All roads closed. Ice everywhere. Powerlines may break soon. The picture above shows the frozen rain and sleet in my roof-water buckets outside.
Maybe my thermometer is broken, but it said 11 degrees Farhenheit, and that was at 8:00 AM. At least the inside of the hermitage is warmer than outside, sporting indoor temps in the 30s Fahrenheit. Extreme sport hermiting!
Just to say, I did put up a bit of insulation on part of one wall. I wouldn’t want to think what it would be like without that bit of help. And I did move my chair, which was five feet away and facing away from the wood-stove. Now I’m about three feet away, alongside the stove.
I count my blessings, however, and praise the Lord. The marginalized sleep in their millions out in the cold, you know, “street-people”, victims of down-sizing of psych hospitals, and so very many refugees, so many who are homeless after natural disasters (like those still out in the cold from hurricane Sandy, because FEMA, with zillions of dollars won’t do much: here), so many who are on the run because of lack of religious freedom, such as in China, where the persecutions especially against Catholics are always worsening, and all with the blessings and now the beginnings of imitation of America.
I think of all the march for life crowd in Washington, D.C., who welcome the opportunity of such iciness to be all the more in solidarity with the unborn, who can face such icey bleakness as they grow up, hopefully, in their mothers’ wombs. Yikes!
I think in particular of one lady who is till in need of much healing, here.
We look forward to heaven!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I’m so grateful that people will march for life. It is really beautiful that people understand the difference between “choice” and evil.
And there are so many marginalized people in our society. Thank you for mentioning them and reminding me to pray for them. I think about these people, also our Heavenly Father’s children, often, too, especially now that it is cold.
Hope you and your animal friends at the hermitage are well.
Jen
Will offer prayers for You and all of creation at the Hermitage. I can emphathise with those in the cold as when I travel to south Dakota or Northern Ariz. to the Indian Rezervations I sleep in my van and at times have been frozen in. LOL. As for FEMA, yes they have lots of money and they also have FEMA camps just waiting for those of us who are outspoken an do not agree with gov’t policies. “My opinion only” May all be blessed, family, friend and foe…
Cathy
“Extreme sport hermiting” Hahaha, that is too funny!
Cathy, my mom and step-dad live in the White Mountains in Arizona and take care of the Church on the Apache reservation, where, when my father was alive, they were missionaries and lived on the property. After they left there under Bishop Hastrich, they went to North Dakota to work as missionaries under that bishop at the time. Mother did not like it there, too cold!