Sep 17, 2023

Living in Unconditional Love (132)

 

“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.

09/17/2023                             A good example of positive synchronicity occurred this week, and I was blessed by the result. My daughter Janet came home from Pittsburgh last weekend to see LUMA in Binghamton and stayed for the week to attend a memorial service for a classmate who had died in the spring, today (Saturday). She continued working using her computer which she set up downstairs in the family room. Mondays are a dark wash day for me, so I had started the wash machine as usual and came back upstairs where I spend almost all my time. Suddenly she came running upstairs to tell me that one of the water lines to the washer had broken and was flooding the workroom. We quickly turned the water off, but it is amazing how much can flow in just a couple of minutes. Water ran down from the washer around everything that was there but had not flowed into the living area which is carpeted. Without Janet being there, a very rare occurrence (the first time), it would have been a much, much worse mess. The person who does all my work was here working on the replacement patio, so he repaired the mess which included replacing the brass connector from the water lines. Janet then used towels to remove the standing water from the floor, and removing all the soaked cardboard boxes so they could be thrown away. This saved much time and energy for me, which I seem to lack at my age.

I have had water damage before, but always from ground water that comes in the spring, thus I have two sump pumps, one at each end of the house, but of course the washer and dryer are in the middle of the house, many feet from the sump pumps. The water had not reached that far, but it was still a large mess.

This was just one more of the many blessings I have received in my life. Indeed, my life has been filled with blessings, chief among them being the sixty years I was blessed with Eileen in my life. Even now, approaching ninety, I am blessed with little pain and reasonably good health. My principal health complaint is that my energy level is low, but I suspect that is the result of the many blood pressure meds I take to keep the pressure under 150 when at rest. It has cut my heart rate by more than a third, but other than that I am well. I was able to mow the lawn today without a problem, but I did doze or rest for an hour after that.

The backyard is still a mess, but it is finally drying out so hopefully they can work on things this coming week.

I decided not to go down to Barbara’s place to see the play I said I would in my last journal entry, as I find that I am lacking energy and did not think I could spend it driving back and forth at this time. Hopefully I will be better in the future as I do enjoy the plays. I plan on talking to the doctor about this lack of energy this coming week.

Meditation

Gentle One, my life is in Your hands, and my trust is that the love I have tasted will continue to flow in my life. I am blessed indeed with many good things, including a lack of pain and the ability to do the many things I need to do to live a comfortable life alone. You granted me many years of love that continues in the love of family beyond my wildest dreams and leaves me in awe at the beauty of life and the goodness that it can be. All my life I have been blessed beyond measure and my gratitude is unbounded.