A Living Community
“Making Connections. Make special times for family this week. Contemplate the richness of family life.”
I read this in the church bulletin yesterday after having gone to the early Mass.
In the second reading of the day, what does St Paul say in his letter to the Colossians?
Here a few exammples:
Wives, give way to your husbands . . . .
Husbands, love your wives and treat them with gentleness.
Children, be obedient to your parents always . . . .
Parents, never drive your children to resentment or you will make them feel frustrated.
OUR DAY WITH SYLVIA AND MONIKA
Our friend Sylvia had agreed to go with us to a picnic by the sea . We picked her up at 11 am. Our trip went southwards towards Shellharbour. The place we had in mind for our picnic seemed to be full of cars even though it turned out to be a day with very strong wind.
We decided to travel on a bit further south. Soon we found a spot where parking was still available. We were even able to occupy a beautiful picnic table. Sitting down and unpacking all our picnic supplies we came to realise why this table had not been taken yet by anyone. The reason was quite simply that the wind at this spot very close by the sea had become extraordinarily strong.
Somehow we managed to cope with the wind, enjoying our picnic lunch as well as possible. As soon as lunch was finished we packed everything back into the back of the car and drove back to where we could buy some delicious ice-cream wafers as a desert. I did not want my ice-cream to melt too fast in the brilliant sunshine. This is why I sought some shade near a palm tree plant. When I had only a bit of wafer left, Peter thought of taking this picture of me:

Our daughter Monika had invited us for coffee and cake at her place, She was expecting us at 3 pm. That meant we had a bit of time left to go somewhere else away from the gusty wind by the sea. Blackbutt Forest was not far away. This place turned out to be the right spot for us for a lovely walk.
We arrived at Monika’s place right on time at three o’clock. Monika and two of her daughters greeted us. Monika and Sylvia were happy to see each other after a long time of not having been able to see each other. Sylvia had brought a lovely home baked cake along. Monika’s daughter Krystal and Monika also had baked a cake. Soon we were served cake and plunger coffee.
We have known Sylvia since she was about two and Monika wasn’t even one year old yet. Now they are both in their fifties! We had a good day with Sylvia and Monika and her family. We spent about three hours at Monika’s, having a lot to talk about. Mark joined the conversation too a bit later.
To drive Sylvia back to Wollongong along the freeway didn’t take long. I think just before seven Peter and I were back home in Dapto. We were pretty tired by then but happy to have had a very enjoyable day.