One of our favorite breakfast spots here in Savannah is Le Café Gourmet, a small but very-big-on-flavor spot tucked away on Victory Drive that victoriously specializes in French pastries and sandwiches.
We love chatting with owner Helen and playing with the café’s mascot, Theo.
And best of all, Le Café Gourmet oozes with welcome and goodwill.
Which makes the little, low placard below the coffee bar so very appropriate.
Especially in today’s divided and difficult world.
At my age, I may no longer be able to be anything, but with just a little effort, I know I can be … KIND.
From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.
An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.
Today,Fugelsang looks at healthcare from a Biblical perspective.
“In Proverbs 31:8-9 the Bible calls on believers to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.’ Ensuring access to healthcare for all, regardless of financial status, is the Biblical point of view.”
“Matthew 9:35: ‘Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.’”
“Access to healthcare for all is consistent with Jesus’s entire operation, and Medicaid is exactly the kind of community social action that he’d be proud of. Fans of Jesus should applaud the fact that our country has such a system, that covers over ninety million of us.”
“Author and theologian Dillon Naber Cruz, a military vet known online as the Tattooed Theologian, suggests we ‘Imagine the positive benefits of applying the Golden Rule (Matthew 7-12; Luke 6-31) to healthcare in America. No one would choose to have life altering medical situations lead to being crippled by debt. No one would willfully choose to skip treatment or to not buy medication because it is too expensive.”
“Applying the Matthean Golden Rule caveat ‘in everything you do’ to healthcare would mean that we enact a robust universal healthcare system in which no person is left to the malicious whims of healthcare profiteers whose money is made from human suffering. Jesus wanted to alleviate suffering and would definitely be against his ostensible followers profiting from it.” p. 195
In a recent post, I mentioned that one of the major donors for the current Savannah Performing Arts Festival withdrew his funding because the festival was to include a section on the Art of Drag.
Art. Key word …. “Art.”
This injustice, of course, follows a dangerously growing trend led by the Trump regime to damage/destroy trans and LGBTQ rights in the United States, a country that proclaims liberty and justice FOR ALL.
Apparently, “ALL” now means white and straight.
But thankfully, ALL are not narrow-minded and evil …
May Evil’s Democracy-Destroying Voice Be Silenced.
Marveling this Monday Morning at the simple and beautiful truth of poetry.
Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass. We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
Danusha Laméris’ insightful poem asks us to notice and cherish the many “small kindnesses” we exchange with strangers as we move through the world. Though quick, these moments have the potential to fulfill our shared need for compassion.
This year my Countdown to Christmas is a nontraditional Advent Calendar centering (pun intended) on mindfulness.
On the front of each card is neat little picture, and on the back are the instructions for the short meditation.
Today, Day Two of Advent … “EXERCISE GENEROSITY.”
Wait! Stop! That’s not the right type of exercising.
Here are today’s instructions:
They say the true meaning of Christmas is not receiving, but giving. Today, look for opportunities to be generous. There are many different ways that generosity can be exercised, and it doesn’t necessarily have to come in the form of material gifts.
It could be an act of kindness. Helping someone with a task, talking to someone who looks lonely, letting someone with fewer items jump in front of you in the supermarket queue – there are many openings in daily life to perform an act of kindness and feel the warm glow of positivity that comes with it.
It could come in the form of generous words. Try giving someone an honest compliment. Letting someone know what you truly like about them can really boost their morale. Be present in these small positive moments as your compliment is received. Pay attention to the reaction of the receiver, and also to how this small but significant act of giving impacts your own emotions.
Often, little chances to be kind and generous can pass us by when we are concerned with other things.
Throughout the day, make the extra effort to exercise generosity and see how it makes you feel.
I felt a great sense of gratitude Thanksgiving night as Robert and I put up our traditional Travel Tree, gratitude for the beautiful life of Georgia native and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Here’s a wonderful article about Rosalynn’s beautiful life:
NealEnJoy 