I’m hosting this week’s Friday Five over at RevGalBlogPals!  Come and play along!

Since The Hobbit movie came out in December 2012, we decided to re-watch “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. You can quibble all you want about Peter Jackson’s casting and editing, but the message still sounds loud and clear – “Good will triumph over evil.”

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

===o0o===

In these last few weeks there’s been all kinds of bad news. Tornadoes and a blizzard. Gun violence and a legislative body squabbling like toddlers. For those of us in the US, it’s tax season. Yuck.

We’re 2+ weeks into Lent. Easter’s a long way off. And here in the MidAtlantic region, the weather can’t seem to make up its mind. Is it winter? Is it spring? Will it snow? Will it rain? Are my daffodils doomed if they actually BLOOM next week like they are threatening to? So this week’s Friday Five is courtesy of my good friends Frodo and Sam. Tell me 5 things that are good in our world. Or your world. Photos are a bonus.

So here’s my responses to this week’s Friday Five…

1. FAMILY: Unfortunately, I don’t have a recent picture of the whole clan (my extended family with my mom, sibs and family.) So I’ll just give this one which shows (left to right) Reedy Girl, Bearded Brewer and The Johnnie a few summers ago when we were visiting in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

2. CATS: Really. Does this surprise you? We enjoy our furry kids. They each have their own puuurrrrsonality.

3. MISSION: I love my work as a chaplain and a writer. I’m still looking for a chaplain position that has more daytime than nighttime hours, and while that is going on, I’m doing more writing.

4. OUR BACK YARD: It’s quiet, peaceful and a great placed to putter around and do yardwork, or just sit and listen to God.

5. FRIENDS: Two pictures for this one. The Pastorettes – women who are also working in my area in churches and in the community. We don’t get together as often as I’d like. Common Threads – women from our church who hang out and knit/crochet/dream together. Thanks to their help, I learned to knit in the last year.