Frigid Journey is how I would describe my woods adventures over the past few days. I can dress for the cold but the wind is another matter. Indeed the below-freezing temperatures are a bit unusual for our neck of the woods, especially the duration.  I remember from my career at Southern Illinois University the countless times I waded cascading water in offices and classrooms when a pipe burst due to below-freezing weather. On one Christmas Holiday MJ and I went to the University every day of the holiday time to empty buckets of water leaking from water breaks in the Communications building. I recall being on frozen pipe water extraction for over 24 hours. 

Winter is lovely if you can peer out of your picture window at the winterwonderland. It is not so much fun if you have to brave the icy roads, shovel mounds of snow, and deal with the devastation of Mother Nature. I vividly recall leaving all the water faucets on in our little house to endeavor to ensure our pipes did not freeze. I would be awake for most of the night constantly checking them to ensure that they were still functioning. 

I saw a program the other night that spoke of the ‘Hard Room.’ I reflected that I have lived in the Hard Room many times in my life. I am reminded of the Christmas Holiday when I had placed Duck Tape along the gap where the front door met the doorsill due to the cold air blowing in. I had received a Texas Instrument computer that I hooked up to a little portable television and marveled at the computer par excellence of my present. I was reading a book on famine and thus felt hungry and cold. 

The Good Life is not the experience for many of our neighbors and friends and the disenfranchised and forgotten. It is possible to be horribly alone in the midst of the Horn Of Plenty…

Chronic illness can cause the visions of sugar plumbs dancing in the heads of so many just a little more than 3 weeks ago. If you are hospitalized or sitting by the bedside of a loved one who is…this is truly a Hard Room.

We do not realize the number of our fellow humans who are addicted to substances both legal and not so. Mental illnesses still the hidden disease and many refuse to admit their malady or hide the devastation of its affects. How often have I heard someone say of theirself that they do not why they act in the manner that they do…they are, Just that way.’ 

St. Peter will have one question when we stand at his big desk and look up into his eyes…’Who did you help?’