Counting my blessings

I often envy others who live in southern Caifornia, or down south in Florida, or in places nearer the ocean.

But as many are suffering in Japan and perhaps across the Pacific, I often count my blessings as a resident of the industrial midwest, here in southeastern Michigan.

I said to my wife Jan this morning that I was prepared to take a couple inches of snow, as I began to hear the news of the earthquake in Japan.

We're generally very fortunate here regarding the weather. About 50 inches of snow each year, meted out in managegeable amounts.

We get periods in spring and summer that are delightful, and our fall days - football weather - can be enchanting.

Few tornadoes, fewer earthquakes, no tsunamis. I remember years ago reading an April Fool's day story in the Free Press about recently-discovered freshwater sharks in the Lake of Michigan. A photo accompanied the story, as a menacing fin sliced through the water just behind a water skier being pulled by a boat.

We can laugh, because it's so absurd. No sharks here, right?

As I count my blessings, I pray for those who have been injured, or worse, by a horrific disaster.
I'll join my fellow parishioners in communal prayer at St. Thomas a' Becket in Canton this weekend, and dig a little deeper into my wallet to provide some financial assistance.

Because I know from past experience that we will respond to the call.