Love is in the air...

Dear Diary,

Mr and Mrs Gold Finch share a quiet breakfast at my sadly taped up feeder.  Molly and Malcolm Mourning Dove are strutting around and I saw my first pair of Robins the other day.  It seems the whole avian world is pairing up!  It is, after all, spring or what I now refer to as "sprinter"!  A day of sleet and freezing rain yesterday and more to come today.  Winter just refuses to leave us!

The Boston Marathon is today but it will be run in less than ideal conditions.  It has been 5 years since the horrific bombing at the event but Boston remains strong and determined, a community even more united.  I was at Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky when it occurred and I was grateful for the peaceful sanctuary as I tried to come to terms with yet another act of terrorism.  This was Thomas Merton's monastery and at compline that evening the monks offered their prayers to the victims and their families.  Community, our coming together in mutual support and compassion, is our only hope.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.  - Thomas Merton