Sep 01, 2024

Living in Unconditional Love (182)

 

“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.

09/01/2024                                                    It seems I had just written the beginning of August and now it is September and school is starting soon.

Another quiet week, but the patio is now complete, and it is very nice. Tim H added a railing to help getting down an up the steps, as the watering faucet is right there beside the chimney down the steps, and I water the bonsai daily unless rain comes. Now that the bonsai are stretched out in front of the garage, I am amazed how many I still have.

I still have a few daylilies in bloom, as I have a few ever-blooming ones and a few very late ones. Nice to see. Plus, I have a few other plants that keep blooming all year long, year after year. Everything has been weeded and all looks nice. It has been a relatively cool summer and lots of rain so that the various little streams have never dried out this year – something that is rare. Usually by July they are dry, and the pond outlet is dry, but this year they have had sufficient rain, and it has been a bit on the cool side so that all the streams have had flowing water all summer, even the hillside leading to the pond has water flowing out.

The gladiolus were planted a bit late so they have not started to bloom, but I expect they will start in a week or two. In went to see Eileen and I had planted (or Tim did) a few glads and they are growing well but not yet blooming.

LUMA is being held next weekend, and it is always a wonder to see. For those who have not seen it, it is held Friday and Saturday evening the week after Labor Day after dark in Binghamton, and stories are told in projected images mapped onto the buildings in the downtown area. As many as 20 projectors have been used for a single building, as the images are ‘mapped’ together using the buildings as props. Things pop out of windows, creatures crawl along ledges and up and out of buildings, etc. Quite something to see. Eileen and I went for several years before she became ill and really loved it, but I don’t feel quite able to walk and stand for the length of time to watch it now. I do enjoy the videos I have seen though.

Meditation

Gentle One I am constantly amazed at the beauty of this world I have been given to witness. I have been truly blessed with unconditional love all my life. I am surrounded with family and have been blessed by the sixty years of the love of Eileen. I see the beauty of nature every time I look out the window and have a comfortable life with few health problems to be concerned. I could not ask for anything better at this point of life.