A blessed and enjoyable Christmas to all of you who read this! It is Christmas afternoon here, about 4:15 PM, 8 hours ahead of Michigan time. It is about 75 degrees here, a little overcast.
Lots going on around here. We have had one of our four cows die this morning of hoof and mouth disease. She was pregnant and it is thought she didn't have the strength to overcome the disease. Her mother and the baby I saw born some 2.5 months ago plus a brown and white milking cow are improving after being inoculated. Thank God humans are not in danger from this disease. At least the last time I checked in the mirror I saw no foam pouring out of my mouth!
My retreat was quite blessed, sometimes a struggle to stay with, with some ups and downs in spirit. There is a devil!! The theme that caught my interest and was the overall focus of the 8 days was the depths of God. There is a scripture that has always drawn me, I Corinthians 2:1-13, especially verses 10 & 11 that speak of no one knowing the depths of God except the Spirit of God. But then it goes on to say the Spirit of God shares something of a secret wisdom of God with those willing to be taught regarding the things of God and so they come to understand something of the "secrets" of God through the Spirit. As I said, this scriputre has intrigued me for years and as I began this retreat it jumped out at me again.
My guide, an American nun who has spent the last 40 years here in Kenya and Tanzania, guided me. She was excellent. We would meet for about 30-40 minutes each morning to talk about what had happened the previous day in my prayer. In light of my interest in this theme of the depths of God, she loaned for my use a booklet on the artwork and commentary of a German Catholic priest by the name of Sieger Koder (an umlaut goes over the 'o' in his name). The title of this little book is The Folly of God. The artwork is extraordinary. I was guided particularly to a painting of Jesus severely beaten, lacerated, and bleeding some, stretching out fully while looking up to heaven. The title of this picture is 'Holocaust.' With this as background I prayed as the Spirit led me through this theme of the 'depths of God,' while I wondered, probed just what is God's deepest want, what does God most want to communicate and share with us, what does God 'feel' most and care about most, what is God's greatest joy and worst pain. What happened to Jesus suggests God's wanting to say something so profound, so ultimate, something almost desperate to us. These seemed to me to be fair questions to ask regarding my desire to know God much more and to grow in love of God.
At the same time I remembered reading a snippet of the writings of Blessed Henry Suso, a Dominican who lived in the late 14th century. He depicted Christ, the Sacred Heart, inviting us to enter His pierced Heart and (this was completely new to me) find our place in Christ's Heart. I thought: how strange. What would he mean by 'place" in Christ's Heart? I did not have a clue. But early in my retreat it came to me in the context of seeking to know something of the depths of God that the way to such depths is from the Heart of Christ, and so in His Heart there has to be a door and from that door there is a "stairs" that lead into the depths of God, to where God is most God, where one can "touch" what is deepest in God and gain some sense of what means the most to God in God's life. To know something of this is to have opened up to a very rich relationship with God and with one's own self, one's own depths. And I wanted this with everything I am.
My guide said on the opening evening of the retreat, "Do not hesitate to ask God for the Impossible." That saying grabbed my attention, and it gave me the courage to pursue this search and ask God to show me what is deepest in Him, what matters most to Him. It did not give specific information like answers to questions but it does open the one searching to an intuitive sense of God's person and to what is closest to God's Heart. This is such gift, and very beautiful. It may seem to be the impossible, but why not ask for it!
Yes, what matters most to God is His Son, the Christ, but right there with this awareness is the sense that what matters so much to God, what is deepest in God is me and you and everyone of us. God has become the fool in the lengths to which He has gone in Christ to love us and to share His Heart with anyone of us who would care to know Him. What is sad is that we take so long in our life, if ever we do, to wake up to this gift. In the meantime, we look for such meaning and love in all the wrong places, as the famous Country song says. We choose something much less, something that is "safer" and makes "more sense," something "more practical."
Many of you who read these blog-postings prayed for me during my retreat, and I am most, most grateful. I remembered all of you during retreat to God. So I thought I would say something about what happened for me, thanks in part to your prayers. By the way, I would highly recommend to your reading and prayer the works of Sieger Koder. Amazon.com has a lot of his works. Another book of his I used during the retreat is entitled Christ Our Morning Star. You should see Koder's painting of a young Mary embracing the body of the dead Christ just removed from the cross. Wow, it will really affect you. Then there is a painting of Koder showing the risen Christ hosting a breakfast of fish and bread for the apostles; they are just returning from a morning fishing trip. The colors and spiritual energy in that painting are brilliant.
