Thanksgiving comes everyday. St. Ignatius teaches to look back every 24 hours and find reasons to give thanks to God, to be grateful for the gifts that we receive. These gifts are concrete, real examples of the benefits we gather in from the abundance of God's grace. We harvest them every day according to the Gospel phrase, ‘grace upon grace'. Ignatius further states that this attitude is the basis of all prayer, the fundamental step in religious experience. Everything is gift if we but have eyes to see.
Despite complaints of suppression of its soap operas, Channel 12 in Tijuana broadcasts the World Series every year in Spanish. David and I are watching the first game. The announcers relate that the atmosphere inside of AT&T Park in San Francisco is a mad house (manicomio). I tell David that I am going to send him there. He gestures as if to indicate to the game. I tell him, “no, not to the game, to the manicomio.” He responds by pointing a finger at himself and shaking his head, ”No”. He then turns his finger at me and shakes his head, “Si!”. Then he laughs. During the eighth inning, the Giants start to score runs one on top of the other. A fan in the stands along the left field foul line hangs out a sign, “this is heaven.” After hearing the translation, David points to himself and nods emphatically, “Si'!”, and then points to me and with even more enthusiasm shakes his head, “NO!”
Twice a month we take the people from our center to equine therapy. At the last session, we had a crew including the cowboys and their families, our CANOA people, and a service group called New Awakening (Nuevo Despertar), of about 75 people. Once a year we have a Mass to commemorate the mother of a sponsor family and thank all those who cooperate. The atmosphere borders on the sacred. The cowboys are magnificent with the children; everyone is treated with kindness and respect; their concern for the children and patience with all is admirable. A number of people from New Awakening group have struggled with addiction but are beginning to emerge to a better life and eager to be of service. A group of women who do touch therapy bring their massage table and treat the kids. The entire event, the camaraderie, the kindness, the joking, the repeated smiles of the children prefigures heaven.
Amber, Kathy, and Gordon along with a group of teenagers came all the way from Utah to bring us adapted technology for our computers. The programs enable us to stimulate brain function for the kids through use of fun games. David can now read and is learning to write on the computer. One of the new games is called fly catcher in which by striking the cursor, he stimulates a frog to catch an insect. I told him that it suits him well as he is a man of few flies (hombre de pocas moscas). No kidding- if a fly lands on him, he thinks it is a nuclear attack.
More to give thanks for: the apartments are finished. We are waiting for connection to the electrical grid and to the city water. That is beyond our control. We have a couple of families lined up for use. A friend from the television station came and announced our application system which will give priority to those families who will benefit from the therapy at CANOA. The apartments will be free-- the only charge will be social equity, cooperating with the other families to take care of one another. We hope that this also will be a sign of heaven.
