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Easter Monday

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"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." (A Prayer of St. Francis) I am not Catholic.  I am Christian and I am profoundly saddened by the death of Pope Francis.    I am not saddened by the fact that a "Pope" died, but that a man who truly followed in the footsteps of Jesus and lead by example has passed away.  For me, Francis exemplified what Christians strive to be.  He, like Jesus, humbled himself.  He walked among sinners and outcasts.  He advocated for those who are marginalized. He embraced...
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Good Friday

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 After a long, cold and dark Lent, we've reached Good Friday.  I still have challenges with understanding why it is "good," but that's me.  For Christians around the world (and that includes me), it is a reminder of a dark day.  The day that Jesus, without any due process, was crucified and died.  What was his crime?  He cared for sinners and outcasts.  He was kind and listened to those not like him.  He ate with the lowest of the low. (You know tax collectors!)  He called for his followers to be compassionate and to care for others.  (Yes, I'm going back to one of my favorite verses:  Matthew 25:  31-40.)  And yet in doing this the angry mobs called for his death.  A man who preached love was hated.   I know I am no religious scholar.  I know that I've oversimplifying it all here, but... For me, Good Friday is a reminder of a darkness that filled man's hearts.  A darkness that I try (and, if I...
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What Would I Say?

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 Monday night I attended a church service entitled Women of the Cross.  A cross between a church service and a play, it imagines what women might have said to Jesus as he was crucified.  Women such as the wife of Pontius Pilate,  Anna the prophetess,  Mary Magdalene, etc.  This service has been offered in this specific church the Monday evening of Holy Week for the past several years.  It is powerful and moving. The priest who began the service, asked us to listen and to think about what we might say to Jesus if we were at the cross.  Which, of course, got me thinking and here's what popped into my mind.       WTF Jesus?  I know, totally inappropriate, but I can't help it.  WTF?  How did this happen?  I mean, I KNOW how it happened, but I just can't wrap my head around it.  WHY?  Why did this have to be?  Why did we feel that we had to torture and kill a man who was kind and only wanted to hel...
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Coincidence or Sign?

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When we purchased our home in the Poconos there were a lot of things that seemed to point out that we were doing the right thing.  There seemed to be "signs" that this house and this area were for us.  One of the owners of the house had mentored/coached a friend of my son's at college.  The person who inspected the house for us just happened to have gone to the same high school as I did in NJ.  (He was two years behind me.)  The stars were aligned, right? (Now please don't take that to mean that all is perfect here.  As much as I love the house and the land there have been plenty of hiccups along the way, some of which were more costly than I imagine.  Isn't that the way of life though?) With that said another interesting coincidence (or sign) happened recently. With the purchase of this house, my weekly treks back and forth to NJ and the experience I've had over the past several years weighing on my mind, I decided it was time for my husband and...
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April IS the Cruelest Month!

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  I think this photo says it all.  April is CRUEL. Now, I know it's not a lot of snow.  It's just a dusting, but... I mean, at the end of March we had one glorious day where I could actually be outside.  I could actually open the windows. The heat didn't have to come on.  Spring was here.  The flowers were blooming and now this? Now, I KNOW it can snow in April.  It's done so before.  I can actually recall a few flakes in May of 2020.  (May 9th to be exact.  It didn't even make a dusting, but I was out walking that day and snow did actually fall from the sky!)  However, this is unnecessary! 2025 thus far has been a particularly tumultuous year.  I think we can all agree that we've faced some real lows and very few highs.  But still we keep going.  As for me, I've had an eye allergy, a stomach bug and now seemingly yet another cold.  (This despite wearing a mask every time I take public transportation to the off...
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Driving in the Dark

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  Disclaimer:  if this post is a little disjointed or incoherent (or perhaps that should read MORE disjointed or incoherent than usual), it's due to lack of sleep and too much caffeine.   It was three weeks ago (yesterday) when all of Route 80 in the area of Wharton NJ was completely shut down.  Back in February, the east bound lanes of the highway had been shut.  On March 19th, the westbound lanes were shut.  This is all due to sinkholes and "voids"  (For those not in the know this article pretty much sums it up:   https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2025/04/07/when-will-route-80-reopen-nj-releases-updated-reopening-timeline-from-sinkhole-repairs/82971983007/ )  It's been a nightmare for all who travel route 80, which includes lots of trucks carrying their wares from California to the NY area.  As annoying and crazy as it all is, I'm not complaining about the work that is being done.  I know they are working...
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The 39 steps

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Stairs don't usually bother me.   Okay the circular staircase that leads to the lift in our house is a bit unsettling.  (Proof that I am an old lady, but hey it is narrow and a little strange.). Maybe I hold the railing when I go down the stairs .  It may be  the stairs in my house in NJ, or the steps that lead to the basement in the Poconos house, or the stairs that go down from the street to the light rail station.  But generally I have no.issues with stairs.  And maybe that's the whole point. Every morning when I get off the light rail, I, along with my fellow passengers, climb 39 steps from the lower level of Penn Station (where the light rail drops us off) to the main concourse level.  But these are not just "steps" they are escalator steps.  Because the escalator hasn't worked in months.  As matter of fact, I can hardly remember when the escalator actually DID work.  (And I KNOW it did.)  I had to do research to find out ...
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