Sunday, October 11, 2009

Damien and the Not so Itsy Bitsy

I had an interesting experience this morning after washing my face in the bathroom. Think about washing your face... no glasses, right? And then you bring the towel up to your face to dry, right? Picture a black dime...inflated to three dimensions. Put eight legs on this chubby dime... THAT is what was on my towel as I brought it up to my face!! The spiders are populous and healthy in this part of Chile, I am told. But there is only one that can kill you...I suppose telling me that was to be some sort of consolation.

It isn't the spider itself so much that bothers me...more the splat-factor. Although, having one that close to my face is a little too intimate an aquaintence, thank you, and I don´t care how big it is.

The day is bright, clean, and beautiful today. And this morning´s laundry is dry on the line. I do enjoy clothes dried outside and brought in all warm from the sun. The big deal in the area, aside from Chile beating Columbia and thus earning a spot in the World Cup in South Africa, is this morning´s canonization of Damien of Molokai. The Los, as the congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary is known here so as to distinguish from El, which is us, have a big presence in these areas and several parishes are dedicated to Damien.

His story is an interesting one and one of his famous writings is The Ten Convictions. My favorite of the ten is What I fear in life is not poverty, not sickness or conflict, but rather the absence of faith, love, and hope. The rest of them are lovely as well.

My day will end with folding the laundry I washed and hung about eight hours ago. There is something pleasing about that sort of circling. To say nothing of clean pyjamas...

1 comment:

Processing Counselor said...

OK, this story gave me the willies. So how are you?