thing to do - we vacationed at home.

Who needs the flashy hotel with uncomfortable pillows when you can have a perfect night's sleep at home? We don't have to pay for the movies either. Sure we missed the beach side view, but we did get to enjoy the view of our new flowers (that we planted) in our yard.

It has renewed our sense of wonderlust - we watch Mamma Mia, so Greece is definitely on our list. Who knows where we will go? We are waiting to see how big the tax refund actually is with all of Obama's new tax incentives. Yay Democrats!

Obama

Well, it happened. Obama made it to office and it was a great day. I am looking forward to more inspiring days, because lord knows we need them.

Wish it was snowing in Atlanta. I could really use the day off. It is just as cold, but not nearly as pretty as it could be.

Looking forward to vacation time over President's Day.

Hope

As I said a couple of entries ago, I was angry and tired. This letter from Thomas Merton. It is a letter to a young activist. It is not easy to read, but man it is good news. Stop worrying about making the world a better place and trusting that it will become a better place and focus on relationships and living life.

So my question is do I strike at work along with other GLBT folks across America to make a difference? How is that making a difference?


LETTER TO A YOUNG ACTIVIST, by Thomas Merton

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself. And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually as you struggle less and less for an idea, and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.

You are fed up with words, and I don’t blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell you the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of meaning left in it. And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever in order to make the meaning be there again by magic. Going through this kind of reaction helps you to guard against this. Your system is complaining of too much verbalizing, and it is right.

…The big results are not in your hands or mine, but they suddenly happen, and we can share in them, but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which after all is not that important.

The next step in the process is for you to see that your even thinking about what you are doing is crucially important. You are probably striving to build yourself an identity in your work, out of your work and witness. You are using it, so to speak, to protect yourself against nothingness, annihilation. That is not the right use of your work. All the good that you will do will come, not from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God’s love. Think of this more and gradually you will be free from the need to prove yourself, and you can be more open to the power that will work through you without your knowing it.

The great thing after all is to live, not to pour out your life in the service of a myth; and we turn the best things into myths. If you can get free from the domination of causes and just serve Christ’s truth, you will be able to do more and will be less crushed by the inevitable disappointments. Because I see nothing whatever in sight but much disappointment, frustration, and confusion.

The real hope, then, is not in something we think we can do, but in God who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. If we can do His will, we will be helping in this process. But we will not necessarily know all about it beforehand . . .

What are you having for thanksgiving dinner?

Okay, so for the first time ever...we are making a thanksgiving dinner. Probably about the right time, just bought a house might as well use it for dinner.

We are having lots of fun food (all handmade), but it seems to be a bit starch heavy. any body have any veggie recipes for the holiday?

Time to start catching up...

I am tired and angry.

When will things ever change?

Just went to Catie Curtis concert last night and heard lots of hope and still the message of when will things change.

Check out these lyrics:

http://www.lyricstime.com/catie-curtis-what-s-the-matter-lyrics.html

oh and look at Catie Curtis' radical - you can listen to it on her website.