Nov 09, 2025

Living in Unconditional Love (242)

 

“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.

11/09/2025                             This week has been spent trying to remember all I need to take with me: what am I forgetting? I have my tip money, I have my pills packed up, cleaned clothes today and packed them, I have my passport out, and unless the air slowdown happens to hit us, I am ready to go. I really am looking forward to this visit.

All is quiet. Some of the drainage ditches will be cleaned out while I am gone and that should help in the spring. I will send the lawnmower in for the annual checkup after I return in December.

I spend some time with the gentleman that I bring communion to every week, and this week brought our priest along. Jack seems a little less mobile each visit, and I worry for him. He requires someone to be there all the time, and he is now confined to a wheelchair. We always have a good chat as his memory is still sharp, but he has physically worsened quite a bit over the six months I have been visiting him.

Meditation

Gentle One, I rest in you. I pray for our nation as we seem determined to prove to the world how inhumane we can be, and SCOTUS seems determined to further that aim, despite the founding documents. I place all the pain we are inflicting on the poor and lost as hundreds of thousands are dying from our deeds all in our nation carries responsibility. Help us to see Your Love that envelopes all, and help us to see what we must do to bring peace to our troubled world.