2007-01-21

Our day began quite early compared to most Sundays, as Mick needed to go to St. Luke’s and spread calcium chloride on the walkways and parking lots before people started showing up for the service.

It was sleeting and the road conditions were marginal so I asked Mick to drive my neighbor, Calvin, and me to church for the service, which was held two hours early, at 9 AM, so that the whole parish could have their annual meeting before lunch. It was unfortunate that the weather was so poor, as about half of the congregation stayed home. The meeting was a good one. This is a happy, productive and spirit-filled parish. I am thankful to be a part of it.

The music we got to sing was delightful today – O Light Divine by Archangelsky and the chorus, There Shall A Star From Jacob Come Forth, from Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah, one of my favorite sacred choral pieces of all time, right on the heels of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, his Christmas Oratorio and Brahms’ and Mozart’s Requiems. Well, I love Bach’s Passions also, but they are long, long pieces with many narrative recitatives, better for a quiet listen during seasons of repentance as a background to contemplation than music to play in happier and less introspective times.

During the meeting, a neighbor told me that our power was out at Camelot, which is to be expected during an ice storm. However the power company had the power on in about two hours, a record fast time. We were most grateful! We had just prepared food for the entire week and would have hated to lose it.

After Mick picked me up from church we had a good meal together, then a bath and then Jim watched the Saints lose to the Bears. I am happy for Chicago, but I had really wanted the Saints to win, as after Hurricane Katrina, and no real progress of clean-up in its aftermath, I truly wished for them to have some good fortune. There was an excellent piece before the game on the lack of progress especially in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans and I give kudos to Terry Bradshaw for making the situation clear to the world. I only wish he had run an 800 number for donations. I imagine he could have raised some serious funds for rehabbing those sad streets the TV showed so well, as that audience was huge.

Oh well. The Saints did make it to the play-offs, and they win on style points. Their uniforms are the most handsome ones around, I think.

Meanwhile I snuggled up to Jim’s side and conked out for a good nap. It turned out that Jim slept through a lot of the game also. We were making up for lost morning sleep and it felt wonderful.

We bathed and then welcomed Carmen and Romi for the meditation meeting at 4 PM. Romi set up for the broadcast of the channeling and I am happy to say that it went well today, as opposed to our last broadcast, which failed to air because of a glitch which Romi never could find. The question was on how polarity works; specifically what effect imperfect action has on pure intentions as to polarity. I look forward to editing the response from the Q’uo group.

We talked a bit about ways to let more people know we are broadcasting, as we are collecting only small listening audiences. We decided that Romi would write a letter for Gary to send to the UPI send group and the Gatherings send group, and Gary would send the letter on to Tim for his Light/Lines send group. I will write Don and Wynn at BBS radio and ask them to shout it out also over their network.

We had Romi’s Love Tea afterwards, with the spinach-artichoke dip which we had baked. Conversation flowed and then dinner was enjoyed by all. We turned the other semi-final play-off on, with the Colts eventually trouncing the New England Patriots. I was not happy with that game’s outcome either, as I have an ancient grudge against the Colts organization. The owner pulled up big rigs in the middle of the night in Baltimore, years ago, and snuck out of town with no announcement, having found a better deal for himself in Indianapolis. It was a shabby move and they are still in disfavor with me! Oh well. I must say it was a good game, one which kept me awake! We talked to Mom during the game, getting that weekly call in.

We offered the Gaia Meditation at 9 PM, with Gary offering the ending prayer and I knitted for a while as the game played out on TV. We ended the day, as always, snuggling with the kitties before saying good night.