jamie's wanderings

      When I was a child, I was told the stories of my grandparents conversion to Protestantism from Catholicism. They later told me how the Catholic church had been dead, with no life, and no hope. Seventy Five years later, the world has changed, and many things for the worse, and others for the better. Since 2013 I have followed and read Pope Francis's thoughts and words as well as even more, his actions to show the world that there is another way. His massive empahsis on mercy and compassion, caring for the least of these in Jesus' name impacted me greatly. Partially, this all touched me more, as in a moment of walking through what my own faith means and what it means to daily practice it, has been in complete upheaval. Those in my past that I thought believed, I have seen through their lives and actions that power was more important that service. That control meant more than compassion and mercy. And that the Gospel to them was correct theology believed, held and prea...

 Last night, we sat at our table and had food, wine and a long talk with an old friend. He's one of the few that have stayed with us for the last 15 years or so. Partly because Granada is such a transitory town, we have had so many come and go, but some still live here and have come and gone as well We laughed, cried, told stories, got all shocked, and sat together late into the night. At one point my friend says, can I have a glass and water, and as they drank, they said, OMGosh why is this so good? I, for my kidney, double filter my water, and it does make it taste good, but I'm so used to it, I had forgotten. As I sipped again, I thought, wow, it is good. And I remember the old words that Jesus stood and said about being the bread of life and the water that makes us never thirst again. Last week I went to a local wine festival, and sat with another old friend and drank and laughed and cried together. For the last taste of wine, we went to one of the stands, and after having ...

 At 1pm this past Monday, after showing a lovely countryside home and property, I popped into the local Lidl to buy one of their cold protein coffees. It was almost lunchtime but I still had at least 35 minutes home in the car. A man waved at me and said Nop, no power. We are trying to get generators up and running but not yet. I stepped outside puzzled. My phone buzzed, Sofi, anxious that there was no power in her flat, thought her bill was unpaid. Michelle buzzed me too, asking if our power was out. The panic started to rise. I called Andrew, once, twice, three times straight to voicemail. I sent messages to Sofi to see if she could talk to him. He did eventually send me messages as I hurried to my car, started it and sped off back home. While listening to my car radio, I realized that this, was not just Granada province, but all of Spain. My mind went where everyones did at one point during the day, was this an attack? Cyber? Nuclear? And later, Andrew mumbled at one point about...