Today I walked to church in a better mood. I've been feeling blue lately, mostly associated with the loss of Ande so suddenly, and the end of the semester pressure is always anxiety producing (grades are due Wednesday). But, I started to do some light looking (I expect it to take a while) for a new cat, and just seeing pictures of possibilities made me think about the future in a positive way, instead of dwelling on sadness. Plus, I got a major amount of grading done yesterday.

The weather was beautiful, perfect for walking. My ankle held up well!

I got there pretty early, as I always do when I walk rather than go in a car (the car can be so last minute, a deadline pusher). I was expecting some "news" among the announcements at the beginning, and sure enough, there was. But it was not what I, or probably anyone else (except for those few already in the know) was prepared to hear.

You can imagine that the congregation was so distracted after this thunderbolt that it probably would have been better to cancel Mass (not that this ever would be done, of course). Our band was playing today, and they are so good - but even that didn't help. The music either made you feel like crying, or no one joined in and sang at all.

Back to feeling blue. Even though I made more progress again today on the end of semester stuff!