2006-10-17

After Morning Offering, Jim headed out in a chilly drizzle to mow his lawns. He had equipment problems as well. Meanwhile I tackled a housekeeping day, determined to get into the pile of e-mail. I cannot be creative when I am so far behind.

I took some time to delete spam and to see what had been sent since I last looked. There was an exultantly joyful note from Terry H, who had been greatly inspired – you know how that happens, just in a moment. All of a sudden, you have the realization that life is precious and good. I had to respond to that e-mail first and thank him for opening my heart!

There was a request from Father Joe at my parish church. He wants me to honcho the choir into volunteering for helping with a parish pictorial directory. I will volunteer myself as it is a job I can do seated! These days, that is the best kind for me.

Then I worked on the MacDuffie follow-up again. I had sent a letter to the whole database of my class, but I had also promised those at the reunion and sitting at our banquet table a letter in which I gave the ladies everyone else’s e-mail address. That took a bit of doing, as three of the ladies do not use computers, if you can imagine that, these days. I wrote the alumnae director and asked for those snail mail addresses, printed out the letters, wrote the addresses, found stamps and return address labels and thought how much less work it is to keep in touch with e-mail. All the outer form is gone and just the function of communication remains.

I have a few friends left, though, whose aesthetic temperament still moves them to purchase beautiful cards and stationery and to write me wonderful cards you can hold in your hand and appreciate. There is a richness to that more leisurely communication style. I am an avid collector of pretty and unusual cards myself and still enjoy putting a pen to paper. But there is a lot of fussing involved!

I received a resume from a QuickBooks candidate and had to turn her down, as she wished to do our books in her home 60 miles away. She envisioned weekly paper pick-ups by her husband. I could not see the receipts leaving the house. That seemed to me to be a recipe for disaster. By now we have about two dozen applicants, and I feel sure we can find a qualified person who will be glad to work at our office rather than theirs.

Melissa had asked me to write a recommendation for her for a job out west and I was delighted to do so. Melissa is a wonderful worker! It was a pleasure to do that. I sent a copy to her as well as to her boss, so she’d know what I said. Melissa mentioned that she was saving for a trip back here to visit, which tickles me. I look forward to that.

I wrote my two brothers, Jim and Tommy, and Cousin Carlos, all of whom plan on descending here just after Christmas Day for our Rueckert end-of-year reunion, letting them know that their dates for coming were OK with Mick and me, and sending Brother Jim links to a couple of good web sites for finding fun things to do around Louisville. Jim married a Thai woman two years ago and finally he has been able to import her and her son Fluke, pronounced Folk, to their Denver abode. He has been showing Kai around, out west, and wants to take her all around Louisville while they are here.

I also let Tommy know that he was welcome to roost here this coming weekend. He is running in the Louisville Marathon. As he rises 50, I am proud of his continued participation in such demanding physical exercise. Tommy’s been a runner since high school, and he keeps right at it to this day.

At some point in this e-mail riff, I stopped for lunch and surprise! I got some company! Jim had taken the second mower to be repaired and picked up a substitute to use for the day, and there was a natural break in his day, so we were able to stretch together.

My UPI editor, Larry, wrote to tell me that the new format was up on www.upi.com. It does seem handier. When you click on columnists and then on my name, the expanded biography comes up and the photo. I think the format is better for finding the older columns, as well, and they all seem to be in the archives, which is good. I wrote to congratulate him on that. It has been a project dear to him for some time now and it is good to see it finished.

I wrote a note to Barbara Brodsky, working on finding a time when we can talk by relay telephone. That’s an ingenious service where a relay operator types what I say so Barbara can talk over the phone, being deaf. She gets the text of what I say on her computer screen. And of course, I can hear her. Barbara is co-channeler with me in the Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues, a most magical piece of work. I imagine we will catch up on my editing efforts as well as sharing girlfriend time. Barbara has done amazing things with her teaching and has created one of the top five Buddhist ashrams in the USA., and all while dealing with not only deafness but other physical limitations including very bad eyesight. Her spirit remains buoyant and lighthearted.

The remainder of the day was spent working on text for Carla’s Niche. Our web guy has created a nice nest for all of those creative efforts which are not channeling but something else of mine, personally, like the speeches, the letter transcriptions from tape and the Camelot Journal archives. I wrote new text for the tape letters section, the counseling and channeling section, the Camelot Journal, the Avalon Journal and the UPI column section.

Surveying the day’s work I felt that somehow I had not done enough! So much e-mail remains yet to tackle. That is my catalyst for the day! I know whatever I get done is perfect. My little ego still looks for “enough”, that chimera, and never finds it. I need to work on being happy with whatever I do get done in a day.

Jim blew in, full of good energy, having somehow gotten his work done despite having both mowers go south on him. We enjoyed an evening with the kitties. Sedge had awakened me in the early morning with crying, and I found that he had lost the use of his legs. So I kept him with me, and during the day, he had twitched and spasmed in what I imagined were successive strokes. However in late afternoon he revived and was able again to walk a bit. Amazingly, he was just as chipper as ever, wandering around, snacking at the food bowl and sitting with us when he wished to do so. However, it seemed a really good idea to get the funeral service we use for our cats and other pets ready for Gary, Jim and I to use soon. I take the Episcopal funeral service and use all the prayers for children. It is a beautiful ritual and it helps us to process through the catalyst of losing the pet’s physical presence.

Gary spent the whole day at the L/L Inbox, working hard. He is keeping tabs of the QuickBooks calls for us, and reports that he has two favorites, both women, from the group so far. We will interview the likely prospects next week. We enjoyed a supper together and caught up, sharing about our day.

Romi came for a visit just before the Gaia Meditation, during which Gary offered the ending prayer. Then he updated the downstairs computers and did a back-up on mine up here in the bower office as well. We enjoyed a most pleasant conversation until about 10:30, while Jim had a late duty – one of his customers needed a ride to the airport. He got back just in time to say good night to Romi and Gary and come up to my room for a late-night snuggle before our lights-out at 11 PM.