My capacity for rejection and being ignored on matters of conscience relating to justice and peace was getting low. This was especially true for this rainy and dark day.

This morning a friend who has lived a hard life, full of illness and murder of her son, gave me a call about her friend that was doing grief counseling. During our conversation I mentioned how I felt a little down about being suspended by St. Vincent de Paul Society and being ignored by Marquette University on a moral issue. I might have even said I sometimes like felt like giving up on some of these causes. She jumped all over me and said how I could not give up on the struggle for peace and justice and how I was her inspiration when she faced troubling times.

This morning I drove a friend without a car to the school board building so she
could renew her letter authorizing her to teach at a local high school quilting to a recreational program of the public schools. She thanked me by giving us many of her wonderful homemade corn muffins.

Also today a friend that I help drive to the hospital for physical therapy send me a nice card saying what he says every time I drive him, thanking me and saying what a good friend I am. Today another couple who I have helped called me that their car had broken down in a parking lot. I went over and got them and took them home. They wrote me a nice email saying how much they appreciated me.

There were a few other things happening today, a delicious dinner made by Pat and a call from friend suggesting a way to respond to the attack of my character by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

At the heart of creative nonviolence as practiced by Jesus, Dorothy Day, King or Gandhi is the acceptance of rejection, insults and suffering. I do not do so well in this area. Without the help of my friends I would be a complete failure with this acceptance.

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