A. Catherine Noon here, with my first Monday post of the day.  I don’t know about you, but when Monday rolls around, I’m usually caught by surprise – even though Monday comes the same time every week.  What is it about starting the work week that so discombobulates me?  Even the full time homemakers I know look at Monday as the start of a whirlwind because their working spouse and kids have work and school.  And these days, it may be even more than just those two commitments.  How many working folks do you know who are attending school?  Parents that help run church, school, or social organizations, (or all three)?  Single folks who have more stuff stuffed in their calendars than would fit on a large poster-board?

I see a lot of posts about Mondays, to the effect of, oh, geez, it’s Monday again, gotta go ta werk, yadda yadda.  I’ve even posted a few myself, probably (though I’m more likely to post dear lord I need coffee pics, and that’s not confined to Mondays).  Here’s why:  even though it’s Monday, and I’m full of the doan wannas, and I have to get up early to go to work when I was in the middle of forty-eleven other things, the truth is, I have a job to go to.  And in this economy, I’m grateful for that.  I’m grateful I have a home, I have heat for that home, and I have breakfast to eat (and coffee to drink) before I get to the office.  Heck, I have coffee at the office, along with a fridge that I keep stocked with food.  (What?  I might starve!)

As we read the news of people affected by the disaster in Oroville, California, I’m reminded sharply about the comforts of home.  I grew up 90 miles from Oroville.  When I see pictures or watch video, it makes me start to shake and cry.  This morning, I saw that over 185,000 people had been evacuated, with evacuation orders on five cities surrounding the dam.  This news is on top of the hundreds of displaced and separated families that have happened since last week as the immigration crackdown kicked into high gear.

So if you are reading this, as I am typing it, from the comfort of somewhere safe and warm, send a little thought or prayer of thanks up to the universe.  If you are in harms way, I wish you all possible safety and a speedy solution to your experience.

Namaste.

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