Good afternoon!!
My breakfast was eaten out to day, late, after church and the Forum.
I met a long ago friend after church and we went to a Mexican restaurant across the street from St Paul's...it's a new rather upscale place called Barrio Star. I had the Breakfast Tamal plate...they called it Tamale Plate ; I hate to be the one to tell them that one is a tamal, not a tamale. It was a fresh corn tamal and it was just delicious. There was that, a large serving of black beans, grrr, with sticky mozzarella cheese that I can't swallow (but I did, just was careful to cut tiny little portions)grrrr, and a good salsa, and a huge serving of good scrambled eggs that I could not finish. Then he showed me a large collection of old family photographs which he's formatted and gotten ready to give to some members of his extended family's younger generation, so they could see people and pets and houses that they might not have known. That is a very considerate thing for him to have done, I thought.
The Forum today was about the Atonement, again, and I found it a very difficult topic to comprehend. Next week is the wrap-up, at which time we are promised some clue to this very hard study. As that is not the end of Lent, I don't know what will happen to the rest of the time--well, Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday, and I guess that does indeed bring us to Easter.
Today at church I had a revelation, and came up with a timely thought of whom I wanted to pray for. I think I 've mentioned that I get to church, and when the time comes to mention the sick, or the dead, or people in difficult situations, -- my mind gets blocked and I can't think of the names I need to think of. But in the middle of the night last night I'd gotten to thinking of a young man I have been wanting to thank.
I have a confession to make about a failing of mine: I like to take bus trips, and have taken many, far and near. Several years ago I was traveling toward Iowa on the Greyhound on my way to Denver to catch the Amtrak into Omaha. In the middle of the night, I was awakened as we stopped at a little restaurant in the wilds of Utah...Everyone got out. It was about two or two thirty a.m. I thought about staying on, as I was not hungry, but then decided that it might be more healthful to stretch my legs a bit and move around. Wrong decision. No sooner had I gotten off into the pitch dark than I fell descending an invisible step in the sidewalk as I approached the cafe. My whole left leg collapsed under me and my left ankle turned in very awkwardly. I fell to the ground. By this time, many of the cohorts from the bus were sitting around on a low wall along the sidewalk, and a young Mexican man came running up to me and helped me up and stood me on my feet. I was able to get about awkwardly and I thanked him and made my way back to my seat on the bus before we took off. My left ankle hurt a lot all the next morning and I thought it was a pretty bad sprain. The same young man, who was truly one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever met, one of those people who are Good in the inimitable Mexican way, was my close nursemaid and companion. He gave me a clean black sock to bind about my foot and ankle, without which I could not have functioned. Oh, and about dawn, some really bad and rowdy young men of the criminal type had boarded and were seated about close by as well. Well, most of the people were apparently on their way to Beyo, Colorado, to make their fortunes (test of your Spanish: of what Colorado town am I speaking?), but when we got to Denver I asked the driver if he would let me off at the railroad station before getting to the bus station where everyone would transfer. That way I could get off near the door..but I still couldn't handle my baggage into the station, so I tucked a twenty dollar bill into my pocket to give to my kind friend when he took the bags in for me...But, when the moment came, one of the CROOKS pushed himself forward, made a big show to help me, and shoved the good young man back. (Note to all: This is where sins of omission start. Where you should have spoken up for the good guy and not let the crook get away with a show of helping.)
But I was tired and in pain and the bus driver was impatient--you know how it is with sinning--and the crook took my stuff in for me and I gave him the twenty dollars. I have grieved for this ever since. I think about that good young man and pray that he has gotten the work and opportunity he so much deserved there in the ski capital of Beyo, and I wish he could know that I will never forget him. So that's who I prayed for today. Him. And me, of course. YAZZYBEL
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