Peering

I arise at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
Kahlil Gibran

A week of single-digit weather, but it warmed up to 30 yesterday! Just a couple highlights: we got to see Selma with our dear friends Lydia & Erinn and we walked to Señor Lopez Mexican Restaurant for dinner in gently drifting snow.

Peering by tom airey
Monday morning mesmerized by falling snow,
Sipping Ethiopian.
Peering down into the back alley:
Roofs, cars and lawns coated white,
Fresh canvasses for a new year.
Painting justice.

Bare branches, wooden frames, electric poles, graffiti.
Dog barking, birds darting, lover coughing, heater humming.
The candle lights up the day ahead:
meetings, meals, promises and prayers.
Propelled by Love spreading like a virus.
Steering clear of vaccinations.

The school guard trudges along
Yellow vest glowing radiant.
You can’t miss her
Undocumented husband
Who just lost his job.
Smiling tenderly shoveling snow with his dog.

Tom had his most social week since our days in SoCal. He had lunch with fellow Fuller Seminary grad Joel Shenk, who is the pastor of Toledo Mennonite Church just an hour away.

And, in a shocking turn of events, Tom got to hang out with his best two friends from his freshman year at Loyola Marymount University on consecutive evenings. Josh Mooney is living in Taiwan with his wife, Jean, and two children. His job brought him to Detroit for the annual international auto show at the Cobo Center.

And Sean Hennessey, who lives in Dana Point with his wife Cass and four children, came to Michigan for less than 24 hours to talk through a commercial real estate deal in Ann Arbor.