The Celtic Monk

It's what she told me as we met for the first time: "I'm the new face of homelessness... I have 12 silk blouses, 9 strands of pearls and I'm homeless." She came to the church after being told she was number 12 on the list for a room at the shelter. There'd been a sign put up on the door of the house she was renting... it said: FORECLOSED. She had 7 days to evacuate with all her belongings. But she'd paid her rent. She'd paid first, last and a security deposit. The owner was long gone. She was a single mom with a daughter. She didn't have savings, they were just getting by. She needed someplace to stay for a a few weeks so she could re-save what she needed to get her and her daughter into another rental. Though not at the church that day, I received the call. And here's a good place to say that I don't believe in co-incidences only God-incidences. A single mom and the call comes to me. I was a single mom once, for 10 long years. Just ge...

Friday was a big day. Our three year old grand-daughter Lauren arrived at 7:30 in the morning ready for a full day of fun things to do. On the schedule was a little maintenance around the house, a trip to the beach, haircuts for all of us and then a trip to the play park to dig up a few artifacts. Twice during the day, I listened to a new phrase from Lauren that I'd never heard before. "Hey Papa, Wait Up!" The first time he'd walked out the front door and out towards the car port. Not knowing where he was going was more than she could stand. And a 'hey papa, wait up" sounded as she ran after him. The second time was at the beach as we bobbed in the warm Gulf waters. Papa had already done a little diving to find treasures in the sand and brought back several live sand dollars that we held in our hands and watched the soft hairs around their breathing hole open and close. Then as we sat in the shallow water, he'd told us to sit very still as a pod of...