What a difference a couple of days make...

Grace and greetings.

Following Tuesday's day of frustrations, Wednesday brought its own with it. The funeral (number 42 since I came to the North Slope), was hard, not that any of the funerals are easy; but seeing what cancer can do to the body is less than eight months was hard to witness. Then following the service and burial, (yes, we bury regardless of the time of year), I went home to rest for a little bit. When my wife came to "wake" me up, she made a comment that started another shouting match between the two of us, that the hard feelings lasted for several hours.

As for the weather here, the last several days have been so wonderful and sunny; it makes me forget that though it is finally above freezing, 35-40 still requires at least a light coat. I want to run out there in shorts and t-shirt like most of the teenagers do. I guess I am just getting too old. But the snow is melting, and we can already see grass out by the corner of the house.

I need to get a "real" camera to get any definition out of the pictures, but the mud looking ground is actually the tundra grass coming through. As of a couple of days ago, there was still a foot of snow there.

Following the days of frustration, and wanting to run out into the wonderful day, I still need to count my blessings. Last nights argument gave me the energy to really clean our kitchen, so today it still looks pretty good. I had my weekly meeting with my counselor, and felt better after working through some of the stuff with him.

Then came a real surprise and wonderment, be careful of what you ask for....
This afternoon I followed through on a request from Session to ask if there might be anybody interested to come and help paint the church this summer. I sent out an email to a group in Anchorage and somebody responded within the hour. That person turned it over to another person who is in charge of Native ministries for the Methodist Church for the Alaska Conference. (I met him earlier this year when I did the funerals for his still born twin granddaughters). He wrote me back saying that he is going to a meeting at the end of the month, and may come away with a crew to come up....so hopefully, everything will work out. Now I just need to find a definite dates, and places for the possibility of the crew to come up sometime in July. My head and spirit are still spinning.

Well, it is getting close to 10 PM; I guess I should spend sometime with my wife and son...hopefully without the arguing.

Peace and blessings.