“The recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation.”
– Martin Luther
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A gorgeous Sunday morning. I actually saw the Chateau bus pulling into the Saint Gabriel side lot as I got to the front lot. I ran like O.J. Simpson through the lot, down the back of the building and caught up with the bus as it pulled in. I was out of breath, but I got to greet the seniors as they got off the bus today. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, and everyone was smiling and happy to share the Lord’s Day.
Today’s Gospel was the was the story of the tax collector who was eager to see Jesus. He repented of his evil ways and vowed to make amends. This is the true meaning of faith.
At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
********My take on it **** you can say you are sorry all you want, but the true forgiveness only comes if you make amends.
“Life is like drawing with a pencil. Thank goodness there’s an eraser on the end.”~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis
I did a little more sketching last week. This stained glass window was just a bunch of clouds. I think representing, “I am the light?” But, it was the last of the six fro t arched windows way up high in front of the church. My Artisto app managed to make unite a few wonderful renditions, BUT, my WordPress was out of space, already using 13 G of space that I paid quite a bit for. When I tried to post the last couple of days, it was giving me a hard time.
I did a lot of research, trying to find out how to free up some space so I don’t have to pay $45 a month for the next higher level. I’m already at a premium level. Plus, I’m just two months away from my ten year goal of writing everyday for 10 years, can you believe it? So, I’ve just spent the last two hours trying to free up a little space, deleting comments and drafts, without deleting content. 🤦♀️😳 one suggestion was to post smaller size photos. Duh! I didn’t even know that was a possibility. 🤦♀️
So, I’m only going to post a couple of my favorite Artisto renderings of my sketch. I’ll post the full size on my Facebook page. Hopefully they won’t start charging me a lot of money to post, otherwise… I’m goin’ dark! 🤦♀️
Mosaic
Well, that’s the only photo it would let me post, 🤦♀️
A sad day, saying farewell to tiny soul that only lived a thousand days. But, he changed more lives and moved more people than anyone else could have in a thousand years. Another Angel in heaven. 😇
“I am always thankful for my artistic gifts and my artistic friends who share their gifts and friendship with me.”
-Toni Armenta Andrukaitis
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Today, Helene and I went over to Towne Creek Senior Apartments for our art day. Normally we go on the last Friday of the month, but I have a very special funeral Mass to attend tomorrow. We had a nice group of folks popping in and out at different times.
I made a big ol’ pot of potato soup and garlic bread for our feast.I got up early to make the popcorn/cereal/cheese puff/pretzel snack bags, and gathered the other treats for our dinner feast.If you’re wondering what goes in the bags, here ya go. I mix it all in a big white bag, and shake, shake, shake, and put in a cute cellophane bag.We were painting ivy bowls with colorful glass paint and adding white snowflakes, starting our holiday projects.Miss Bonnie’s turquoise/gold bowl turned out so cute,Miss Kathy did a great job on her bowl and Christmas coloring page.
“I keep on thinking on how I’m just so busy, but really, I keep so busy just trying to keep on keepin’ on.” ~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis
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Busy week this week. Sunday was church, McD with friends, grocery store, then the St. Gabe 60+ group.
Monday was the Halloween party at the senior center.
Tuesday was Early VOTING at the fire station, Taco Tuesday with Helene, grocery store… again, and dinner with my guy.
Wednesday, today, was my awesome Words With Friends McKinney Writing group. Melissa gave us a prompt of writing about our imaginary friend. I’ll share that another time. Pretty funny. My friend’s name was Tara. Toni and Tara.
Afterwards, I stopped at Towne Creek to rearrange my regular Friday teaching art class to Thursday. I stopped at the store… again…. To get some last minute food items for our art feast. I also need to prepare some art activities.
I’m going to make potato vegetable soup shortly. This is all I’ve gotten done so far.
Kathy across the street and I just got back from visiting our nextdoor neighbor for a couple of hours. Her husband passed away last night and she appreciated the visit and company. She had a lot of beautiful stories to share about her husband of over 50 years.
Time is so fragile and fleeting, my friends. Enjoy every minute. The minutes are numbered. ❤️ Keep busy and keep on keepin’ on.
Sunday evening, a very large and wonderful group of friends from St. Gabriel gathered for our monthly visit 60+ potluck social. Every month, someone is kind enough to offer their home and host the gathering. Several couples and ladies help to coordinate, prepare, and clean up afterwards.
This month, Dave Manders hosted the social at his beautiful home in Stonebridge. The food was excellent, 5e conversation wonderful, and the company was outstanding. (A few folks were “out standing” on the back porch.🤦♀️)
Thank you Dave for hosting again and having a horde of crazy Catholics descend upon your beautiful home. (Hope your home owners insurance is up to date.)A wonderful group of like minded friends, sharing faith and food and friendship. ❤️
“Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is self-given; be careful.”
~Harvey Mackay
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A beautiful Sunday. Gosh! Every Sunday is pretty beautiful. It has been very windy for the last couple of days. When I was greeting before Mass this morning, the gusty wind blew in a bunch of colorful leaves and a few people got an extra push in the door, too. 🤦♀️
Today’s Gospel was the parable of the self-centered Phararisee and the humble tax collector.
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
My take on it… humility is admitting you are not perfect, and seeking forgiveness for your sins, and striving to do better. Always strive for perfection, knowing that you’ll never succeed.
