I Get St. Francis

Pete Sheridan is going to love today’s blog.

My childhood connection to Mother Church has deeply lapsed over the decades. However, there is one Saint, who above St. Anthony of Padua – the source of my confirmation name – that my mother (a very Catholic woman who was also deeply steeped in the Fae) loved a little bit more, so that, a year before I got the slap on the cheek from our bishop, this other guy became the source of my older brother’s confirmation name with an earlier slap.

St. Francis of Assisi was a different cat.

https://www.unspokenelements.com/blogs/hope/saint-francis-of-assisi#:~:text=Francis%20founded%20the%20Franciscan%20order,treated%20with%20respect%20and%20kindness.

St. Francis flew against the grain of all of the religious I grew up around, including all of the family Clerics that would get sloshed around the family table every Sunday, tell the occasional off colored joke to the children if our parents were not in the room, and to a man (or the occasional nun) refused to concede to their young Catholic charges that heaven held a place for their beloved childhood pets, even the ones always present under that Sunday dinner table. My branch of the family tree held the more Buddhist and Hindu beliefs that all animals have souls. I wasn’t too sure about the eternal energy of the visiting Clerics. The seeds of rebellion are sowed early.

Turns out Francis was also big on Nature — an environmentalist before it became a cause célèbre.

Francis walked the walk and talked the talk.

Francis would have made one hell of a Druid.

I think of St. Francis every time Pete Sheridan mentions him in an attempt to lure me back to eternal salvation in our regular cross country telephone calls. Pete is banking on my Father Damian two finger salvation during extreme unction (last rights). God bless him. Good luck, Pete.

I do see the philosophical comparison. We share a love of animals and nature.

I find a lot of joy capturing moments where I recognize the souls of the creatures of Casa Claire – captured as best as I can with bad photographs – but it’s the thought that count.

Yesterday, when I wasn’t exercising my brain doing legal work, the weather brought those creatures out and about, so I snapped away.

Claire and Honey greeted me from a return of my late afternoon trip to town (to make sure I bought their Wheat Thins), looking quite interesting and animated in the afternoon light.

Lisa was thrilled when a second bird feeder arrived from Amazon and joined the successful first one in the expanding aviary soup kitchen on our front window.

I am regularly thrilled watching the other winged creatures snatching some time in the fountains and baths.

Of course, Smokey (the feral cat) loves to disappear into the safety of the Field of Dreams high grass beneath the shade of Jack the Spruce by the faeries in the magic grotto, where she can rest blissfully protected from all harm on these warm summer days between meals.

And of course, the other Smokey and Bandit, traded in the cool comfort of my leather basement chair (a gift from the ETs Everett & Michelle)

for a couple of cooling mats that arrived yesterday – available in the Tik Tok shops.

They arrived just in time, for the next few days are predicted to be scorchers.

And I am especially pleased to see that the next generation of my familial branch also enjoys a strong connection with furry family members at home and work.

Here’s Mark and Sully protecting Gotham over the 4th of July Weekend.

Not all superheroes wear capes and some have tails.

And I pray (in both Catholic and Druid) that the Universe keeps them (and Mark’s wife Sara- also NYPD) and those they watch over safe from harm.

But I wouldn’t complete my homage to St. Francis with any real justice if I didn’t also capture the beauty of nature itself, with yesterday’s photo shoot of The Old Man, who has become another energy vortex here at Casa Claire.

And again, in nocturnal splendor, while I was out hugging away early this morning under the moonlight.

So, St. Francis knew his shit. God bless him. Pete, forgive me, but Francis is always welcome as a cross-over to my naturalist Pantheon (Greek for “honor all gods”).

Well, Monday is behind us but Tuesday beckons with some more legal work.

If I’m lucky the creatures of Casa Claire will keep me distracted when I need it the most.

And hopefully, St. Francis will keep an eye on them. And on all of the other Casa Claire creatures that have crossed the veil and that rainbow bridge.

Maybe they are chasing some of those non-believing clerics just for fun.

I hope that you fine, five readers get to enjoy every day, hopefully with a member of your furry family, preferably out in nature, wherever this blog finds you.

And, no matter what else happens, let us make today a great one.