I have to move on. In 40 minutes we Jesuits have a social followed by a turkey dinner and ice creme. I am opening for the community a large bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Scotch. It was given me by an American lawyer who made a 6-day retreat two weeks ago. I was his guide and he discovered I enjoy good Scotch at times. So I am breaking the seal on the bottle and sharing with the community the liquid 'nectar'. Some have complained about "the awful scotch" we have been drinking the last few months. So this should quiet all the complaints.
Happy New Year to you all. Have a wonderful Christmas week in whatever you are doing. I am still waiting to finish the visa process. No, they won't throw me out of the country. But it will be after Monday, the 6th, before I can resume the process because some office I have to get into doesn't open till then. Some things here in Kenya are really slow. God confronted me during retreat about some of my impatience with such things and my gripping about rarely getting away from here because I have no driver's license and we have one car for about a dozen people. This is part of the economic reality here.
Bernie
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Hi, Friends,
Even though I said in my last post that I would wait till after retreat to write another post, I have changed my mind and am writing this one hours before I start my 8-day retreat and go into a silence that avoids all computer contact and all other outside news, etc.
I have some good things happening with my effort to obtain the entry visa. I do know that the application is in the Immigration Bureau's computer system and I am told that is a good sign. My next step is, on the day after I finish retreat, December 23, to go back to their office and take this process to the next step. I am hopeful that I will have that piece of paper by Christmas week or January 1 at the latest. What an ordeal!!
One thing that is remarkable in my new life is how international everything is around here. I sit at table for a meal and I can be with two Indians, one Chilean, one Maltese, one American, and two Kenyans. So too at a gathering over these last three days of Jesuits from the six nation province (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and Madagascar). Everyone speaks English with varying degrees of clarity. Sometimes I have no idea what some of them are saying!! Locals laugh and I am clueless. In that gathering were people from all six of the nations I just mentioned but also others from: Austria, Ireland and England, France, South Korea, and Egypt, and a few Americans--one is a buddy I studied with (1969-73) during my preparation for ordination 41 years ago. It is amazing to talk with him after all these years and sit in wonder at how our lives have turned out.) Our provincial is from Nigeria--which is on the far west side of Africa, maybe 2000 miles or more away from here. It is also obvious how the Africans are young in comparison to many of us non-Africans. So many are in their 30s and 40s. What a rich life they have ahead of themselves.
When I think of what I am now a part of, I am quite moved at seeing something of what God is doing in a church that is truly worldwide and yet how the thirsts for meaning and a life with dignity are the same wherever. The other item that is so prominent is the desperate poverty of so many people we are trying to serve. There is so much injustice in this world and so many people with material plenty who are oblivious and/or do not want to be involved with those who find life so very difficult.
The last week has been so rainy and cold, yes cold. Here we are a week from the beginning of summer and the temps during the day are in the low 60s; yesterday it was in the 50s. There is mud everywhere; the rains come down sometimes with such force. I have a chair outside my room; it is under a large overhang and so I can sit, stay dry, and watch this dramatic display of power of Mother Nature. Such weather reminds me of some of the late spring weather we would get in Michigan--rainy and cold prior to some wonderful sunny weather. I guess that is how to understand what we have here at the present. I am looking forward to getting back to my garden once I start retreat, but not when it is really rainy.
The monkeys are starting to show up on our property and looking for fruit from our trees--bananas and oranges. They look for an open door to our dining room so that they can sneak in to get a piece of bread--or a whole loaf. We have an air-gun with pellets and are discussing ways of using it to impress on these crafty creatures, physically and psychologically. the message of "don't touch". Yes, yes, I know: St. Francis would not be pleased. I think he would disapprove of a number of things Jesuits do!!
I had a retreatant last week whose name is Elvis, a name he is proud of. He was wonderful. No, he was not "all shook up"; and no, he did not start singing "You ain't nothing but a hound-dog." In fact, he is the vocation recruiter in Kenya for the Maryhill Fathers, a delightful fellow who speaks the King's English with much polish in his manner of speech. And yes, God blessed his retreat beautifully!
