Getting It Right

Today was just one of those days, the good kind when you have a sense that maybe you're doing something right.

It was a peaceful day with the entire family off doing stuff they wanted to do, and gathering together to prepare, eat, and clean up after meals.

Everything was just the way it is supposed to be. I am extremely blessed to have a family like this. I've tried multigenerational family living before under different circumstances. Ultimately a great deal of good came out that experiment, but you had to take the long view, the really long view to see how it worked out, and the process was messy.

This time around, there is an ease and a peace that is truly remarkable to me. A lot of credit for that goes to Sand who always seems to know the correct thing to do, but an equal amount of credit must go to 

John who displays an enormous amount of patience and kindness towards everyone in the family, day in and day out despite the fact that I know there are days when he is in considerable pain.





There is the distinct possibility that the whole family is simply under the control of Howie's telepathic suggestion, and like worker bees, we are all here simply to do his bidding. I thought about that, but dismissed the idea as ludicrous. I went and got a dog cookie and took it to Howie just to demonstrate that I could think for myself.

Some Days Are Just Better Than Others

    My counted cross stitch project is progressing. If I relied on cross stitch to be my source of income, I'd probably be a bit worried at this point, since I'm not setting any production records. However, it is diverting. When I get out my project, of course the first thing I have to do is spend a good fifteen minutes figuring out where I am and what's next.
    Like everything else in life, each foray gets a little easier. I can see more, and see more more quickly, each time. I am also little by little getting faster on the stitching itself. Oddly, I am more comfortable with the needle in my right hand. I think that's odd since I am left handed.

   I have become increasingly fascinated with the idea that work is part of the "life of the world to come" that we profess in the last line of the Nicene Creed.I think there will be plenty that needs to be done in that new world, just as I am sure that Adam and Eve had plenty to keep them busy in the Garden. But it will be stuff that makes sense, it will be things that feel good to do. 
   Working for money, especially when money becomes the only measure of the morality of the work, creates a tension that saps the beauty from work.
   What if everybody pitched in and got done what needed to be done today?  I understand that in hunter-gatherer cultures that we consider "primitive," the daily work of the community takes up about 20% of the day, and the rest of the time is given over to enjoying life. We all could be done with work by lunch time if we did only the right stuff, and if we could have a couple of other people to help us out. If everyday was Take a Friend to Work Day, everybody would have a job. Then, after lunch, we could do cross stitch, or play baseball or write a book. I really think that's the way God intends the world to come to be run.
    I watched our family yesterday trying to live out that kind of  plan on earth -- you know, the way it might be done in heaven. We were one and all busy with the various tasks that make the household go. Everyone was pleasant, everyone did what they could and what was needed. Then Lillian went off to friend's house, John and Alex immersed themselves in gaming on the computer, Sand did some writing, and I picked up the cross stitch. Then later, John went to the store, and brought back a raspberry bundt cake...for me.
   God (and life) is good.
 

Getting It Right

I don't know this woman. I can't say what she's been through. I can't tell you if she had a good day or bad day, or how she felt about photographers.

What I can tell you is that she is old.

I've been dealing with family matters a lot in the last couple of weeks, and like most families, mine is getting older.


It seems to me that one of the biggest challenges we face as we get old is resisting bitterness. Life isn't easy even when you have a good life. Inevitably, there's hard work, pain and death. It can be difficult to keep a proper perspective about the unpleasantness in life.

When I am old and toothless, I want to be able to smile and laugh about the things I think I remember. And, I want to look back at this blog and let it remind me that there is a good possibility that what I remember didn't happen the way I remember it.

So, Bernie, if you're reading this and you're really, really old, do yourself a favor and remember that it was all good, you loved and were loved well, and that nothing else really matters all that much.