Sep 07, 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.

09/07/2025                             This is LUMA weekend, and I am enjoying Barbara and Janet being home to see the show in downtown Binghamton. I can no longer attend due to my age, but it is wonderful to see. Barbara came Friday and went Friday evening, which was a beautiful, warm evening and stayed almost until the end. Janet had an event Saturday morning but was here by 4 in the afternoon and is staying until Monday. It is a joy to see them and the house is filled with chatter. Sunday (I am writing this Saturday evening) will be the parish picnic and we all plan on going and enjoying ourselves. We had dinner together this evening and it was nice to hear all the conversation.

We had some rain (finally) Saturday morning which helped to relieve the dryness we have had the past several weeks. I have not mowed the lawn this past week but plan to do so sometime this coming week. The gladiolus are still looking beautiful and very colorful and I am enjoying them greatly. I have few weeds because of the dry weather and so the garden is looking good. It is time to start trimming the various plants to prepare for winter and I will try to get out to do that if the weather cooperates.

The weather is turning quite cool. While we had some warm weather late July and early August, I have my heat pump AC unit on ‘heat’ the past three weeks and never needed to turn on the AC. That tells you how cool is has been. I have the house furnace on while Barb and Janet are here as their bedroom area is very cool, and I will probably turn it off for another week or two, but it is almost time to turn the furnace on for the season.

I feel sad for our world as our nation has turned into a land where the rich get richer and children lose food and aid to make the billionaires richer, and most gloat over the fact that they have more. Jesus was very firm what the result of that attitude leads to, but meanwhile children and adults are dying of malnutrition related diseases, things that our funds helped relieve in the past but to please the handful of the very rich we stop funding. Too many people, even though themselves are not rich, believe that is just fine – so long as they get their share of the spoils. Farmers are bemoaning the loss of income due to low prices and asking for help in their financial woes but have voted and probably will continue to vote for those who are cutting funding.

 Meditation

Gentle One, once more I bow my head in shame and agony over the pain we are causing the poorest of the poor in our world. Grief and agony are increasing throughout the world caused by the reduction of funding and food throughout the world and the increased spending on arms as wars spread. I ask Your help in these times of increased tensions and pain.