With Elvis I also had three nuns and an American lawyer from Texas. What a combination. I am more and more impressed with these African nuns and the situations they serve in: hospitals, first-aid stations in the most deserted areas of Kenya and Tanzania, others teaching in schools, some in refugee camps, etc. They are truly impressive women. They are so often the backbone of the church, and remarkable people. It is a privilege to meet with them daily for about 30-45 minutes during their 8-day retreats. They get lots out of it and so do I. In all, we get about 45 people here each 8-day period we set aside for individually guided retreats. We have a team of directors that can handle this many--quite a feat!
At one side of our 46 acre plot is a beautiful hidden area for the stations of the cross. It is very humble in its wooden plaques of the stations. The pathway is bordered on both sides with a plant that has large thorns on a stalk a little thicker than your largest finger. Near the top of these stalks are flowers that are very similar to the blossom of an Impatient. Then we have a couple of tall cactuses and large beds of low creeping plants of various shades of green, then a grove of eucalyptus trees close to the 10th-14th stations of the cross, and finally a special, large cleared area where Christ on the cross is mounted. It is really impressive and prayerful, quiet as well.
In the last few days I have finished downsizing three of the chapters of my manuscript for my book to one chapter (78 pages down to 30 pages), I am quite pleased with what I have come up with. Now I am working on a chapter, reducing it from 23 down to 14 or 15 pages. After that I have one more chapter to edit. I am expecting to be done by the end of Christmas week and then send off tot eh publishers my final version. Of course I still have to have a "censor" read the text for anything objectionable doctrine-wise and get some close friends to proofread the text for any clumsy wording. As I explain this, it might be Jan 15 before I send it all to the publisher. Whatever! It is getting closer and closer to wrapping up this huge process of producing a manuscript that some company will see fit to turn into a book and then market it.
So . . . I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and relaxed Christmas. I will remember all of you at masses during my time of retreat and then during the Christmas season. Take care and safe travels, please, if you are doing much driving in the snows of the Midwest.
Bernie
Even though I said in my last post that I would wait till after retreat to write another post, I have changed my mind and am writing this one hours before I start my 8-day retreat and go into a silence that avoids all computer contact and all other outside news, etc.
I have some good things happening with my effort to obtain the entry visa. I do know that the application is in the Immigration Bureau's computer system and I am told that is a good sign. My next step is, on the day after I finish retreat, December 23, to go back to their office and take this process to the next step. I am hopeful that I will have that piece of paper by Christmas week or January 1 at the latest. What an ordeal!!
One thing that is remarkable in my new life is how international everything is around here. I sit at table for a meal and I can be with two Indians, one Chilean, one Maltese, one American, and two Kenyans. So too at a gathering over these last three days of Jesuits from the six nation province (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and Madagascar). Everyone speaks English with varying degrees of clarity. Sometimes I have no idea what some of them are saying!! Locals laugh and I am clueless. In that gathering were people from all six of the nations I just mentioned but also others from: Austria, Ireland and England, France, South Korea, and Egypt, and a few Americans--one is a buddy I studied with (1969-73) during my preparation for ordination 41 years ago. It is amazing to talk with him after all these years and sit in wonder at how our lives have turned out.) Our provincial is from Nigeria--which is on the far west side of Africa, maybe 2000 miles or more away from here. It is also obvious how the Africans are young in comparison to many of us non-Africans. So many are in their 30s and 40s. What a rich life they have ahead of themselves.
When I think of what I am now a part of, I am quite moved at seeing something of what God is doing in a church that is truly worldwide and yet how the thirsts for meaning and a life with dignity are the same wherever. The other item that is so prominent is the desperate poverty of so many people we are trying to serve. There is so much injustice in this world and so many people with material plenty who are oblivious and/or do not want to be involved with those who find life so very difficult.
The last week has been so rainy and cold, yes cold. Here we are a week from the beginning of summer and the temps during the day are in the low 60s; yesterday it was in the 50s. There is mud everywhere; the rains come down sometimes with such force. I have a chair outside my room; it is under a large overhang and so I can sit, stay dry, and watch this dramatic display of power of Mother Nature. Such weather reminds me of some of the late spring weather we would get in Michigan--rainy and cold prior to some wonderful sunny weather. I guess that is how to understand what we have here at the present. I am looking forward to getting back to my garden once I start retreat, but not when it is really rainy.
