Dear Reader:

I am home! I have just experienced the best of both worlds… seeing upfront and personal all the hard work and time Tommy and Kaitlyn have put in renovating their home-( from the fire tragedy) turning one side into an adorable air bnb. It has taken close to two years with a lot of investment… but they have turned a corner and they are certainly deserving.

Each evening we bundled up under covers , on the sofa, to watch a movie-one movie that I had no idea had won the top best movie (over Citizen Kane) for a decade-as critiqued by Rotten Tomatoes . The movie Paddington 2!!!! It was wonderful and what a different role for Hugh Grant-the villain! I admit I laughed and cried a lot! It WAS a well-written and acted movie with so many great lessons on morality in it!

But the main thing was simply being together …enjoying time together-of course precious Pip and Atticus, the dogs, watched with us!

I got to see most of the family-it had been a long time-since Christmas with some-between the strange, unsettled, freezing weather every weekend and Covid quarantines .. it made me so happy to be back in the loving circle of family!

I had also not seen brother Ben in over three weeks because he tested positive for Covid…and was in quarantine for 20 days-confined to his room. ( luckily asymptomatic) As you can imagine… he was so ready to be around people again!

After I left Tommy and Kaitlyn’s yesterday morning … I promptly picked up Ben at Wellmore and took him to get head and neck scans for his neurologist . Then took him to lunch-what was supposed to be a rainy day held off until mid-afternoon -it was sunny and in the mid-seventies.

Ben was so happy… and speaking of … he is the photo participant for Wellmore’s Wellness Calendar! Go Ben! Play those drum sticks!

I know I will sleep soundly tonight… no matter how wonderful the accommodations… don’t we all sleep better in our own beds? Exciting to go… happy to return!

In reference to the post yesterday ( sorry if I confused you by sending the post the night before-using the WiFi at the air bnb limited my access to pre-dated time starts.) Hopefully now that I am back home… we can get back on track) but the theme behind the ” perfect ” idea was to forget ” perfect ” and concentrate on being a good moral person.

Haven’t we all heard the expression that true character can be defined as the way we act in private… out of the public eye… when no one is looking! It shows exactly what kind of ” character ” we really are-the real deal or a poor fake imitation.

I have had more talks to myself in private over something I did or failed to do than at any other time . Here is my example…

It is raining hard when you come out of the grocery store… you hurriedly get the groceries out of the cart and throw the bags inside the car and now… you are staring at the cart-you quickly assess that there is no designated cart 🛒 leaving place close ( especially at Publix) -you will need to push it back inside the store.

Nobody is looking … lots of people are cramming the carts in the handicapped parking places… but then if a handicapped person needs a close parking space … there won’t be one…. especially in bad weather.

Honestly I wish I could say I have done the right thing every time and taken the cart and left it in the designated spots, but then I would just be adding a lie to my failing moral moment dilemma.

I know I have failed myself because I actually feel a tug letting me know I failed the test. But more importantly… I failed me and God. I can spend the rest of the day making excuses why it was ” okay” … no big deal- yet down deep I know I came up short.

I get the feeling that it is these very mundane daily/ personal temptations that will be the most important assessments in our moral make-up… not the top Ten Commandments necessarily -because we must know ourselves, admit our fallacies and keep trying to be a better person today than yesterday.

So until tomorrow … It is our job to keep trying to be the person God knows we are capable of being… after all, like our teachers taught us- a good progress report is better than one bad grade … or even one good grade. It means we haven’t given up!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh