2006-10-20

“Housekeeping” Day Two began after Morning Offering and bidding farewell to Jim and Gary, who teamed up to mow everyone on the busiest mowing day of the week. My morning was spent working on e-mail. I
- Wrote to thank Jay B for kind words about my UPI writing and for offering to help me with QuickBooks.
- Wrote Gary to be sure he had worked out the glitch in UPI sends.
- Thanked Tiffani for her comments on the QuickBooks article. She loves QuickBooks. I hope to catch her enthusiasm!
- Wrote Linda P. about an article she is writing on divorce. I asked her for a re-send as her attachment did not come through.
- Wrote an old, old friend, Ruthie M, with whom I thought for sure I had lost contact. Our mutual friend, Lindy T, send Ruthie one of my articles and she wrote me after all these years – probably two decades or so. Ruthie is a psychic, a sweetie and such a blessing to be in contact with again.
- Wrote Gary concerning the curriculum at our Midwinter Gathering early next year.
- Worked through Steve M’s suggestions on Chapter One of The Choice 101 and sent the finished product back to him for a final read-through.
- Thanked Steve M for comments concerning the UPI article on sexual addiction. He thought I was a bit sexist. I agreed! I think we are all a bit sexist! We tend to make generalizations about both sexes that do not hold true every time.
- Responded to two more e-mails from Steve M on various topics.

That felt like enough e-mail and it was rising lunch time, so I took some straightening-around time and got the office and all the upstairs completely neatened for the first time since our trip to Massachusetts before descending to the first floor to have a sandwich.

After dining well, I went up to the village to deposit some cash – Jim had sold his clamshell leaf bagger – and to get some CoQ-10 and Vitamin C from the local health food store. I saw Jim en passant, dealing with more equipment problems – Gary had run up against a tree root and a blade caught and bent, so Jim took the poor mower back to the repair shop whence it had just emerged yesterday.

I settled into the bookkeeping for the afternoon’s work. I had finished Jim’s Lawn Service’s books yesterday except for recording Jim’s Daily Reports and making invoices, and I caught up with those before going on to L/L Research’s books and moving through those. There was a serious disconnect in reconciling a charge card – the previous month’s bill was nowhere to be found - and I probably spent a good half hour just bringing the software to the point where it would let me pay the bill.

With that done, I worked through the household accounts. By bath time, all the bills were paid, all the receipts were recorded and almost every envelope was empty – the envelopes which hold all bills and other paperwork for the financials desk. This left me feeling a formless sort of angst, odd to feel. It is a feeling of intense curiosity that will never be satisfied. My curiosity is this: I saw our previous bookkeeper working and working, hour upon hour. The result was this incredible mess which I am now straightening up. WHAT WAS SHE DOING? I shake my head in wonder. It just makes me appreciate Melissa all the more, and hope that our interviews next week net us another such gem of a bookkeeper. We need one! I am barely competent.

Jim called bath time a bit early and surprised me with a treat – he asked to take me out to Appleby’s. We decided to relax and watch Stargate before going, and we had Sedgie on my chest, so his head was just under my chin. He liked being so close. As we started to get up, after the episode aired, I looked under Sedgie’s little blanket and saw that he had stopped breathing. What a beautiful way to pass through the gates to larger life – lying heart to heart with your human companions.

Gary, Jim and I repaired to our pet cemetery, where we offered the Funeral Service from my Episcopal Prayer Book. I sang a sweet hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” which has a lovely verse about passages, and Jim offered a eulogy for our beloved little companion. We placed roses from our garden on his coffin, a Schiffer book box which originally held Law of One books, and Jim covered the grave over with good loam and then with two large rocks. It was a beautiful service.

And then we ate good in the neighborhood! Ah, Fridays! On the way to the restaurant, Jim drove me to a shop where he needed to pick up trailer bolts and what a ride that was! The air was transparent and Indian summer reigned, balmy and beautiful. The trees are into their most intense color now, with glorious reds, scarlets, oranges and bright yellows everywhere. It is not quite the peak of autumn color yet, as many trees are still mostly green. However the sycamores are bare and the maples are dropping leaves like rain.

We got home in time to sit for the Gaia Meditation, with Gary offering the ending prayer. Then we came upstairs for a good night snuggle before seeking our beds around midnight. For the first time in several months, my bedroom door stayed open, as there was no Sedge to feed and keep separate from the other kitties. Sedge died a bit over five months after our vet had suggested we euthanize him, as he was surely going to die of cancer. I am glad we did not. Sedge never was in pain. When he had his strokes, he was unconscious, and at the end he was in a coma. In between, he was not in pain and he loved being with us. And we loved being with him, also. I think letting dear ones die very naturally is a good thing. There is something just “so” about a death which the Creator has orchestrated. There is a beauty there and dignity.

I pray my own ending may be so beautiful. Farewell, dear Sedge! We honor you.