Jan 21, 2024

Living in Unconditional Love (150)

 

“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.

01/21/2024                             I am writing this on Friday, as Dan, Alesandra, and the three girls will be arriving tomorrow afternoon for a week’s stay. Our company Christmas party is also tomorrow evening, so Dan and Alesandra are planning to go as my daughter Barbara (“tia Barbara”) is coming here tomorrow and will stay for much of the visit. It will take two cars to bring them here as three car seats and luggage for all takes quite a bit of space, so my son Tim will bring his Jeep to haul the luggage.

My son Drew will hopefully be able to bring his two little ones and it will be the first time the two young families will meet. I have many Christmas presents from Janet and Maureen here so it will be a joyful event.

I am looking forward to the excitement of the little ones as it will be their first real experience with snow – after we buy warm clothing for them to use. We will visit the children’s used clothing store in Vestal, a huge place with hundreds of used clothing, so we will hopefully find clothes to fit. I am busy removing breakable stuff, but I suspect I will miss some items, but having the home filled with laughter (and probably some tears) will be worth it.

It is extremely cold but will moderate a bit during the week. They are leaving warm Peru to come to our cold clime so it will be a bit of a shock.

Sunday: all arrived safely, and the house is abuzz with children and laughter.

More next week.

The company party is always good. We have it this late as we then get to have the entire restaurant to ourselves, and it is one of the best in Binghamton, PS Restaurant. It is a small place but right in the center of Binghamton on the main street. We have held it there for many years, and when we moved it to this time last year, we had the entire place to ourselves as they closed it down for us, so we decided to keep it as it was a joy.

 My iPad is giving me problems, as the on/off button has broken and can’t be fixed, so I must buy a new one. I use more memory than most, so they had to order it and it came today (Friday), so I will take it in Monday to have it swapped over. This is the first time I have had such a problem.

Meditation

 

Gentle One, I trust in You to keep my family safe. You have blessed me with a wonderful family filled with joy and love. All the young ones will be here this week at one point, and it is joy indeed to watch the interaction, laughter, and love. I am in deep gratitude for this time of life filled with such love and joy.