Mar 23, 2025

Living in Unconditional Love (210)

 

“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.

03/23/2025                                      I am writing this late Sunday as this has been a busy weekend celebrating a friend’s daughter’s birthday on Saturday and attending a baby shower of another friend on Sunday, both lasting until late evening on Saturday and late afternoon on Sunday. Both were fun and the kids had a ball.

It is hard to believe that I have been here almost five weeks, and will be heading home this Wednesday night, arriving (if all goes well) Thursday evening. Dan is leaving on Monday to attend a major conference being held this year in Norway, so I will have to find my way to the airport somehow. I am sure things will work out fine, and I will leave myself plenty of time. I will have no problem getting to the airport but finding the gate will be interesting.

It is easy to see Lima is in a desert as we drove a couple of times into the mountains to visit friends, like the baby shower on Sunday was over the first set of mountains and halfway up the second set. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, grows on the mountains that surround Lima. Just brown-gray dirt and rocks. No weeds, brush, cactus, or anything. It is just mountains of rock and dirt.

The birthday party was in the condo a few hundred yards from Dan and Alesandra’s place, and we walked over to the building. The father is the head of the neurosurgical department of a large hospital, and they are a really nice family. He is from Peru and his wife is from the states, and he learned English to woo her. They have the top two floors of their building, overlooking the ocean and then some. They have three children also, two girls and a boy who is (I believe) a little older than Maddy. Their three are about a year or more older each than Dan and Alesandra’s children, and the eldest turned eight. The Father is Dan’s age, and his wife is also younger than him. His English is excellent.

I will keep this short as it is already late to publish.

Meditation

 

Gentle One, I rest in You as I conclude this journey to Peru. I ask for guidance in my life forward and await the glory of spring flowers at home.