GOING ON RETREAT -- IT'S COLD!!!

I am going to The Close today. It is a retret center in southern Kentucky. I will be there on retreat for three days. I am looking forward to the time except that the cabins are heated by a combo of a gas wall heater and a wood stove. This is all good until the fire goes out -- which it always does in the middle of the night (usually about 3AM). Mornings involve freezing ones you know what off while coffee boils and the fire kicks in.

Going there reminds me how good we moderns have it. My grandma Matthews had to get up every winter morning before dawn and stoke a fire in the fireplace to be warm and to eat. Going to the close makes me think to myself, "I am a pansy, I am a pansy, I am a pansy........"