October 4, 2021 a thought for today, Knowledge is rooted in all things--the world is a library. Native American  Lakota Proverb

I haven’t been to the store in over two weeks so I really needed to go today. We made a stop at the bank for Sue on our way and at the post office so she could mail a package on the way home. Once at home there was the unloading and putting away. I do the “putting away” in shifts. My legs will only allow me to use them in an upright position for twenty or thirty minutes at a time, sometimes less. So I adjust. 

The October 3rd challenge for the day was “I made this....”. This is the prayer shawl I have been working on. It is nearly done, just some edging. 

When I take off for the store, I keep thinking of the time when I was working many years ago when there was a program here in Columbus called Pea Pod. Groceries could be ordered from the computer then delivered to our home. They left the area about two or three years later. I remember thinking at the time what a wonderful thing for older people and shut-ins who had difficulty getting to the store on a regular basis. Here I am having earned that luxury and there is no more Pea Pod. There are delivery services of the same type now but so far I haven’t tried to use them. Maybe that will be on my agenda soon. 

I got the information I need to do the bulletin, a typical Monday morning task, yesterday. I didn’t have time before the store so in between putting away groceries I worked on the parts of the bulletin. Tomorrow’s agenda is relatively open so I will do the rest tomorrow. 

Rain has been predicted for several days this week but so far it has held off. The sky presents dark clouds between the strength of the sun coming through and pushing them out of the way. 

The word today is forgiven. To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato. He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. Thomas Fuller.  Good to forgive, Best to forget, Robert Browning. I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one. Henry Ward Beecher.  The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness, William Blake.  Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits. Hannah More.  Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. William Shakespeare.  Forgiveness is God's command. Martin Luther. Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. Saint Augustine.  The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. Honore de Balzac.  God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness. Henry Ward Beecher.  Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature, Laurence Sterne . To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it, Confucius. To understand is to forgive, Blaise Pascal.

Today’s theme is “I work here....”. I am retired but that doesn’t mean that retired people don’t “work”. This “work” I chose to submit today is grocery shopping.

There are interesting points in this long article. Westgate was “partially constricted on land formerly housing the American Civil War Camp Chase”. After the war Joseph Binnes and associates bought the land hoping to start a Quaker community. Instead of that a “streetcar suburb” was formed in the 1920s. Westgate Park and Recreation Center, Westgate Alternative Elementary School, St. Mary Magdalene Church, Parkview United Methodist Church and 4,500 residents formed a community. According to the article the Columbus Dispatch named Westgate “the most affordable neighborhoods” in the city n 2008. In the early years when Camp Chase was located here during the Civil War. It was eventually converted to a prisoner of war camp. In the beginning there were 250 prisoners later it was large enough to house 9,146 men. The only thing remaining is one of the only two remaining federal properties from the Civil War located in Columbus. The headstones do not mark graves but represent those who died. I learned from the article that the annual bean dinner began around the cemetery in the 1930s to honor those who gave their lives in the war. Shortly after the Civil War, members of the Quaker Church showed an interest in “ensuing” an auction of 463.5 acre plot in the Hilltop to start a settlement. In 1872 they made the purchase at a cost of $87.50 per acre. Many streets are named for some of the Quaker settlers. In the 1920s the area became a “streetcar suburb”. The Westgate park offers a shelter house, a fishing pond, a rain garden, playgrounds, picnic areas, an open shelter house and other amenities including the Community Recreation Center. The center offers an art room, an auditorium, ceramics room, crafts room, a dance room, fitness room, game room, an auditorium, gymnastic room. There are tennis, basketball, baseball, soccer, football fields as well as a racket ball court. Westgate is a popular neighborhood because of it’s location. The majority of residences in Westgate are single family houses. The article said: “Westgate has been described as "a nice neighborhood, with a family oriented atmosphere."” The houses are unique and “full of character”. 

While I was at the store this morning I bought a Stouffers lasagna, that will be dinner tonight. 

Joy

among the weeds