December 22, 2006

Angels going and coming



Last week I sent the two Christmas angels on their way, and yesterday this one arrived in the mail. It's an ornament handmade by my friend Sandi. She's a little like me in that she never knows when, or by what, she will be inspired to create something. She happened to be walking through a store in Houston looking for some decorator fabric, when she spotted this wonderful fringe.

And speaking of inspiration, today I was in the grocery store with all the other crazy shoppers when who should I see but the priest from our local church. He is a most interesting man. First, I should say that Mr. Gadget is Catholic as are our children, but I am not. When TG and BCG were little we used to go to church fairly regularly. I'll be honest, I found most of the sermons very dry. Well, I did until Mr. Inspiring Priest came to town. This is a man who was married with a family, and lost his wife several years ago. After he was widowed, he decided to become a priest, and apparently that's ok with the church higher-ups, although I don't really understand all this, but the congregation was the winner in this situation because all of a sudden people were leaving church on Sunday all fired up to do good things.

Mr. IP doesn't fit my image of a priest--someone rather stern and unapproachable and thank goodness I'm not Catholic so I don't have to go to one for confession. For one thing, Mr. Gadget and I used to run into him occasionally in the sushi restaurant. And Tech Guy tells us he sold him a cell phone not long ago--one with all the bells and whistles. Today I noticed he took his groceries over to the self-checkout register. He probably bagged them himself too. Recently there was an article in the local paper that said he was taking a leave from his priestly duties to go back to college for an advanced degree in psychology because he thinks it will make him better able to counsel people. He's in his 70's mind you.

So, I'm thinking maybe I should be a little braver about this technical stuff. Maybe I could learn how to program my phone and figure out a few more functions on my digital camera. Maybe I could learn how to make Peking duck or creme brulee. And to think all these years I've been feeling so proud of my ability to pump my own gas......

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That priest who was actually married once upon a time sounds abfab (inspirational). Not being a Catholic, myself, and not being able to bring to the altar my first love, a Catholic man, and having wonderful Catholic friends from our common high school,I, too, honestly, don't know what to make of it all...but anyhow I love your next creative angel by Sandi, along with your creative blogging. Mele Kalikimaka. Card in the mail.