It is true. Friend (Mate) Lawrie from Canberra, Australia does it. He routinely gets up in the morning, gets the coffee/tea ready, and brings in the paper so that it will be there ready to read. While watching an episode of the British series “Upstairs, Downstairs” the servants ironed the morning newspaper and were appreciated for doing so (kept the ink from rubbing on to hands). Lawrie’s wife Heather noted that she too would appreciate such a thing. Can you imagine the points Lawrie is ringing up every morning as he serves up a freshly ironed paper? I just laughed. By the way, he is serious. He is really doing it. He showed me the paper he had ironed with its perfect crease. When we ended the call, he was going out to get the big weekend paper from Sydney — a big ironing job!
Lawrie and I used Skype to visit for quite a while this Friday afternoon (early Saturday morning for him – still can’t get my mind around that). We caught up on what is going on in each other’s lives (Lawrie and Heather have three young adult children). We check in that way every once in a while.
Another newspaper related item is that Lawrie uses the old newspapers to eliminate weeds in his vegetable garden, keep the moisture in the ground and provide nourishment for lots of worms. He just lays them on the ground as is, in a trench between the pumpkin plants, and at the drip line around fruit trees. He never needs to water. Straw goes on top of the paper for the sake of aesthetics. He has done it for years and it works very well. The summer climate in Canberra is much like the summer climate here in Kansas, very hot.
Yesterday morning our Spiritual Formation group added a member new. This is a good time for such an addition since we are just beginning an activity that three of us did a number of years ago. It is called a Spiritual Autobiography, reflecting on our lives from the beginning, looking at events in terms of their impact on the Spiritual dimension of our lives. While the group maintains a level of confidentiality freeing us to speak openly and develop trust, on occasion I will share only in general terms insights that emerge.
Today began with memories of Mary Ann and this evening memories of her have returned. This morning I attended the funeral of former Parishioner Bill. He was just about a year and a half younger than I. He died after a long battle with Cancer. He was a very good man, much loved. As the procession with the casket came by my pew, draped over the casket was the Funeral Pall given in memory of Mary Ann. It caught me off guard and took my breath away just for a moment. The message in the Funeral was well spoken and the soloist sang a piece so beautifully that it touched all of us.
Tonight, I listened to some wonderful music on our local NPR classical music station. As I sat, listening, I watched family pictures move by in a random sequence on the computer that sits on a table in the living room. The screen saver on that computer was Mary Ann’s entertainment especially in the last months when she could no longer easily track the television programs.
As I watched the pictures go by tonight on that screen saver, the pictures of Mary Ann brought to the surface a deep longing to have her with me again. I miss her so very much. There were some pictures of her sitting in the wheelchair on the rocky shore of a River in Missouri. With much difficulty Son-in-Law Denis and I had gotten her down a rough pathway on to that rocky shore. My feelings were conflicted. There was sadness at seeing pictures of her bound to that wheel chair. At the same time there were some good feelings that came with the realization that she got to be out there with the Lisa and Denis and the little girls. Micah, Becky and Chloe arrived a little later so that we were able to spend time together in a cabin at that State Park.
I have started reading the blog posts I wrote during the last year and a half of being with Mary Ann full time. As I expected, it is taking me back to that time in our life together. It will take a long time to read through the 755 pages culminating in those I wrote at the time of her death. I need to do it to prepare for trying to write some sort of book about these past years. After I finish reading those 755 pages, I will go on to read the 365 pages of the blog I started writing after she died (and continue to write – this blog).
There is more going on, but that will come in future posts. For any who enjoy watching birds, there have been two new appearances in my backyard. A Sharp-shinned hawk hung around on the back fence for a while. It is not an uncommon bird, just not common to my backyard. The Raptor that normally comes by to try to catch the smaller birds is a Cooper’s hawk. Then I saw a little bird flitting around in one of the trees in back. It confused me a bit. When I got the binoculars on it, it turned out to be a Yellow-rumped Warbler flashing his little yellow butt at me. That is another common bird that has never before made it to my backyard, at least when I have been looking. Those two sightings brought a little excitement into the last couple of days. Again, sometimes it is the simple things that bring joy.