The monkeys are starting to show up on our property and looking for fruit from our trees--bananas and oranges. They look for an open door to our dining room so that they can sneak in to get a piece of bread--or a whole loaf. We have an air-gun with pellets and are discussing ways of using it to impress on these crafty creatures, physically and psychologically. the message of "don't touch". Yes, yes, I know: St. Francis would not be pleased. I think he would disapprove of a number of things Jesuits do!!
I had a retreatant last week whose name is Elvis, a name he is proud of. He was wonderful. No, he was not "all shook up"; and no, he did not start singing "You ain't nothing but a hound-dog." In fact, he is the vocation recruiter in Kenya for the Maryhill Fathers, a delightful fellow who speaks the King's English with much polish in his manner of speech. And yes, God blessed his retreat beautifully!
With Elvis I also had three nuns and an American lawyer from Texas. What a combination. I am more and more impressed with these African nuns and the situations they serve in: hospitals, first-aid stations in the most deserted areas of Kenya and Tanzania, others teaching in schools, some in refugee camps, etc. They are truly impressive women. They are so often the backbone of the church, and remarkable people. It is a privilege to meet with them daily for about 30-45 minutes during their 8-day retreats. They get lots out of it and so do I. In all, we get about 45 people here each 8-day period we set aside for individually guided retreats. We have a team of directors that can handle this many--quite a feat!
At one side of our 46 acre plot is a beautiful hidden area for the stations of the cross. It is very humble in its wooden plaques of the stations. The pathway is bordered on both sides with a plant that has large thorns on a stalk a little thicker than your largest finger. Near the top of these stalks are flowers that are very similar to the blossom of an Impatient. Then we have a couple of tall cactuses and large beds of low creeping plants of various shades of green, then a grove of eucalyptus trees close to the 10th-14th stations of the cross, and finally a special, large cleared area where Christ on the cross is mounted. It is really impressive and prayerful, quiet as well.
In the last few days I have finished downsizing three of the chapters of my manuscript for my book to one chapter (78 pages down to 30 pages), I am quite pleased with what I have come up with. Now I am working on a chapter, reducing it from 23 down to 14 or 15 pages. After that I have one more chapter to edit. I am expecting to be done by the end of Christmas week and then send off tot eh publishers my final version. Of course I still have to have a "censor" read the text for anything objectionable doctrine-wise and get some close friends to proofread the text for any clumsy wording. As I explain this, it might be Jan 15 before I send it all to the publisher. Whatever! It is getting closer and closer to wrapping up this huge process of producing a manuscript that some company will see fit to turn into a book and then market it.
So . . . I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and relaxed Christmas. I will remember all of you at masses during my time of retreat and then during the Christmas season. Take care and safe travels, please, if you are doing much driving in the snows of the Midwest.
Bernie
Monday, December 9, 2013
Dear Friends,
Here I am on December 9, Monday, feeling the gentle, rather cool morning breeze pass through my bedroom. It is coming in from the windows and out the door on the other side of the room. The sun is shining brilliantly. The air is so clean; it is great to live in the mountains!
I have a number of things I want to mention; I have been keeping my list so I won't forget.
First, I am experiencing a lot of hassle from the immigration people of this country. It is typical I am told. Anyway, I have made trips into downtown Nairobi (2 hours, 20 minutes to go about 10 miles the last time I went.) I found out my tourist visa has expired and was told "well, I guess you will have to leave our country in the next 2-3 weeks!" To get a renewal of the tourist visa I have to show a receipt from my applying for the more permanent "entry visa." Well, I did not have it. It is supposedly in someone else's hands, a nun who is charged with getting that process going. She has been told to get going on this pronto and get me the receipt ASAP. I am still waiting!
In addition to this mess, the Immigration people want a copy of my diploma from the school I got the PhD from in California in 1984. (I had thrown into a dumpster long ago the diploma when cleaning out things. I never framed it nor ever thought it was that important to keep!) I had sent to Immigration the transcript of all the courses I took and on that page is the statement: PhD degree granted on May 3, 1984. They refused it and demanded a copy of the diploma. So I recontacted the school and find out that they do not have a copy of my diploma and do not make copies of any diploma. So I got them to write a letter to Kenyan Immigration on paper with the school's letterhead to explain they don't have a copy of the diploma nor do they make copies of diplomas but do vouch for my having been granted the degree on May 3, 1984. They added that they hoped Immigration would acknowledge that this is enough, that they have been given the assurance that I do have the credentials and that will be enough for granting me the entry visa. The next few days will be interesting as I wait for word on whether their legalistic, literalistic attitude will yield and I will be granted the visa and be allowed to stay in the country. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on staying here.
