Jun 04, 2023

Living in Unconditional Love (117)

 

“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 after we met on Long Island. Then my brother Tom became ill (not COVID), 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 some of the time I am out among people, unlike most.

05/04/2023                                      Now it is June! But I am home today (Saturday), after attending on Friday evening a wonderful wedding of my grandniece Melania Rogers, on Long Island. Beautiful location on Long Island’s wild north shore, on the sound but somewhat of a challenge to get there. We stayed at the recommended hotel about forty-five minutes away and they provided a bus to pick us up and bring us back. Lots of fun as always, and a good chance to see the family and chat – even though sometimes with the level of sound it was difficult to hear, and we were in a corner far from the DJ. The wedding was held outside, and of course a passing cloud proceeded to dampen everyone’s clothing and hair (but not the spirits) that caused the ceremony to be quite brief. But everyone dried off and had a great time.

Barbara and I drove up from to Virginia where we had spent three weeks visiting Dan, Alesandra and their young family, including our latest granddaughter, Madison, to Barbara’s house on Thursday, so we could drive over to Long Island for the Wedding on Friday. As I said last week, Madison is a wonderful baby that needs only a minimum amount of extra attention, at least right now (two months). The three children are different from one another in many ways. The almost-two Mackenzie is tiny, at about the nine percentile, thirty inches tall and about 25 pounds, but is just full of energy running everywhere she can. The baby, Madison, is in the ninety-nine percentiles at two months, twenty-five inches and twelve and half pounds, and as I said she is an observant baby not creating undo excitement.

It is interesting to watch Maria, the oldest, and how when they are out, she is the protector of her sister, making sure she is not hurt or lost. They play together reasonably well, with some disagreements but not overly so at home, but when out she is the big sister protecting her younger one.

And now I am home, back to the quiet country where it has been hot and dry for most of the time I was gone. The soil is dry and hard, making it difficult to work and keep weed free. There was a freeze one night in mid-May that did a number on many things, especially the lilies. I am not sure how much bloom I will see this summer, as many, at least a third, looked almost black and many others had tinges of damage.

I find it strange in many ways the way some people focus on certain traits to hate, such as skin color and a person’s language, but not other traits such as height and weight. Probably because in almost every family there are different physical traits such as height and weight that would make it difficult to enforce a person’s hatred and still function as family. We all know that a person’s native language is purely dependent on where they are born, and someone like Dan and Alesandra have two different “native” languages and their daughters are growing up learning both languages, as natural as can be, which shows to me that physical traits are a minor thing compared to the importance of tolerance and affection and love.

Meditation

 Gentle One, You gave me the intense pleasure of spending time with my three very young granddaughters. They are truly delightful and the love in the house is vibrant. Laughter and exuberance are present most of the time, and even though it is noisy and active, it was a joy to join them in their daily living.