Dear Friends,

As we transition from excess and wealth (our state before coming here) to our chosen material poverty, we notice the aids we have used in that transition. One of the aids was a pair of folding knives that my mother gave before leaving the states. We have used them quite a bit in the kitchen. We had just worn out the clasp on one of them and had begun to think that we might be ready to go without them. We hadn't decided yet. They were a pretty nice luxury, after all.

On Monday, Sept. 15, Walter (a neighbor) came over. He brought two litres of milk. And he split some firewood for us. We were very grateful. The milk is to help reduce the debt of his brother-in-law who borrowed money from us. Three times Walter asked for a loan of money. Three times I turned him down. He said that his son was sick and he needed money to take him to Bonito to buy medicine.

Sept, 15 is independence day. That's why we were home--clinic closed. I told him he could bring the child over and I would do a consulta and bring the medicines back on Tuesday when we returned from Centro de Salud. OK. But they didn't show up.

Later that afternoon, I was washing dishes and noticed that the two knives were missing. There was no question about how they had disappeared.

So, after noticing how vulnerable we felt in the face of this theft, we had to decide what else we felt and what we wanted to do about it.

We didn't have long to wait. On Wednesday, Walter came again, with 2 more litres of milk, and ready to work for us for the morning.

OK. But first, I told him that we knew he had taken the knives. He began to deny it, but I asked him to just listen and not to say anything. (child development: if you ask a child to confess, you are really asking him to lie to you--and how does adding a lie to a theft help anything?)

I had not planned what I would say, but I told him that my mother had given us those knives to help us as we left our country to start a new life in a new country. I told him that she didn't know that a Honduran kitchen wouldn't usually have knives like that. It was a powerful and spirit-filled time.

Then I showed him the work to do to start the morning. He kept a wide berth from the kitchen door. We all worked in the garden and ate lunch together as we would normally do when someone works with us. A lot of hard physical work was done.

The stolen knives are now a resolved issue in my mind. I would never have guessed two years ago, that such a thing could happen. A theft on Monday, a resolution on Wednesday. Maybe this monastic stuff works.

We have talked (in the past) about restitution justice. There is quite a movement in the US. But it is based on the assumption that someone who has more by the accident of their birth in a certain country and a certain family is ENTITLED to have more than their neighbor, who by accident of birth grew up in a different family and a different country.

We don't decide what is just. We just pray a lot and recognize more each week that we have no idea what is just.

Walter worked for us again on Friday. We all worked together in the garden. We got a lot done. I think about the book of Ezra. The Israelites came back from their exile ready to rebuild the temple. The neighbors came over offering to help build the temple. The Israelites said, NO, we have to do it ourselves (i.e., you aren't good enough to help build the temple). The neighbors were instantly converted to enemies who did all in their power to thwart the construction and more.

By the way, Walter was a very good student as I was teaching him the lunch prayer to sing. "For strength and health and daily bread, we give you thanks, O Lord." It's nice in Spanish. He didn't learn it completely, but he made a good start.

I'm sure you have neighbors, too, who give you cause for gratitude and discouragement, maybe, like Walter, even in the same day. And, of course, we are the neighbors who give him cause for gratitude and discouragement in the same day.

Dios les bendiga,

beth