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Life changes in the instant.
Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity. by Joan Didion, “The Year of Magical Thinking.” I am still asking myself– even after almost a year since Sally died–why we never talk about death until it is in front of us. I think some of the truth lies in Joan’s short phrase–uncertainty, fear and perhaps not wanting self-pity. We have no idea when our time is and we are afraid to talk to others about what it looks like when we experience it closely. You can sit with a dying friend the whole day…
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Body Armor
I finally watched “My Octopus Teacher” and I walked away from it with tears in my eyes and lessons learned. I won’t tell the whole story in case you haven’t seen it. It is indeed worth your time. The artist–Craig Foster–is an excellent narrator and an even better diver and observer of the ocean beneath–particularly this individual octopus. He comes to the project with depression and burnt out from filming and life. I can relate to that. It took him ten years (& octopuses do not live long) to create this documentary. Frustration and fear concerning my recent illness has grown in me. Its cause’s ability to hide in my…
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In Fog
I did three loads of laundry today. As I folded the duvet cover, I did not put it back on the pristine white duvet. Why? I am living for now. It is only a duvet. I am no longer protecting the future, but rather living in the present. I remember how my mother only took out her good china teacups on special occasions. I used to tease her about this, but later I would understand. She was a child of the Depression and of scarcity. I have known no scarcity. I have never known scarcity. But I do know what living in fog is like. I do not know if…
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Kinship with all things
I am returning to a blog written over three years ago, knowing that my aging cat Tabitha has passed on and the people of Syria continue to suffer. It is a difficult time for many around the world and in this country. There is so much that fills me: plants, animals, clouds, day and night, and the eternal in man. The more uncertain I have felt about myself, the more there has grown up in me a feeling of kinship with all things. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams, pg.359 I have found in prayer a kinship with humanity and with animals. I love the liturgical prayers, but I also find myself…
