Cast the Net Far and Wide

                                      A MUSICAL MEMORY – AND HOW THE LORD SAVED THE DAY!             I am remembering a special time in my life, and how it almost ended in bitterness instead of joy.               I had withdrawn from university right before my second year final exams   due to pressures mounting in my life.   I was living at home with my parents, recovering from poor mental health and had not yet begun to look for a job.               My dear mother, trained in psychology and having worked with mental patients, knew that I needed something positive to occupy my time.   I took her up on that and decided to study violin at the Hamilton Conservatory of Music, only a half hour drive from Dundas, where we lived.   I had played viola in our high school orchestra for three years, but had never had private lessons.               Mr. Chertkoff, the teacher assigned to me, encouraged me to switch to violin, as there was much more music available, and so I joyfully began

                                             THAT PERSON RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME               Lord, I have missed your will in so many ways!   I think of the time that a senior gentleman had fallen on the sea of ice behind my apartment building.   Both the ladies I was driving with to church and I immediately thought of the good Samaritan story.   In front of us was an almost identical situation.   A lady from an upstairs window called out that the superintendent had been called, and, more importantly, an ambulance.   My friend threw a blanket over him, said a few comforting words, then we left.   I always felt that I should have stayed with him until help arrived.                 I was in a situation once when I was teaching in a village before I got married.   An OPP officer, the husband of one of my colleagues and a wonderful person, had answered a domestic violence call without backup, and had been stabbed with a knife, endangering his eye and career.   I lived in a cottage on a