Jan 14, 2024

Living in Unconditional Love (149)

 

“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. Covid has proved to be a persistent problem, and many of the long-term effects are quite serious, and it has proven much more serious than flu.

01/14/2024                             To my surprise and joy, Dan, and Alesandra and the three girls are coming here next Saturday for a week. Dan has a conference he will attend in Orlando at the end of the month, and they will spend a week here first. It will be great and much fun and very busy to have them here, and I have started to prepare. First, the Christmas decorations came down today with the help  of Tim and Max (they did most of the effort), and they hauled the inflatable bed up and set it next to the queen bed in the bedroom Dan and family will occupy. It will be one large bed, and we will have to see how things are once everyone arrives. It will be interesting to see how it ends up; perhaps the older girls will have their own room, as they have their own room now and I have the rooms to accommodate that but no cribs.

Now the house is in the normal configuration, with the tree covered up and, in the garage, and the furniture back in their normal locations.

Other than that, it has been a normal week. We had our company meetings on Wednesday and the bonsai club meeting was Friday where we worked on one of my junipers that needed trimming. Our numbers in the bonsai group are very small, but we enjoy one another’s company and I look forward to the monthly meeting.

I will be going to Peru in a month or so to attend Maria’s 4^th birthday party in mid-February and all the kid’s baptism in early March. I will probably stay for about a month, for it is fall there and the weather is warm. It will be fun, (and probably exhausting) and Dan will help me buy tickets when they are here.

We have a light covering of snow, and the storm coming in tonight will not bring snow but very cold temperatures. We may hit single numbers, but that is normal for this time of year; but it will be the coldest we have had.

I am still mentally in the incarnation phase of my faith, marveling at the wonder of God becoming human with all that implies, including the full gamut of suffering and death. I spend much of my thinking time dwelling on that strange fact and exploring the implications for my own life as I age. Oh yes, I read how many scoffs at the idea and believe and behave otherwise, but as my Dad told me one time “I look at my behavior patterns and realize how happy I am, and even if I am wrong and there is no afterlife, I am happier living as if it is true than otherwise, so it is the right thing to believe.” And so, it is.

Meditation

Gentle One, again I rest in You. These dark and cold days remind me that life has many folds, ups and downs, but always moving towards that time I will be part of Your core once again. I marvel at the wonders of family, the joy that the wee ones bring, and the laughter their many antics portray. The beauty of the vast reaches of nature that are presented to me each day is a wonder, and I pause each day to drink in that beauty to revitalize my soul. I am so grateful for this opportunity to live in this wonderous setting.