2007-01-18

The weather was still in the deep freeze today and I got out my old warm-up leggings to put on under my skirt in order to feel cozy all day. Jim and I are greatly enjoying a little book of devotions by Evelyn Underhill, Thoughts for Advent, during Morning Offering. We are reading it out of season, but the readings remain fresh and thoughtful.

After the Morning Offering was finished, Jim got a load of materials, such as chicken wire, vinyl panels and guttering, and took it all up to Avalon for adding to our collection of building materials there. He took a sandwich and stayed all day, clearing the garden area near Sugar Shack of a large number of metal pieces of all sorts, from nails and bolts to scraps. Apparently when the volunteers were living there, they cut pieces there and never policed the area afterwards.

Jim says he discovered that they also completely buried with soil an old well which had pretty stone work. Why they covered it over is a mystery to us. Another mystery is a large number of stones which are scattered around the meadow. The purpose for which they were scattered we shall never know. However Jim says he will need to spend a day just clearing the meadow of all sorts of material. He came home at dusk with only a part of his long list of things to do up there accomplished. I see many such trips to Avalon in his immediate future, as he wishes to prepare the place for our visits there and for construction.

Before he left there, he got two beds set up again in Sugar Shack, which for some reason had been stripped of beds in the room with the wood stove. We plan to go up on overnights more and more as time goes on so we need a place to lay our heads. We had been used to visiting at least one day a week in the summer, but ceased those visits while there were volunteers living there. It will be good to be embraced by Avalon’s sweet energy once again.

Meanwhile I spent a long morning editing the three-part series of UPI articles I wrote on Indigo Children for inclusion in UPI’s 2006 sampler volume. It seemed a better choice for showcasing in such a sampler book than “Let Your Lights Appear”, which had won the poll taken of readers and which I had originally sent in for inclusion. The trouble with “Let Your Lights Appear” Is that it is a seasonal piece, written in late Advent, and therefore not as useful for reading out of season. The Indigo Child series is general information and thought, not tied to any season of the year.

I took a late lunch and then came back to the office for work on The Choice 101, which took the rest of the day. I am attempting now to find the best way to discuss red-ray issues. I am not there yet! I did a lot of writing and deleting. Sometimes I am very hard to satisfy.

In and amongst this editing and writing, I talked with Fr. Joe on the telephone. He likes the readings in A Book of Days and will write me a back-cover blurb for it! I am most glad to get this necessary bit of text started, as we are almost ready to publish now. However I have a couple of changes I wish to make if they are feasible.

For one thing, I would like to move my present, scholarly Preface to an Appendix and write a far less imposing Preface for the book to welcome readers. I imagine that will be OK with the book’s producer, our WebGuy, Ian.

My other request may not be feasible, and that is to italicize the somewhat repetitive opening and closing greetings of each reading. It is an artifact of my channeling process that I receive these openings and closings. The thoughts for the day are sandwiched between them. You can see this characteristic format in just about every transcript we have – the opening bit is often almost word for word the same, and the closing farewell is also fairly standard. It seems to me that italicizing the opening and closing greeting paragraph in each day’s reading will focus the eye on the thought for the day itself. However if Ian finds it too burdensome a task, I will forget about it.

A call to FoFo J at St. Luke’s ended my work day. She is in charge of volunteers for helping at the diocesan convention, which St. Luke’s is hosting this year. She said she would definitely put me down for work at the vending table and perhaps at the registration table as well. I am glad to help with this huge enterprise as long as I can sit down! My days of being able to run about and do physical things are behind me.

Jim arrived back home at dusk, ready for a relaxed evening. We bathed and caught Democracy Now before enjoying a romantic tryst and napping a bit. I wonder just how many old married people in their 60s have as much fun, still, as Mick and I do! Not too many, I would guess. The energy exchange is so precious and healing that we both feel very blessed to have this energy between us.

We came down for a good supper and then got into movie mode, as Jim wanted to show Gary the movie, The Ninth Configuration, which was Don Elkins’ second-favorite movie of all time. (His absolute favorite was The Seventh Seal, a Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman.) I pulled out my knitting, as this was my fourth viewing of that film, and got a bit further on the baby blanket for Kori whilst matters of life, spiritual love and religion were explored on screen. The movie is 30 years old now but holds up well to viewing. The eternal questions with which the movie deals make for good pondering.

Afterwards, we sat and talked about some of the issues of the movie with Gary, who was especially interested in details of polarization, and how much of it was intention versus manifestation. The movie turns on this issue, with the anti-hero both slaughtering many, in Viet Nam and also in a bar fight late in the movie, and yet also being the most service-to-others, Christ-like figure imaginable. Was he “good”? “Bad”? It’s hard to say! We came to no solid conclusions.

We said good night to Gary at 11 PM and to each other, after a snuggle with the cats, at midnight.