In the meantime, we have had some heavy rains these last 5-7 days, something the ground and trees have needed. Some of the rains pounded, so heavy were they. They have also led to numerous power outages. I walk around with my flashlight on many evenings! Really frustrating when you are working on your laptop computer!!
One thing I have noticed are changes in my body since coming here. For years I have had some eczema condition on my left forearm, something about the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar. I have often put some vaseline on it to soften the skin. I have even had a dermatologist give me some cream to aid its healing but to no avail. About a month ago I noticed it completely gone; the skin looks completely normal and blending in with the skin on the rest of my arm. What do I attribute this to?? Diet. I also notice the nails on my fingers thicker and shinier. Again, diet. I sense my "tush" is smaller as well. Once again, diet. What am I eating? Almost no meat--some fish and chicken but no beef nor pork. I hate the way the beef and pork is prepared and butchered. It is often full of fat and gristle. Every lunch and dinner we have a platter of fresh garden veggies provided. Nothing is ever frozen here. It is either raw or cooked. So too we have whole milk and there are no food additive nor hormones in any of our food. Combined with the clean mountain air I might live to 100!!
I have been working some long hours on the rewrite of my book. I took three chapters, 78 pages and collapsed all of that into one chapter, 30 pages long. Now I have two other chapters I want to reduce to one chapter and take out 15 pages from a total of 41 pages. I hope to have this all done by January 1, maybe by January 8. The end is within sight!!
I startmy annual 8-day retreat this coming Saturday evening, the 14th. I will not be reading any email or doing anything on mycomputer till I finish, on the night of the 22nd. As I begin the retreat I mark the end of my time avoiding the garden. My foot is healed enough now to permit me to resume gardening, just in time for the beginning of summer, whichcomes on December 21 here.
Ten dasy ago I finished a period of about two weeks when my skin was itching so badly I would dig and press in hard on points where I was itching. At first I blamed it on some medicine I was talking, but after going off the medicine for 4 days and still itching, I concluded that I am sitting in the midst of so man things that are flowering now. We have a bee-hive on this property and the bees are having a great time working on getting to the pollen. In the last week, with all the rains, the pollen is much less and my skin is much quieter. Thank God. I thought the itching could be a form of hell.
I got a haircut last week. I got chopped. Barbers here usually don't know what to do with straight hair. Thank God things grow out.
One quaint thing I esxperience here is how geckos come in and out of my room, often under the door, to eat insdects, espec ially mosquitoes. So they are my friends. They are little salamanders, about 3 inches long and can crawl up and down on the sides of walls. Their beady eyes are something else. I make all kinds of noises with my lips to get their attention and they do stop and just stare at me making a fool out of myself. It is fun to see them just stare and later move on behind my curtain or up my wall.
I bought a 15 foot, 2.5 ft wide carpet to throw out on my bare tile floor. I can now do stretching exercises in my room and some yoga stands, rather than having to go down to the "work-out room." Nice addition to my room.
Lastly, there are the loudspeakers across the valley that blare in this area, eitherMuslims on Friday calling people toprayer or some Christian tentpreacher typessounding like auctioneers who never take a breath as they go on and on with whatever they are saying. Thank God this is all at some distance so that we con't have to call the police to tell them to cut it.
This is enough for now. I will write again after I finish my retreat, around Christmas day or so. God bless all of you. A blessed Christmas season to you all!
Bernie Owens
Here I am on December 9, Monday, feeling the gentle, rather cool morning breeze pass through my bedroom. It is coming in from the windows and out the door on the other side of the room. The sun is shining brilliantly. The air is so clean; it is great to live in the mountains!
I have a number of things I want to mention; I have been keeping my list so I won't forget.
First, I am experiencing a lot of hassle from the immigration people of this country. It is typical I am told. Anyway, I have made trips into downtown Nairobi (2 hours, 20 minutes to go about 10 miles the last time I went.) I found out my tourist visa has expired and was told "well, I guess you will have to leave our country in the next 2-3 weeks!" To get a renewal of the tourist visa I have to show a receipt from my applying for the more permanent "entry visa." Well, I did not have it. It is supposedly in someone else's hands, a nun who is charged with getting that process going. She has been told to get going on this pronto and get me the receipt ASAP. I am still waiting!
