Last week we continued to have "interest" from media outlets. Reuters came and interviewed for a story and ABC posted an interview from their time here. See it here This is the URL, if needed:
abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/Nuns-fight-back-false-fraud-allegations-115335038
Meanwhile, life (tries) to go on, highlighted by more beautiful fall weather, mostly mild with colorful scenes throughout our area.
And right in our backyard, our larch is orange again and displaying its unique fruit orbs.
As they say, " I would never in a million years" have thought that this week would be as exciting as last week. But it was!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/politics/video/nuns-pennsylvania-election-fraud-accusation-digvid
CNN interview at the Mount:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/politics/benedictine-sisters-of-erie-pennsylvania-election-fraud-viral/index.html
https://www.goerie.com/story/news/local/2024/10/24/voter-fraud-accusation-erie-benedictine-sisters-deny-cliff-maloney-charge-social-media-x/75820224007/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/23/pennsylvania-republican-voting-nuns-erie/
What a week to live in Erie, PA! On Monday vice-president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris was here and spoke to a crowd of over 9,000 at the Erie Civic Center (to those who know Erie, it's the sports center attached to the Seawolves baseball park on E 9th St.)
Then on Thursday, Liz Cheney was interviewed by Sister Joan Chittister at the Bayfront Convention Center on Presque Isle Bay, sponsored by the Jefferson Education Society. The crowd there was 4,000 a record for the JES.
Many sisters attended, although many were not able to get into see Harris as the Civic Center filled up early. As Steve Scully said to Cheney in his wrap up, "You do know that you're in the swingiest county in the swing state of Pennsylvania, don't you?" She smiled and laughed, as did the audience.
Here's the local news clip on Harris.
Last week I took a friend of mine, who is recuperating from surgery, outdoors in her wheelchair every day for a jaunt around our property. The timing was good, as early fall days were still sunny in the afternoons. One of the unexpected pleasures of these hours was the daily variations that we saw, even though we took the same basic path every day.
Here are two of Thursdays sights: the colias plant is an off-shoot of the one I planted last summer. This one grew twice as tall and is flowering! What a delightful surprise.
The second one is not really the bunny per se, but how close it let us come before scampering away.
In our four-season climate these autumn days are special as we all know that everything we are seeing now will soon be disappearing for a few months, as winter sets in. Hope you're enjoying your October, too.
An excerpt from a prayer we are adding to our Evening Prayer everyday this month.
Give us, O God, leaders whose hearts are large enough
to match the breadth of our own souls
and give us souls strong enough
to follow leaders of vision and wisdom.
Give us the hearts to choose the leaders
who will work with other leaders
to bring safety to the whole world.
Give us leaders who lead this nation to virtue
without seeking to impose our kind of virtue
on the virtue of others.
Give us a government that provides for the advancement
of this country without taking resources from others
to achieve it.
We trust you, Great God, to open our hearts
to learn from those to whom you speak in different tongues
and to respect the life and words
of those to whom you entrusted
the good of other parts of this globe.
We beg you, Great God, give us the vision as a people
to know where global leadership truly lies, to pursue it diligently,
to require it to protect human rights for everyone everywhere.
This may be a Sweet Autumn Clematis, at least it seems like the one I found on a garden site. In person, it looks like a huge cloud of falling stars, has a lovely, sweet aroma and is really the only new thing blooming in the garden right now.
This weekend we held our annual Prophet of Peace Award ceremony. An award given to a person or group that exemplifies our corporate commitment through their life. This year we honored Alice Edwards, PhD, from Mercyhurst University. Alice, a professor of Spanish, has spent her life in classrooms, working with local immigrants and in developing multi-cultural relationships for her students and with other groups both in Erie and through her visits to Latin America.
Some recent awardees were: Sister Simone Campbell, healthcare; SONS of Lake Erie (Save our Native Species), lake fishing, water conservation, and care for children; Linda King director of SAFENET, a refuge for women; Kelly Armour, multi-cultural musician, especially with children; Edwina Gateley, spirituality writer; and environmentalist Mike Campbell.
