11.17.2023 | Ordinary Friday

Good morning from the Carondelet Garden.  A quiet, mild morning here in South Saint Louis.  Some clouds about early will gave way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon.  Temperatures will begin to fall this afternoon.  Lows tonight below freezing for the outlying areas.  Here in the urban area, we will definitely see mid 30s.  

The 'Jack of Spades' is looking good out in the shade garden.  It's lovely to see the green sticking around through the late Fall days.  A simple, ordinary grace that helps sustain us through the darkness of Winter.  Simplicity has become a bit of a mantra for the old gardener this year.

I've grown up expecting too much from institutions, from the church, from others, and finally from myself.  I've finally started to embrace the simple, ordinariness of living in the now.  The best ally of the Creator is reality.  Not theology, not ideology, not what "should be" but "what is."  I've come to avoid the hysteria that is crying out, 'This is the whole truth, the only truth, the only way to look at it!"   

I've slowly begun to embrace a simplicity of thought and living that might be, after all, the most radical form of living in this age.  Simple, ordinary living in an overall attitude of gratitude and thankfulness for what I have.  I still struggle with the materialism of this world as, I think, we all do at one time or another.  Yet I'm trying to live outside the whole system of greed, consumption and injustice.  The key word is trying.  

It's a good day for a good day.  The coffee is made. The newspaper has arrived.  Beautiful music playing in the background.  A simple, ordinary morning on this Friday in mid-November.  Be good to yourself, and kind.  We all need that right now more than ever.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.