In addition to this mess, the Immigration people want a copy of my diploma from the school I got the PhD from in California in 1984. (I had thrown into a dumpster long ago the diploma when cleaning out things. I never framed it nor ever thought it was that important to keep!) I had sent to Immigration the transcript of all the courses I took and on that page is the statement: PhD degree granted on May 3, 1984. They refused it and demanded a copy of the diploma. So I recontacted the school and find out that they do not have a copy of my diploma and do not make copies of any diploma. So I got them to write a letter to Kenyan Immigration on paper with the school's letterhead to explain they don't have a copy of the diploma nor do they make copies of diplomas but do vouch for my having been granted the degree on May 3, 1984. They added that they hoped Immigration would acknowledge that this is enough, that they have been given the assurance that I do have the credentials and that will be enough for granting me the entry visa. The next few days will be interesting as I wait for word on whether their legalistic, literalistic attitude will yield and I will be granted the visa and be allowed to stay in the country. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on staying here.
In the meantime, we have had some heavy rains these last 5-7 days, something the ground and trees have needed. Some of the rains pounded, so heavy were they. They have also led to numerous power outages. I walk around with my flashlight on many evenings! Really frustrating when you are working on your laptop computer!!
One thing I have noticed are changes in my body since coming here. For years I have had some eczema condition on my left forearm, something about the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar. I have often put some vaseline on it to soften the skin. I have even had a dermatologist give me some cream to aid its healing but to no avail. About a month ago I noticed it completely gone; the skin looks completely normal and blending in with the skin on the rest of my arm. What do I attribute this to?? Diet. I also notice the nails on my fingers thicker and shinier. Again, diet. I sense my "tush" is smaller as well. Once again, diet. What am I eating? Almost no meat--some fish and chicken but no beef nor pork. I hate the way the beef and pork is prepared and butchered. It is often full of fat and gristle. Every lunch and dinner we have a platter of fresh garden veggies provided. Nothing is ever frozen here. It is either raw or cooked. So too we have whole milk and there are no food additive nor hormones in any of our food. Combined with the clean mountain air I might live to 100!!
I have been working some long hours on the rewrite of my book. I took three chapters, 78 pages and collapsed all of that into one chapter, 30 pages long. Now I have two other chapters I want to reduce to one chapter and take out 15 pages from a total of 41 pages. I hope to have this all done by January 1, maybe by January 8. The end is within sight!!
I startmy annual 8-day retreat this coming Saturday evening, the 14th. I will not be reading any email or doing anything on mycomputer till I finish, on the night of the 22nd. As I begin the retreat I mark the end of my time avoiding the garden. My foot is healed enough now to permit me to resume gardening, just in time for the beginning of summer, whichcomes on December 21 here.
Ten dasy ago I finished a period of about two weeks when my skin was itching so badly I would dig and press in hard on points where I was itching. At first I blamed it on some medicine I was talking, but after going off the medicine for 4 days and still itching, I concluded that I am sitting in the midst of so man things that are flowering now. We have a bee-hive on this property and the bees are having a great time working on getting to the pollen. In the last week, with all the rains, the pollen is much less and my skin is much quieter. Thank God. I thought the itching could be a form of hell.
I got a haircut last week. I got chopped. Barbers here usually don't know what to do with straight hair. Thank God things grow out.
One quaint thing I esxperience here is how geckos come in and out of my room, often under the door, to eat insdects, espec ially mosquitoes. So they are my friends. They are little salamanders, about 3 inches long and can crawl up and down on the sides of walls. Their beady eyes are something else. I make all kinds of noises with my lips to get their attention and they do stop and just stare at me making a fool out of myself. It is fun to see them just stare and later move on behind my curtain or up my wall.
I bought a 15 foot, 2.5 ft wide carpet to throw out on my bare tile floor. I can now do stretching exercises in my room and some yoga stands, rather than having to go down to the "work-out room." Nice addition to my room.
Lastly, there are the loudspeakers across the valley that blare in this area, eitherMuslims on Friday calling people toprayer or some Christian tentpreacher typessounding like auctioneers who never take a breath as they go on and on with whatever they are saying. Thank God this is all at some distance so that we con't have to call the police to tell them to cut it.
This is enough for now. I will write again after I finish my retreat, around Christmas day or so. God bless all of you. A blessed Christmas season to you all!
Bernie Owens
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