Arizona vacation is over!

Tomorrow I leave the house before five in the morning and will be flying home from Arizona to Florida with wonderful memories of these two weeks with my family. My brother and sister-in-law met me just two weeks ago in the evening and we went to one of their favorite restaurants and met my sister there for dinner. The next day was fairly quiet with time at the pool and driving around in my brother's new red convertible Corvette! On Thursday, we went to Sedona and stayed in the Sky Harbor Lodge with the most beautiful views imaginable from the balcony of our room (my sister went, too, and we shared this lovely large room with a fireplace.) Of course, we had the fireplace going until late the first night and it reminded me of so many family memories as my mother always loved a fire in the fireplace and the family would gather around and she even allowed us to toast marshmellows on winter nights. Living in Miami, we do not have a fireplace! The red rock mountains of Sedona are gorgeous and are all around - we went to the Holy Cross Chapel as one of our first stops. As both my sister and my brother had stayed in Sedona before, we returned to their favorite places and every meal seemed to be in a different, awesome spot. This blog will be too long to read if I tell you all the wonders of each day. I do need to mention going to St. Vincent de Paul Center in Phoenix where my nephew is in charge of fundraising among other things. He invented a very creative game last year and was repeating it for the public on a Saturday so we all went to "play" and it was quite an experience. You begin by being given a sheet that describes who you are. I was a homeless woman with a three year old son; because of having the baby, I was out of work and living in a shelter but had to find a job, childcare, money for transportation, etc. Actually, St. Vincent de Paul helps you with so many things so you start at one station and are passed on to another according to your needs. I was helped to see how to budget, what my needs were, where I could apply for a job, etc. I found the game to be such an education that I am hoping my nephew can market it for all St. Vincent de Paul groups in every parish. After that, we went to see where Blase and his wife live now and stayed there for dinner. I stayed with John and Anita in Gold Canyon until my sister came for dinner at the end of the week and I went to her home in Scottsdale. I suppose the most interesting things during this busy week were the boatride and then the Parish Renew retreat. Both are worth telling you about some day, but I want to get back to reflections and here is a tidbit from a talk that my sister gave. She spoke of three key words that are central to her love of the Eucharist:"Listen, love, trust." I suspect that these three words are central to every spirituality. I promise more when I am home!