After Mass, we stopped for coffee at McD with Helene, Jerry, Patricia and Barbara. we joked and laughed and shared stories. After that, Helene and went over to Tom Thumb to get our special coupon digital deal sales. Alas, they were out of the sale Yoplait yogurt, but they had the butter and cheese. Such is life.
When I got home, I went over to Miss Kathy’s across the street to update her on what was happening while she was on vacation. I was cat sitting for her and the boys were very good, but her nextdoor neighbor’s dogs broke through the fence and wouldn’t leave her yard. 😳🤦♀️ That was crazy.
We had our St. Gabriel 60+ potluck dinner this evening, but that’s another story for another day.
“The moments we share are the moments we keep forever.” Author Unknown
This popped up on my Facebook memories from 10 years ago. I only had the honor of running into Tommy, the wonderful wandering minstrel, one more time quite a few years ago. But, his story will live on as long as I keep sharing and keep him in my heart.
TOMMY AND MABLE
With silver hair and a crooked smile Strumming tunes that make you want to sit awhile As you tap your toes and start to sing along He shares each word, and has lived each song His guitar is closer than any family And the road, the only home he’ll ever see But he and Mable have a need to play Her frame is worn and her strings won’t stay They’ve seen the whole country from east to west And the town they’re in, is the one that’s best Mable’s been signed by many a star Even Elvis scrawled his name on that old guitar But the real country singer never settles down ‘Cause there’s another ballad and another town.
~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis
TOMMY AND MABLE
Tommy sat on the cold metal bench outside a little coffee shop in downtown McKinney. His raspy muffled voice crooned a soft country song, while aged yet agile fingers strummed across the well worn strings of a blue acoustic guitar. Salt and pepper hair brushed across a ruddy bearded face as a crisp north wind kicked up. Tommy reached over to secure the two wrinkled dollar bills flapping inside the open guitar case. He carefully tucked the ends of the bills under the small stack of prized CDs bearing his image and that of Mable, his faithful companion of thirty-seven years.
Johnny Cash’s, “Ring of Fire,” soulfully echoed across the Square, and Tommy’s foot tapped along with each rhythmic beat. I dragged a wooden chair across the brick sidewalk, and then parked myself a couple feet away from the real-life Texas troubadour. I enjoyed each rendition of old familiar tunes, as well as the original compositions inspired by nearly forty years of life on the road.
“Tommy, would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself, ” I asked when he took his first cigarette break. “Where are you from?”
“I was born in McKinney, Texas. Haven’t been back here in over thirty years.” His tone and demeanor became a bit more serious when he described his early childhood.
“Yep, I was born right here in McKinney. My folks got killed when I was thirteen. They wanted to put me in foster care, so I took off and rode the rails. Never looked back. Been traveling ’round the country ever since.”
His eyes brightened and a little crooked smile appeared when he started talking about Mable. “We’ve been together for thirty-seven years now. I was rummaging around in a dumpster looking for cans one day, when I ran across this old black guitar with a broken neck. She was in bad shape, but I fixed her up with some glue and tightened up her strings.”
The adventures were mixed with making new friends and happy times, sprinkled with the hard hungry days.
“We’ve walked across all these forty-eight states, just playing music for folks and living off what they put in my guitar case.”
Tommy went on to describe the nomadic life of a traveling troubadour. “I’ve never run into anyone else who does this. It’s an honest livin’. I don’t beg. I just play my music and if folks like what they hear, they drop a dollar or two in my case. Sometimes I’d ride the rails from one town to the next or just walk ’till I couldn’t walk no more.”
I listened as he carefully crushed the tiny cigarette butt beneath his worn out walking shoe and tossed it in the trash can beside the bench. “I don’t stay in one town for more than a few days. Never had a wife or kids. Wouldn’t be right, with me movin’ round so much. Wouldn’t change a thing if I could.”
When I asked about Mable, he said she was named after his beloved grandmother. The old black acoustic guitar with hundreds of scrawled signatures from front to back, now sat in the window of Snug on the Square, just a few feet away. I asked if I could take a picture of him and Mable, so he walked over and took her out of the window. I could see the jagged repair on her neck and her strings were missing.
“Mable’s retired. When you retire a guitar, you take off the strings. Need ’em for the next one.” Then he pointed out the spot where Elvis had scribbled his name one rainy night in ’69 in Mobile, Alabama. But, he was just as proud of the signatures from a group of women that signed her after a Susan B. Koman walk a few years back.
“ I decided that it all began here, so it should end here. I’m leaving Mable with Sandra and these nice folks. I know they’ll take good care of her.”
Tommy mentioned that when he came back to McKinney after being gone for so long, he strolled along the unfamiliar streets and asked around at a few shops and restaurants downtown to see if he could set up somewhere and play his guitar. Sandra Nichols, owner of Snug on the Square, was the only one who welcomed him and treated him with respect. “That’s when I knew my Mable would have a good home and a good family right here. They’re going to keep her right there in the window.”
I was intrigued by the story of Tommy and old Mable, especially the long and loving relationship the two shared. So, of course, I was curious about the new acoustic.
“Tommy, what’s the name of your new guitar? I was sure it would be another interesting story.
He turned his whiskered face and answered, “Haven’t named her yet. She’s gotta earn it.”
After taking a few pictures and recording a couple segments of Tommy serenading and smiling at passers-by, I said farewell to the wandering minstrel from McKinney. I shook his talented weathered hand and dropped all the cash I had in the old black guitar case. Who knows when Tommy will be passing this way again?
Tommy and Mable- an awesome video segment on YouTube.
Toni Andrukaitis 