Mar 27, 2022

  Living in Unconditional Love (55)

“Love flows from God to humans without effort:

As a bird glides through the air without moving its wings-

Thus, they go wherever they wish united in body and soul,

Yet separate in form.”

–Mechtild of Magdeburg

 

My wife Eileen died from esophageal cancer in February 2020 one year after being diagnosed, 60 years to the day that we met on Long Island. Then my brother Tom became ill, and I spent a total of six weeks being with him in Ohio, but he died in October 2020. My sister-in-law Sue Mahoney died from Covid-19 in January 2021. On top of it all stood the pandemic, locking everyone down almost two years, and even though it is abating, I wear my mask anytime I am out, unlike many.

 

03/27/2022                         I am writing this on Saturday, and while I walked to the mailbox for mail and then back to the pond, it started raining frozen snow, hard white particles, reminding me it is still March. I checked on the bonsai in their storage area, and all deciduous plants were showing tips of green; hopefully I will be putting them outside in the next two weeks, but I am having my outside display area rebuilt first. The daffodils are starting to show green but are still a few weeks before blooming. The weather report is calling for snow and cold this week, hopefully the end of winter. (Sunday morning report: the ground is white.) Bonsai can take some freezing weather, just so the new growth doesn’t freeze.

Having my son Dan here for almost a week was a pleasant interlude that led to late night talks. Having someone in the house is nice, as it drives away the loneliness at least for a few days. I took him to the Syracuse airport on Thursday so he could return to his delightful family. The house seems even quieter than before, but I will get used to it again.

It is sad to watch the carnage in the Ukraine. The deliberate killing of civilians, especially children, by the Russians to force the Ukrainians to surrender to avoid the carnage is barbaric to put it mildly and goes against the “rules of war”. (As an aside, I find it ironic that they have rules on how a ‘civilized nation’ conducts war, as if war is ever civilized. But those who violate them like Russia is doing can be tried for war crimes.) I marvel at the bravery and success that the Ukrainians are having in the fight, as most seem to think that Russia thought they would just roll in without any resistance and just take over. But people are very protective of their homeland and are willing to die to hold it for their families as shown by the volunteers showing up.

My personal response is to do what I can, which is mostly to give to the charities working there and pray for them and peace. Beyond that I will put it aside except for a constant string of short prayers sent about that (pray always).

As God has said, there is another kingdom coming of peace, but the evolution of humanity is slow in coming to that stand. It could be this war which has removed many barriers and brought almost all the rest of the world together opposing the war is the last stand for the war machine. The rapidity of information spread kind of boggles the mind, as we can watch in real time on the screen what is happening, and the pain and suffering is right now, right here, in person, not just statistics in the paper or newscast but this person and that child. This immediacy of news makes it more difficult to ignore (even though I do not watch newscasts, I keep abreast of all). This evolution of information can be considered a gift from God if used properly to make all aware of the horrors of war and deep unrest, making it more difficult to perpetuate war (and injustice) in all its nastiness.

It has taken 2000 years to get to this point, but the rapid advancement of technology could harbor a new future devoid of the worst of this type of devastation.

Meditation

Gentle One I place myself in Your caring presence. Often the pain of life seems almost too much to stand, then You give me the insight of a laughing baby or a beautiful flower to behold, and I know that life is still good. I place my concerns in Your care, knowing that all will be well, no matter what we see on the outside. I offer my days to bring peace to our troubled world. Bit by bit peace will come, one troubled soul at a time.