Nov 12, 2023

Living in Unconditional Love (140)

 

“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.

11/12/2023                             The 12^th is the birthday of my son Tim, our oldest boy. I remember that the nurses cheered when they found out he was a boy, as we had had four girls in seven years, all in the same hospital. It turns out we were not finished yet as we had another boy two years later (after we had moved to our present location from Long Island) and then another eight years after that. We never regretted having so many children, and I find that they are a delight in life at this time and a wonderful delight growing up.

I went to the funeral and internment of my friend Ed and neighbor on Saturday. It was good to see his two sons and we had a good chat about life in upstate New York. He had a rather different internment, as he was cremated as had been his wife, and he requested that the ashes of both be mixed and poured directly into the ground at the cemetery. Their plot is very close to ours in the local Catholic cemetery, and it was a simple effort to pour the combined ashes into the hole dug at the end of the row, three spaces from ours. These times are a mixture of sadness and joy, and a reminder that time does move on and our time on earth is quite limited.

The weather has been mild for November with highs in the 40s and 50s. Some rain on occasion but mostly cloudy and damp. It is amazing that Thanksgiving will be here soon, and then the end of the year with Christmas and all its’ joy. I enjoy this time of the year and will follow my usual schedule of decorating the house but not the tree. The tree gets decorated the day before Christmas and Barbara will be here for that effort. My usual channel on the car radio has changed to the Christmas music channel, so I will have my fill of Christmas music. I find it amusing that they start it just after Halloween and close it the day after Christmas, but I, internally, celebrate the advent season during December and leave the tree up for a month or more after Christmas.

I find it sad that the wars are all around the land that started Christmas, and I weep for both sides at the killings that are so difficult to watch. I want to just curl up and hide from the agony of our world, but all I can do is support those attempting to bring peace to the troubles besetting out world, and it is impressive how many are working for that purpose.

But I feel equally sad for those in our nation that have hatred burning in their heart for this group or that and use the guns that seem to be everywhere to demonstrate their hatred and appear willing to vote to end democracy in this country. It appears (thankfully) as if the Supreme Court will uphold the right to prevent those who have demonstrated their inability to control themselves from having guns, but we must remember that even now about 70 women are killed each month in domestic violence, mostly with guns, and hundreds are beaten and worse.

Meditation

Gentle One, I rest in You at the end of each day and let myself rest in Your presence. I weep for the agony of the world, knowing that all I can do is support those attempting to bring peace to our troubled world. I am not sure the world will survive all that I see, and my time left to be physically here is relatively short, but I hope I can offer what peace I can where I can.