Good things happening

Smiling is a good thing to do, though when I was in therapy at The Meadows, I was told that I smiled "incongruently." Back then I did. I still smile a lot, probably because my mother always told me as I grew up to "put a pleasant expression on my face." It is always surprising what happens when I smile at a random stranger in the supermarket.

So here are some good things that I am smiling about:

• Margie is out of the ICU and in a private room. I visited her today and was glad to see her looking so much better, even though she was still on oxygen and was wheezing and coughing. Thank you for praying for her.

• Yesterday CB belatedly realized he left his tools, including the new drill our children gave him for Christmas, on the Habitat house porch. When he went back, the tools (worth about $400) were nowhere to be found. BUT today he got a phone call from some electricians, who found the tools and took them with them. Tonight CB got his tools back!

• I finished the newest Maisie Dobbs mystery this afternoon. It was excellent, and I highly recommend it. If you have not read this mystery series (of seven volumes), I urge you to get one from your public library and read it. It's about an exceptional woman after WWI in Great Britain. Through reading these books, I've learned about WWI, of which I was sadly ignorant.

• Tonight Episcopal priest and writer Tom Ehrich spoke about reconciliation at All Saints Episcopal Church. He actually compared human relationships to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" in that we have three options of responses: hot, cold, and just right. The middle way (of just right) is the difficult path of reconciliation, which brings about transformation--that is through a path of unknowing and un-comfortable-ness.

• I've actually seen daffodils blooming here in Corpus Christi--for the first time since moving here in 1978!