BILLION - YES, THAT'S A "B"

 2,650,838,400 ON MARCH 6, 2021  (But hey, whose counting?)

Heart beats inside Paul Dion's body, not counting what happened in the warmth of the womb. I used 60 as the average beats per minute.  

I think that it is time to blow the whistle and call a miracle.  The kind of miracle that surrounds us every moment of every day.  These miracles are omnipresent and matchless in their steadfastness.  

Every now and then we think of them when we sense that they have developed a change in rythm.  It is at that moment that we begin to pay attention.  It is at that moment that we turn to the universe and realize that we are not alone among the miracles.  It is at that moment when our imagination runs beyond the confines of daily routine.  It is then that we turn to the wonder of creation.  Let's visit a time or two when I and the Voice from the Kitchen looked at one another and asked, "Is that possible?"

The time when we "rescued" a disheveled and shivering cat in a corner of our patio.  Neither one of us is a dedicated lover of animals, but we do respect them.  This cat was visibly in need of help.  As we stood there wondering what to do, we saw the neighbor and he saw the cat.  "Hey, Sunny, whatcha doin' here?"  One problem solved.  The question arose, "How old is Sunny?"  20.  Yes, 20.  That's a miracle.  At an average pulse rate of 150 @ minute, Sunny is way older than I am.                                                                                                    x x x x x x x x x x x 

I was driving for an enterprise that had a small fleet of vans to transport people to the dialysis treatment center.  One of my regular passengers was a rather aged Cherokee.  That's important because she was proud of it and she was spiritually immersed in her religious and cultural roots.  Friday, 5:00 AM, I accept her in her wheelchair upon the hand-off of her son.  She greets me as usual and then adds, "This is the last time."  I respond, "God be praised."

I drove her to the dialysis parlor, dropped her off and attended to her after the treatment.  Just as we were leaving the treatment location, she repeated her farewell, "This is the last time."  I again responded, "God be praised."  I dropped her off in the care of her son and left.  One hour later her son called to tell me that she had died.  It is worth noting that her legal name was "Morning Sun."

Now, I am not the only one with these experiences of this nature.  I hope that this short relation will awaken you to an appreciation of similar miracles that have come home to you.  While you're at it remind yourself not to cry at my funeral.

CREATION - DAY SIX - HUMANS -- DAY 7 -- "zzzz"-- DAY 8 , WORK-- DAY 9-- Oh, Oh!

Hello to one and all.I want to take the liberty to reflect with you on the spiritual dimension of Labor Day.  It is one of our oldest federal legal holidays.  (1894)
I dare to bring you back to the very first pages of the Holy Bible where the roots of Jewish and Christian faith find a basic teaching about work and labor.
Genesis :  Chapter 1; verse 21, etc:  God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.  28 God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.  29 God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;  30 and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. [6th day]
Chapter 2:

1   Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.  On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.  3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

Why am I proposing these thoughts to you this day?  Because it is Labor Day, the one day in each year when the people of the United States celebrate the efforts that hard working men and women make to keep the country happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

To see a historical overview of this poster

click on the link below:

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/rosie-the-riveter

We believers in the Word of God as found in the Bible, here in the first pages of Genesis, rest our faith in the command of God to take dominion over all that He has given us.  It is no secret that this command entails work, lots of work.  It also means that the reward is not just for the direct "worker" but for the benefit of all of creation - Labor.  The flourishment of all creation for all creatures depends on the concerted effort of every descendant of Adam and Eve. 

The concept of "Labor" is a rather challenging one and would require more than the +/- 300 words here.  That aside, since the name of the holiday is "Labor" and not "Work" it falls upon us to reflect a bit on the meaning that is carried in the concept of "Labor."  

"Labor" is, in fact, a generic term.  Think of it this way: The final cost of any commodity or service is determined by the entirety of the human efforts it takes to bring it to tangible reality.  The distinct human efforts that go into the final product to give it its final value, are "Work."

In Genesis 3: 

     The LORD God made for the man and his wife garments of skin, with which he clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said: See! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and  evil!  Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever?  23 The LORD God therefore banished him from the  garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.  24  He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden,  to guard the way to the tree of life.

It is to be noted that it is the "work" of the human that is being targeted while the finished product that results from it is the sum of the "labor" that redounds to the human's benefit.

Our Labor Day then, is as much a time for faith-filled reflection as it is of human thanksgiving for the fruits of human efforts, personal as well as communitarian.

Therefore, I implore all of you to thank our Loving Creator for endowing us with the gifts that we use to make human life better thanks to the gift of creative understanding with which He endows us, not just here in North America but across the globe.

As you mull this over, don't forget that it's against Dion's first commandment,

"No Crying at my Funeral."