Snippets

Starting in West Park, today's trek took us along the bike path out to West State Street.  You may remember from an earlier blog post the graffiti under the train bridge on this portion of the bike trail.  That graffiti has been painted over.

This area of Mason City has many large, old homes.  I guess most of these houses were built in the 1890's or early 1900s.  Many of them have been converted into apartments and several are in very poor repair: peeling paint, sagging porches and broken windows.  We talked about how hard it would be to renovate and upkeep such huge houses.

We were both amazed at the differences block to block.  One block would have houses with unkempt lawns and piles of stuff on its porches and the next block would have an entire row of houses with militarily exact hedges and cleaned gutters.  One of the more well-groomed houses was the Northern Lights Alliance for the Homeless.

Today's walk was a little bit harried.  The day was blustery, and we seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.  On my mind was a recent shooting in a school, and the world did not seem so friendly as it has on other days.  The small group of us prayed a prayer from Common Prayer: a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
The prayer ends: "Come, Holy Spirit, and heal all that is broken in our lives, in our streets, and in our world.  In the name of [Abba], and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen." 

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