If you are so inclined there is a great opportunity to help an Orthodox mission parish in Iowa City, Iowa, raise money to buy a much needed building. St. Raphael Mission has been meeting in a rented facility so small that people have to do synchronized metanias to avoid smacking each other in the back (that’s not necessarily a joke) and they have the possibility of purchasing a Christian Science church building that could meet their needs for years to come.

Click on this link to find out how you can help.

It looks like snow for tomorrow and below zero temperatures through Friday. That’s the bad news. The good news is that weather wise this coming week is historically the coldest of the year and as the days keep getting longer the warmth will have to break through. I’m not cancelling my trip to Las Vegas though. There’s a trip to the Star Trek museum with our name on it!

News from Th!nk of Norway on the development of an electric commuter car for the US in the near future. When I was a kid I used to draw “cars of the future” in my doodles and now some of those doodles are coming to life. I’m ready for an electric car for making pastoral calls and around town trips if they can make it cheap enough to not bust my budget.

BTW my reservation for a new Smart Car is on track for September – November of this year.

Interested in some substantial reading on a blog? Try “Postmodern Conservative“.

A link from “Get Religion” related to an ongoing study of clergy health. As a Priest realizing, again, that I’m not indestructible all I can say is “Amen”.

Today our little parish decided to donate money to help a mission in Iowa and work on forming a Mission Committee. Well done St. Elias!

Three days of Valerian, 500 mg just before bed time, and so far so good. Refreshing sleep free from the “medicine hangover” that comes with pharmaceuticals and a generally calm day. It’s amazing what just a good run of regular sleep can do for your wellbeing.

Just a note, though, about the product itself. When properly prepared it has a kind of smell you won’t forget, a smell that fortunately is not passed on to the consumer. Oh, and did I tell you that cats go after it like catnip?

Regardless, as I’ve pondered this my mind wandered to the creation story and how God gave humanity all the plants of the earth for sustenance (Genesis 1:29-30). Everything God created was for our good and even in a world disfigured by sin where people are restless and the night is devoid of sleep that goodness, in the root of a common flowering plant, still shines through. How unaware I have been of the countless ways I’m sustained by what God has given, those silent taken for granted things that keep body and soul together, and how ungrateful I’ve been as well.

But that can change.

A Duluth, Minnesota, woman survives hypothermia that dropped her body temperature to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Truly, as the Psalmist said, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. (Psalm 139:14)

Many thanks to visitor 12,000 arriving on this blog. Whether you came on purpose or just drifting along on the waves of the web I appreciate each and every guest.