"Crushing Sadness"

I'm having coffee with cardamon. It's terrific. YOU can buy this as well as other spices, herbs, cheeses, and dried fruits at the Bulk Food Store on West 40 in Zanesville. Can and should.

About a month ago, I dried about 50 peppers of different varieties and pulverized them in my food processor. I cleverly named my smokin' hot home made chili powder "mace." As, when pulverizing, it made tears run from my eyes, and made me choke. Well, you can immagine
my surprise when I found a spice already named "mace" at the Bulk Food Store. What a bummer. Does anyone know what this other, surely inferior "mace" is?

Anyway, "crushing sadness" is a quote from my coworker, Chris. The phrase describes the state of being at work right now...at least to some degree. We've seen some successes over the past few months, but the theme that stands out is neglectful parenting. I can't handle it. Seeing kids suffer for their parents' incompetencies is the reason I hated the internship I did at a domestic violence shelter. At the DV shelter, I was running a therapeutic art group with the kids. Every week was heart wrenching. At the Timothy House, I'm working with the parents, and it's enraging. We see moms drag their kids back and forth between the Timothy House and their skanky, criminal boyfriend's apartments, with children's services on the trail. Anne and I have to meet with one such mom in two and a half hours. This woman has such blinders on. She can't see anything that isn't right in front of her face, and clearly can't think about the future. It's so sad. So, our job becomes to first empathize and seek to understand, and then to attempt to persuade. To persuade her to look for steady housing (not live in her car), to get help for her kid, to stay put, to be patient, and to listen. It's a monumental task.

We have hope, though. Jesus not only makes people right with God, but he fixes their relationships with other people. He rescues the wounded, and transforms people who hurt others into healers. We get to see that happen, too...sometimes.