He was a Native American, Aztec, named Cuauhtlatoatzin (Eagle able to speak), but he went by his Spanish name, Juan Diego. He was rounding the hill of Tepeyac, where three days ago he had met that beautiful lady. She looked like a mestiza (Indian and Spanish), and dressed in a long, white tunic with a blue veil or cloak, she said, “Go to the top of the hill, and pick the beautiful flowers there. Put them in your tilma (cloak) and they’ll be that sign your bishop wants.” It was December 12, 1531, a cold day, even twelve miles north of Mexico City.

At the barren top of the hill was a rosebush, with beautiful red blossoms which he picked and dropped in his tilma. (to be continued)

From what was once a goatherd’s concoction of Gruyere cheese melted in white wine, Loretta and I occasionally enjoy cheese fondue. We usually do it privately, lest friends consider the communal pot as unsanitary. I say occasionally because the doctors told me to stay away from cheese if I don’t want another quadruple bypass operation, so it’s one of those things we can enjoy once in a great while.

At one time, in my younger days, I made it from scratch, from an uncle’s recipe, but supermarkets sell it imported, ready-made, so all I have to do is melt it. I usually buy a French baguette, cut it up into one-inch cubes, and away we go. The gifts bestowed on America by God include this festive delight, and I am most happy to share this knowledge with you.

One of the beauties of Creation, i.e. the universe as we know it, is the passionate attraction that occurs with certain couples. William Shakespeare wrote about it fetchingly in Romeo and Juliet, and ended it quite wisely. Had Romeo and Juliet married, it might not have lasted, and the beauty of their relationship might have ended, in its modern equivalent of divorce or unfaithfulness.

Theirs was a moment captured by time, like a sunset that lasts only four minutes, like a day lily that blooms only twenty-four hours. We can’t push Nature too far — it is beautiful as it is. Romeo and Juliet’s love was beautiful as it was; to demand that it last a lifetime is almost hoping for too much. Yet there are couples whose love lasts forever, as far as I can tell.

Yes, as quantum theory would lead me to believe, the adjective forever is possible. In this world, all things have an end; even the universe is predicted to die. But English and other languages have the word eternal. Don’t give up on that.

They have no idea where it came from, that red oak with the abundant acorns to which they come every sunny morning and even some rainy ones. Did they ever ask, “Who planted this tree? Where do trees come from? What do humans mean by a Big Bang?”

There’s one on his favorite perch, with his back against the trunk, breaking into an acorn that he picked at random from hundreds strewn on the ground. He’s on the lowest branch, about eight feet off the ground, keeping his distance from the other two.

Those squirrels never picked the acorns off the branches, probably because they weren’t ripe. Now that the acorns are on the ground, it’s a supermarket. How does a small squirrel, with a three-ounce stomach capacity, eat so many acorns? And how does he survive that hawk, lazily observing from circles in the sky?

Somwhere in the Bible it says that unless the Lord watches with the watchman, the watchman watches in vain. Well, the Lord was with Tobias when, alone, he raised his daughter to adulthood, and she pleased all who observed her not just as a maiden, but as a married mother.

She could have gone wrong many ways, for she was beautiful and lively, a temptation for many a man to lead her astray. But she would have none of that. She had, under her dad’s guidance, developed a strong sense of self, and in the end she knew she had dignity and character. She would not let that be despoiled.

She now has a handsome son, to whom she devotes time once spent on a cherished puppy and various side interests. She not only spends her time, with her husband, keeping her nuclear family healthy and happy, but is a great help to her extended family, keeping her uncles and in-law aunts under benevolent surveillance. This woman gets the Tobias Award for taking advantage of what she was given.