Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses

Over the past 6 months a group has formed of which I am a part. It started with a wine tasting party at my house last November. It developed because we started a Facebook thread in January to discuss details of the next planned party. The thread became an ongoing conversation that is now added to daily. Many of the people in the thread were strangers before but now we are all connected in a way that could only happen in the digital miracle we enjoy today.  

When I came back from Natchez in January, I couldn't get St. Mary's Basilica out of my mind. All over the basilica were statues of saints. Rows of them.  Tiny ones placed way up at the vaulted ceiling. Enormous ones that took you down the center aisle. Each one beautiful and intricately carved. The whole place was so intricate. Why would craftsmen go to such trouble?  I feel the same when I stop to look at tiny intricate flowers that we just walk on.  Why would God go to such trouble?  

But participating in our ongoing thread has given me a feeling of being in that Basilica. The statues of Mary and Francis and Peter are replaced with my friends in this thread.  We are each standing alone on our pedestals in our chosen spot of the sanctuary, but we are connected. We are alone together.  And it is the same as the single statue and the single flower. Beautiful, intricate and devinely unique when looked at separately. But exponentially awe inspiring in combination. 

Jack Shepherd said on the TV series, LOST, "Live together or die alone."  It is my goal this Lenten season to see every soul that I encounter as an intricately carved statue carved by the same craftsman that carved me and placed beside me in the same sanctuary. 

❄️Still Frozen in Natchez

The roads are iced over in this once in a generation storm that has dropped on South Mississippi.  I guess I needed an adventure.  I hope that I can come back here when it's good and suffocatingly hot like it should be in south Mississippi.  But first I hope that I can get home tomorrow.  Three nights is about my limit in a hotel.  The first night has "newness" going for it the second has comfort and the third has the fun of cleaning up your three day mess. But 4 days is too much. Especially if you are frozen in. 😄

A day in Natchez

I have enjoyed my first day in Natchez, MS. St. Mary's Basilica is beautiful. The shops and cafés are homey and pleasant. I had tea and mini muffins at the Natchez Coffee Company, lunch at Cotton Alley Cafe and supper at Roux 61. I am certainly not hungry. I have been able to keep my balcony door open the whole time. Reggae music drifts up from the lounge below.  A fountain in the courtyard is splashing, occasionally mournful church bells ring and in the morning birds fill the courtyard and make a squawkie symphony.   

If I can stand it, I will walk back down to the Basilica for pictures tomorrow morning. 

It's supposed to snow 1-3 inches tomorrow...in Natchez! My frozen north mississippi home is getting nothing and the one time I visit Natchez, there's a freak snow storm. ❄️

Natchez, MS

I am in Natchez, MS for the first time in my life. My conference doesn't start until noon and I have 24 hours before the next arctic  blast (snow tomorrow, balmy today).  I will report back tonight!