It is a bright and shiney Monday morning. It is 36°, not a cloud in the sky, and going up to 53° today. I'd say that makes for a fine morning.

It is also a national holiday, Martin Luther King day. I normally don't pay a lot of attention to MLK day but in recent years it has been a favorite. Eight years ago Ms. Kate had a stroke and lost much of her cognitive function. She couldn't recognize words, letters, numbers, or even fully remember her name or ours. There was a calendar on the wall of her hospital cubicle and the nurses would ask her what day it was; and she couldn't read the calendar because she had no recollection of numbers or letters. However, she had heard on the television that it was MLK day and for what ever reason, that information stuck with her. When I called her first thing in the morning, the first thing she told me was; "Its Martin Luther King day!" She was so excited and proud of herself for remembering that. She still didn't know the date or day of the week, but she did remember that single fact; and it was the beginning of her recovery progress. Yep, MLK day will always have a fond place in my heart. God works in some strange ways. God is so good, all the time.

We need to do some running around today and pick up a few things. We need a couple of boxes of paper from "Sam's". I'm down to one ream and we are on our last ream at St. Pauls. I do go through a lot of paper and ink. I bring home the unused bulletins from church and use that for my drafts and Kate uses that a lot too, and we share it with other family members too. We might as well, it would just be recycled otherwise, and it does save a little money this way. I've tried to get several of the parishioner that have young children to take it home for their kids to draw on etc but I don't get many takers. Maybe I'm too "old school" and parents don't give their children crayolas and paper these days. They give them electronic gadgets instead. So, they are trading bigger imaginations out for bigger thumbs. I'm sure that teachers would be glad to have it but then they would be in violation of bringing "religious stuff" into the classroom. What a world and society we have created.

So, today Byron has his oncologist appointment and we get to find out if his numbers are still as good as we want them to be. We are certainly holding our breath and saying prayers. I found out yesteday afternoon that the husband of one of my parishioners has been diagnosed with bone cancer. He had previously had prostrate cancer and it had gone into remission. So, I'm lifting up Rocky this morning in addition to all of our other friends and family that are on the prayer lists.

It is a great day to stop and look around at the world God has given us and take stock of my blessings. It is a great day to remind ourselves that God has the only plan that counts. Be satisfied with God's plan because God knows what is right for each of our lives and God works our individual miracles into our life. Have a great day.