Last night I walked out into a late November night. The air was crisp here on the northern border. Moving through my neighborhood I saw a fair number of houses with their Christmas lights already displayed. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that American Thanksgiving weekend is the time when Christmas lights get strung, garland gets hung and Douglas Fir trees get axed, drilled, stood up and decorated. As I looked about observing the decorations, I noted this year seems to be a return to houses being draped in soft whites and blues. Only a few homes had multi colored twinkling blinking lights.
The streets were damp as I walked because it had rained during the morning. The air was chilled but not unbearably freezing. We’ve had a snow here already. ‘Twas a real snow and it came a solid week before Thanksgiving. That substantial white covering, well I think it put people into the mindset to accept that the season of light/lights has come.
After about 15 minutes I got to my destination. Three full months have passed since I’ve been inside the church to take the sacraments. Somehow, it seems fitting my return to worship comes on the first Sunday in Advent. The first candle was lit at last night’s service, the candle of hope and of promised redemption.
Advent in my mind is a time of preparation and a time of returning to something akin to holiness. Advent is a perfect time to focus on the great commandments, love the divine with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Easy to recite, hard to practice.
I can accept I am a poor being who has done wrong, and that also I have failed to do right. But even at my advanced age, the message of Advent to me is always the hope that my next action will be the next right action. Bring the light. Bring the song. Bring the joy. I may struggle with the concept of true faith but I do believe we can with joyful hearts make things better for our fellow humans.
After the service as I walked home, I found myself looking up at the sky. In the darkness the heavens seemed to roll on forever. My hope is that we matter. My hope is that our actions matter and that we can be agents for good. My belief is that we can make this world and the lives of those around us better. Welcome to the season of hope.
I am up early today for me.It is 8:45 and the sun is shining.Did you catch that?The sun is actually shining brightly and the roads and sidewalks are drying out.Oh, what a wonderful feeling.I got up early because I have a workman coming over today to assemble a couple of wardrobes from Ikea.One of the things about Portuguese apartments is that many do not have built in closets (or appliances, or light fixtures). We have taken care of the appliances. The light fixtures will have to wait. This will be the last major step toward getting the place in shape for a time.
The sun together with the appointment on the wardrobes getting completed combine to be a good thing.
I scanned the American news and the papers this morning as I ate my muesli and drank reheated decaf. The fourth estate imply a Republican wave is coming on Tuesday. Me, personally, I see this as a bad thing. I think the public has been played by our friends the Saudis and our enemies the Russians and most of OPEC. Me, I don’t want to go back to the 1950s where women had no control of their bodies and where visible minorities were openly discriminated against. Gas prices are up. Gas prices are up and inflation is up because these folks cut oil production just before an American election.
Can we say our enemy Russia and our friend (?) the Saudis want to hamstring an American President who doesn’t look up and have a lovey dovey relation with autocrats and dictators like Putin, MBS and Duterte? Back-alley abortions and economic Darwinism, yeah you go ahead and vote red and wait until your daughter or son’s girlfriend (or niece or granddaughter) gets knocked up, see how you feel then. Yeah, a red wave will be a bad thing. And yes, I really don’t give a damn that you want to call a nonviable on its own clump of cells something imbued with “personhood”. I earnestly believe you are wrong.
A blend of good things happened day yesterday. We went into a store to look at some furniture; the store is liquidating. Over the past few months, we had looked at several pieces in the store, bought some, and dreamed about some. There was a lamp we loved but it was just too damn expensive. But suddenly there it was at just about ½ off. It was still just at the upper end of my comfort range price wise. I agonized. I rationalized. I went and bought some artsy bowls to try and stifle the itch. But in the end, I gave in and bought it. When I got it home and put it near the small couch, I loved it. So lovely bowls and a great lamp, these again combine to be a good thing.
Despite the rain Portugal still remains in drought conditions. The news implies that most of the reservoirs in the country remain at less than 50% of normal capacity. While many of the grassy areas near where I live have greened up, trees are stressed and the long-range forecasts don’t seem the drought will be over soon. With climate change deniers seemingly ready to retake the US Congress I am worried about what kind of life we are leaving for those coming along behind us. The UN report from dropped in the last two weeks was very, very scary. Bad thing.
While I was dithering about the lamp Francie met a woman from Wisconsin who lives nears us. Together the two of them arranged to have dinner with us on Sabado (Saturday). When I finally got involved in the conversation, I realized that I had shared dinner with the woman’s husband about a year ago. Our meeting happened when we went to a social gathering of expats at an Indian restaurant near the Roma metro stop. When the woman described where they lived, who lived with them and then what they did for a living, things clicked in my brain. When I heard they had one daughter lived near a popular department store and ran a software company I just knew I had sat next to the husband at dinner. (Obscure connections with people, that is my secret and mostly not useful hidden super (?) power). Scoring a dinner date with some other friendly expats, that is a good thing.
Okay there is one final good thing, my lungs are clear. For ten days or so I had RSV or something similar. I had a cough that was so severe that it shook my body for a minute or more from the long hacking spells, again and again. No phlegm just coughing viciously for four or five days. After that it shifted to a bit of a head cold with a lessened cough, but the cough would just not go away. For the start I ached and could not sleep well. At the end I just sounded like Darth Vader when I took air in through my nose. Today, no cough. Today, no rattling in my lungs. My nasal passages seem about as clear as they ever get. This is a good thing.
Francie made the bagels including the everything bagel in the picture. She boiled them and everything, That is a very good thing because a decent bagel is hard to find in Lisboa. The bowl is what I bought to stop myself from buying the lamp above,
