December 21, 2008 – Winter has descended in quite a fury with a whiteout soon turning to ice. I know little pain worse than knowing people you care about are out driving in this. You can’t be  responsible for other people, but if you care about them, it’s hard not to feel it deeply.
  So I’m praying for them, and for everyone else who is suffering now. I made it to Church in Argyle, N.Y. this morning, with a few hardy other souls. Good test of my Toyota pickup, which handled well. I couldn’t resist driving to Kinney Road in the storm, which was dumb but beautiful.
  My friend Kim sent me this Thomas Merton quote this morning, a good one for this storm:’
 
  “Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.”

  This is very true, at least for me. Many people are grasping the importance of a spiritual life, the meaning of help, the awesome power of love, which is greater than money or fear or confusion. Hard to believe I won’t lose power tonight, or that the satellite won’t go out. The donkeys are in the barn, the sheep are at the feeder, the dogs are walked and dozing, there is wood on the porch. We’ll see.