2006-08-20

I awoke early and enjoyed some solitaire before dressing for church and doing the Sunday puzzles. I sang an extremely sultry service, fanning myself up in the choir. The unfortunate thing about the architectural style of churches with their raised chancels is that the heat rises and those pews are probably ten degrees warmer than the congregation’s! And the choir and clergy, acolytes and chalice bearers are all in robes. We sang a Celtic communion service and I so enjoyed the new music.

I brought back fast food and Jim and I had a classic, peaceful afternoon off, a summer Sunday with three movies and some serious dozing. Of the three I enjoyed The Weatherman, with Nicholas Cage, the most, as it had an edgy, probing screenplay and excellent ensemble work as well as a star turn by Cage, who realized his rather difficult and ungrateful character well. The difficulty with many movies I see these days, in my jaundiced view, is that they are so determinedly stuck on the flat gameboard of consensus reality, where it’s always a lose-lose situation; where life is meaningless at best and a cruel joke at worst. Hope lies elsewhere!

Jim and I wandered around the yard between films and discussed what we could accomplish before the Homecoming in terms of making the yard look its best. We decided that after I trim up the wisteria and elderberry at the garage’s rear, and get the last of the lily debris and canes cleaned up from that corner, I shall weed around the back of the lavender patch and take on the lily beds around the big fishpond in the side yard. Jim will take on the grapevine along Little Locust Creek’s banks. There is an old and spent grape arbor along a section of that wet weather stream’s bed planted before our time and the vines have gone wild and twined themselves around neighboring bushes and trees. I am rather glad Mick’s taking that project on, as I was game to tackle it, but the job looks large!

I do not expect to “finish” weeding the yard. Ever! There are too many plantings and it’s just Jim and me out there, he on the weekends and I at the end of the day for a bit of time. There is not enough time for us to catch up. The weeds grow merrily!

However, the gradual effect of the yard work is to make the place feel inviting and peaceful, and if there are new weeds we have not gotten to when guests come, for the most part they do not see them! Indeed Gary often says that the yard looks perfect to him. His birth family did not have plantings in their yard and so to him the whole place is a wonder. He’s not a weeder but he’s a terrific mower. He and Jim split up the yard work here. Gary does the mowing and Jim does the trimming – an extensive job in our crowded yard with its many plantings, beds, patios and paths. Jim also waters when that is needed – only twice so far this whole year. We are usually in deep draught in July and August, but not this year.

In the evening while we had a late supper, we three talked a bit about the upcoming Homecoming, smoothing out some small details. Jim and I also talked about our part of the program, the half-hour talks we will give together on each chakra before the hour of discussion begins. I believe Jim has decided to lead off the opening remarks and then I will take it from wherever he leaves off. Jim’s comments are always most apposite and in a brief and clear form. I am more chatty, so it’s best that Jim go first. Jim is also a whiz at Q & A, so hopefully I shall remember to leave a few minutes at the end of each talk for people to ask questions.

We shared the Gaia Meditation with Jim offering the ending prayer, and so to snuggling and bed.