Calgary on a Sunday

 ... Arta taking pictures in Lisbon ...
No wonder I can't remember where I was.
  I could have been anywhere!

Kathy Jarvis and I have emailed each other.

We want to be on the trip with Catherine and Eric's kids, but neither of us were able to organize for it.

So we watch our email and virtually walk every step of the way with them, which is a great privilege even at that.

 I toss the pictures and text onto the family blog for Catherine.

But I forget to tell what is happening here at home. And I even forget exactly what Lisbon was like so I had to slip back to some of my old pictures to remind me of what I did in Lisbon on my own.

Picasso's Guernica

I do remember what I did yesterday, though, which was much different than going to a Spanish villa for church. Church came to me in the form of our home teacher who sat and visited part of the afternoon away.

Among other things we talked about was Picasso’s Guernica, about Elie Wiesel’s The Night. We spoke about our love of the arts (in his case, love of architecture and we talked a bit about his own gift with watercolours). A lovely afternoon.

I told him my boarders are leaving. For 3 ½ to 5 years they have lived in a house with two Mormons: Kelvin, a conservative Mormon, whom we identified yesterday as willing to give everything he has, right to the shirt on his back, to others. They full agree with that thumb-nail shot of him. And while their interactions with me have mostly been in the kitchen, me cooking and in idle conversation with them, they would agree that they have also lived with a Mormon feminist.

Yesterday one of them said to me – I never thought I would say this, but after living here, then watching the Mormons in action during the Calgary flood, and then again in another rescue operation, I have to say I am willing to join the church. I don’t believe there is a God. Is that a pre-requisite? I told him, no, not for me, but yes for them.

After Brook left yesterday, I went back to the boarders to tell them this story, since it is hard for Albertans not to be trading flood stories. Generous people have helped in the last two weeks in so many Alberta locations. But few have been out to Exshaw, a tiny town half way to Banff. Iit as the cement plant area that one passes on the way to Banff but it is on the 1A Highway. There was some hierarchical organization went on, and a designated group of Mormons didn’t go to church on Sunday. They were called and asked to get on their work clothes and go out to Exshaw to lend a helping. I say they went to real church. The area is closed off to the public, probably because of some dangers and one has to have a permit to enter the area. The permits were issued to them and away they went.

In an email to me yesterday, Ann Cowie was telling me that her daughter had been organized through another church and had also spent the day helping.

As every, hugs to all,

Arta