Open to the day, 2016
I took this photo just 48 hours before Jeff told me he needed to go to the hospital.
From our Alexandria patio, September 21, 2016
Hello friends, I’m still treading water, but thinking of you. Please keep those thoughts, prayers and comments coming. They truly brighten my day, and I look forward to responding to each of you when I get a bit of a break – hopefully soon, as fall semester ends a couple of weeks before Christmas. Meanwhile, for now, another re-blog from what now seems a lifetime ago.
That’s Mama in the photo below. As most of you know, she became a widow just a little over a year before I did. The past year without Daddy has been especially tough for her. Knowing how hard it is to be without Jeff after “only” 38 years together, I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a husband after 66 years of marriage.
Mama, who has survived much medical trauma during her 86 years, now has stage IV cancer (lung, metastasized to the spine) and has moved to long term care. I hope to be seeing her again soon. Meanwhile, I wanted to re-blog this post that features her photo. It’s another of my favorites, mostly because I so love the last two lines in the poem excerpt quoted below. I can’t say I feel the meaning as deeply as I did when I first published this post nearly four years ago, but I still love it, and it’s something to strive for. Thanks for being here, and for caring.
Originally posted on 11-26-2012:
My mother on my parents’ 50th anniversary, in Banff
That more and more a Providence
Of love is understood,
Making the springs of time and sense
Sweet with eternal good;
That death seems but a covered way
Which opens into light,
Wherein no blinded child can stray
Beyond the Father’s sight…
That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in a psalm,
And all the angles of its strife
Slow rounding into calm.
And so the shadows fall apart,
And so the west-winds play;
And all the windows of my heart
I open to the day.
— John Greenleaf Whittier, from “My Psalm”
This post was first published seven years ago today. As I was preparing to post it again, I was surprised to realize that in the photo above, Mama was just two years older than I am now. Wow! As the saying goes, “Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not.”
The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
Defeat Despair 
Yes time flies. If i was to venture a guess as to what the flowers are?? I don’t have a clue though i should know. Agleonema comes to mind for some reason. I like these for their height?
Time flies .We are now the B grandparents. The girls are so busy -all the time. No longer interested in sleepovers, or weekend outings. No longer interested in inviting us for school lunches. They are doing their “things”- as they should. Off t o the races leaving us in the dust. I should be thankful for the times we have had and i am. We see them when we can.
Mike, those are sedum, which are one of the hardiest plants ever, and quite easy to propagate – just cut the stems and stick them into the ground. As a succulent plant, they are drought tolerant too. And they multiply so rapidly that you can start with just a few stems and soon have quite a display. They bloom in fall when other plants are looking straggly and spent.
You are wise to be grateful for the time you had, and still have, with your grandchildren. I have not seen mine at all in four years, and saw very, very little of them before then. And I have absolutely no indication that I’ll ever see them again in this life. From what I know of my friends’ lives, I think very few grandparents nowadays see their grandchildren as often as they’d like. This is pretty much universal in today’s world, though some of us experience it more starkly than others.
Yes, time does seem to fly, especially the older we get. The last lines of the poem are meaningful. If we all could open our hearts to the day, every day, the world would be a better place.
Yes, an open heart is sometimes hard to maintain in a world full of violence, fear and neglect. But it’s the only way I want to live. I will continue to seek “safe spaces” where there are other open hearts and people of good will, while praying for wisdom, compassion and contentment with whatever blessings come my way.
Thank you for this repost, Julia. It’s something to think about – what am I doing with the “windows of my heart?”
Love to you and Matt.
Susan, it’s a worthy question, especially in today’s world. Let’s keep asking it, staying aware of all that the day offers. Proverbs 4:23.
You have not seen Grady in four years? Very sad indeed. You are right in saying it is a sign of the times. Perhaps i compare our situation with my own -hanging out with grandpa Carter into my high school years; playing golf with him on the weekends and him teaching me woodwork even into the college years.
I have a UR meditation coming out on Dec.12th of this year. I have had a good run in 2023. Not as good as Liniwati, but still.
Also my DIL thinks i am a West Coast liberal. Maybe she is right.
Yes, Mike, our generation was so different in so many ways. Those who ditch family in favor of electronic babysitting and mindless entertainment will reap what they sow. As I say to my sister frequently, it’s a great time to be old! BTW the term “liberal” has lost all meaning. By the classical definition of the term, it’s the Republicans who are “liberals” now, and you are not that. I refer to people on the left as “leftists,” as it seems a more accurate description.