Nov 05, 2023

Living in Unconditional Love (139)

 

“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.

11/05/2023                             It has turned much cooler this past week, even giving us snow showers on Wednesday that stuck around on the decks and grass until sometime during the day on Thursday. Some of the roses are still blooming, but I suspect they will stop further blooms now that we have had our first freeze. I have started wearing my winter clothes (lined pants and a light sweater) and don’t see backing off that until spring.

It appears that my patio will not be completed this year, as my contractor has lost all his help and not having any luck finding new help. He has made the back garage door usable and lots of stone are there, so it is acceptable for now. Much of the furniture I store for the winter is still out, but that will be taken care of, I am told. All is cleaned off the back lawn, the bonsai are in storage, plenty of room for the snowplow, so all is well.

The time change will bring early evenings, but other than that nothing in my life will change. It is Saturday, and I have already changed the clocks I can (two are controlled by the atomic clock in Colorado and will change overnight) and am living today on the new time, so it should be easy to adapt to the change.

The week has been quiet. I will be going to a friend’s funeral next Saturday. Ed had owned the land and house across from mine for many years, and they had raised their two boys who are about the same age as some of mine. His wife had died several years ago. He had moved down to Virginia with one of his sons and family and passed away a few weeks ago. He had requested to be buried out of our local church as most of his friends are here. I miss his cheery hello and our chats. He was slightly older than me and would have been 90 a few weeks after his death. He made a great wine that was enjoyable.

And so, life flows on. It appears that I will have a larger crowd than usual this year at Thanksgiving as Janet and her son Branden have decided to come here, along with Barbara, so that will be fun and am looking forward to that.

The world is in a mess and nothing anybody does seems to help. Our nation is awash in guns with too many of the types designed only to kill humans around. Even though I avoid all news shows I can’t escape the growing sense of fear and sadness that permeates all. Living mostly an isolated life keeps the general malaise out of my sight, but I still know it is around wherever you go. It is amazing, at least to me, that so many are attracted to anger and hatred and to establish a tyrant to take over the country. I do not understand how so many think and yet brag about “loving the country” and “being Christian” and yet do their best to tear it down and establish a dictatorship and proclaim loudly non-Christian values.

There is not much I can personally do except pray and say a few words if the opportunity arises.

Meditation

Gentle One, I rest in Your being at this time of my life. I place my trust in Your care and love, and let it go as well as I can. It is often difficult to let go, but at this time there is nothing I can do to change anything. I leave it to hopefully find love and peace at least in the hearts and souls of those attuned to Your Being.