Aug 31, 2025

Living in Unconditional Love (233)

 

“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.

08/31/2025                             Hard to believe that this is Labor Day weekend. The weather has been mostly clear but chilly with highs generally in the 60s. I find that I prefer staying in the warmer clime of the house, and I have had the AC heat on all week, and while seldom supplying any heat during the day it kept the evening and morning chill out. It may become warmer next week but we shall see.

I still have some bloom, especially the gladiolas which continue to brighten my view of the garden from my favorite chair. I attended the bonsai club meeting this past Friday, enjoying the time with friends and trimming two of my trees that needed much care, as I seldom am outside where I can prune them due to being so chilly and windy. My one very late daylily is still going strong, and a few late blooming plants supply spots of color throughout the garden. the lawn is turning dull as it has not rained at all this week and seldom over the past month. I heard somewhere that there was no rain at all the first two weeks of August and certainly rain has been seldom and never enough. We had much rain earlier but when it stopped, it stopped! The magnolia tree continues to bloom, providing some bright blooms at that location.

But the world is still beautiful, and I revel in that beauty as we move towards fall and hopefully the bright colors of fall; but the dryness of the season may dull the colors. It seems impossible to tell what the colors will be as I have seen many predictions over the years that scatter all over. Some are accurate and some are not, and it varies from year to year. My conclusion is that we really don’t understand the complex interactions of nature and may never understand accurately – never being defined as in my lifetime of a few years.

I pray for out poor world, especially for our country as T has made it plain, he believes he is dictator (at least in his own mind) by his statement “many people would prefer a a dictator” during his cabinet lovefest. Sad to see that group bowing to everything T said even if it makes no sense, just desiring the titles imposed on them but never living up to the duties that are theirs to use.

Meditation

Gentle One, I place all in Your loving care. Help all that are striving to help the poor of out world and all that are working to prevent the loss of democracy in our nation. Our world is in a sad state and becoming worse and we still have over three years to go as a minimum. It appears that only Your grace can save the world from destruction over the next century to a point that humanity may cease to exist or be left with greatly diminished abilities. I pray for my grandchildren and their children.