What Was I Thinking?

Here I am on a Wednesday afternoon in Scarborough, Maine, sitting in a comfy leather chair writing about what has gone on since my last blog entry. A breeze is wafting in from the window beside me and I can hear the sounds of the evening traffic whizzing by on the Payne Road. I have finished reading two books today and have begun a third. My stomach is contentedly digesting another of my mother's home cooked meals - today's was bean pot stew with rice and green beans with blondies for dessert. Many of my Korean friends have asked me, "What is your favorite American food?" My answer has always been, "Whatever my mother cooked for me," and that is true. It has been a blessing to eat my mother's cooking while I am here. In a couple of hours, my parents and I will be attending the Wednesday evening service at the Grace Bible Church of Gorham, Maine, where Pastor White still faithfully ministers to the folks who live in this part of the state. I was there...

I have arrived in America. This picture was taken Thursday at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The famous Portland Headlight lighthouse is in the background of the photo below. What a beautiful day that was weather wise and company wise. You see, after snapping this picture, I drove to South Portland to visit my grandmother, Ella Manzo, better known to me as Grammy Manzo.  Gram is 96 years old and she still lives in the same house where she has lived for over fifty years.  When I arrived at here house, she was in the middle of her morning devotions in her rocking chair in the living room. She gave me a big hug and a kiss, and we settled in to talk about what has been going on in our lives since last July.  I got to tell her how much I appreciate her daily prayers and her financial support. I know that her prayers move heaven on my behalf, and I told her that maybe the only reason she's still here and not in heaven with her husband, my grandfather, Pappy...

This was me last Saturday morning. I was squatting down beside the waist high wall that separates the driveway outside our apartment building from the garden plot next door. I wanted some bricks in the background while I recorded the presentation of the GGCA graduating class of 2015. Pastor Barry Quirk and Nate McFarland both contacted me via email that morning asking me to do this, so I shaved and put on the spiffy shirt and tie you can see in the photo below. I managed to make it through the three-minute speech without coughing, which was good for me, since I had been fighting a battle with a chest cold for a few days at that point. Respiratory ailments are my Achilles heel, and it is by the grace of God that I have had only two major bouts of illness in my time here. This is me yesterday at the doctor's office, yet again, breathing in some sort of healing vapors before heading next door to the pharmacy for some more medication. (That reminds me that I need to take my e...