Issue #38

Combobulating the Discombobulation

Leaving soon for 10-day trip. Clothing choices to be finalized, undone and re-finalized for the final time. Weather report to analyze for the last time, potentially upending finalized clothing choices. Packing cubes used in distant past to be located in deep recesses of basement crawl space. Shoe selections yet to be made. Unnecessary cleaning to be undertaken. Necessary pedicure to abandon plans for. Plants to water, probably for last time ever. Bills to pay, socks to wash and lose in dryer. No time to buy more socks. No time to form complete sentences. Just enough time to put out short Restless Egg.

Leaning on other voices today.

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Morning Goals

From the daily newsletter of Father Richard Rohr of the Center for Action and Contemplation:

Love, like forgiveness, is a decision. It’s a decision in our minds and in our hearts. And we’d better make it early in the day, because once we’re a few hours into low-level resentment, anger, or disappointment, it’s too late. When we’re not choosing love, we’ll use any excuse to be unhappy or irritated. We’re already unhappy, and then something gives us an excuse to externalize it. The exact object for our unhappiness is actually arbitrary. Unhappiness just needs an object—as do happiness and love. We have to recognize ahead of time when we’re not living in love. This is surely why a morning prayer or practice is so important—to allow us to choose to love each and every day.

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Daily Goals

Mothers tell bored children, “Go outside!” Now a group of Catholic sisters is saying the same. Per a New York Times article on The Sisters Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin about a project to restore 130 acres of prairie land:

“We need refugia now for the human spirit where we can come and remember what it is to be human, remember that basically, inside of us, the best of us is kind and generous and compassionate,” said Sister Lynne Smith, 71, the prioress of the monastery. “We want this to be a place, and it already is, where we live humanly and we nurture those human values. Part of that is knowing that we are in a mutual, integral, interdependent relationship with this Earth.”

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Life Goals

From an obituary of my dear friend’s dear mother, aged 93:

Her kindness belied the force of her personality

I knew her and she was indeed a kind woman, a gentle woman. The type of mother (of 7) and grandma (of 11) and great-grandmother (also of 7) you’d meet and say, “She’s sooooo sweeeeet!” But the wonder of her is that if you knew her well you’d also understand how strong she was. Those two qualities together—kindness and strength—are a rarity. A beautiful woman and a beautiful life. Rest in peace, Pat.

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I’ll be taking a break next week while I travel—hope to be back the week after! In the meantime, subscribe if you haven’t, share if you want to, and comment if you please!