2007-06-06

It’s such a lovely time of year here! All the day lilies in the yard are coming into bloom now, and the butterfly bushes as well. We had a brief respite from the heat, and going out to get the paper was a treat, as I walked into the mist lying on Hazelwood Road feeling magical!

I had intended to work on The Journey this morning. Paul C has sent back what he can hear of the lyrics to the songs included in that story-and-song creation which I wrote and my brother and I sang onto tape for our parents back in 1979 as a Christmas present. The original recording was so poorly performed and so dismally recorded that we re-recorded the songs alone, and that is the CD we presently offer. I wanted to type the story itself back into the mix. The story is about the journey of the Magi. I had had fun incorporating lots of medieval myths into the tale.

However I could not find the material. Somehow it has gone missing. I asked Gary to find me the original audiocassette tape of the performance. One of our very capable transcribing volunteers can transcribe the story from that. Meanwhile, I spent the morning catching up the ever-present influx of e-mail.

Barbara B had written to say kind things about the Dana series of articles and to let me know that she is now at her retreat for a while, where she will continue her writing on a book I am eager to read, which she calls Ever-Healed, or some permutation of that thought. I let her know of my current situation and praised the Holy Spirit. It is wonderful to know that she has this respite and quiet amidst her beloved branches – her cabin is built so it feels like a treehouse - and much more forest and water nearby.

Dave Gillis had sent me a rough draft of a letter to the Coast to Coast staff. He has been trying to get them to interview me for years. I OK’d the letter and told him I was doggoned hard to market, not being a mainstream ET person – no conspiracies, no little green men, no new physics and no marshmallow fluff. But I thanked him for his efforts and said, hey, maybe this letter will work!

I wrote Ian B, who is starting a very good service-to-others project in his home in England called Unity in Diversity. He is trying to create a neighborhood forum where all the many nationalities represented in the community can come together in communication and group harmony. I told him it sounds terrific! I also thanked him for his poem, about the Fingers and the Thumb, which I used in Dana 6. His writing to me is always fresh and well done, and I asked him if he would consider blogging with us on B4 when webmaster Steve E launches it.

I caught up with Melissa T, Diane P and Tiffani M, re-sending the thumbnail sketches to Tiff which her computer somehow did not receive when I sent them out to everybody on the Board.

I suggested to Elihu that we publish Dana’s book precisely as she gave it to us, in printed, hard-copy form, while retaining all her other drawings and all the commentaries in the e-version of the book. I also thanked him for his blurb, which I sent on to Ian so that he can finalize the Book of Days and send it to the printer at last.

And I wrote to thank Mary Alice for the drawings by Dana she is sending me in the snail-mail.

I went downstairs at about 1 PM, most surprised to find Mick at home. Gary had borrowed my car to go to the grocery as his is quite small in terms of trunk room, so Mick thought I was out. Our one chance this week to lunch together was blown! We are both so quiet in habit that we did not hear each other in the house. Humorous!

The afternoon work hours were happily spent on Chapter 6. I backed and filled, wrote and deleted, looking for the best entry into the subject. Hopefully I ended the afternoon on the track of a good beginning to that chapter.

Chloe outdid herself today on affection. She has grown from a slim kitten to a big black bear of a girl, sweet as molasses in nature but the clumsiest cat I have personally ever known. I think her eyesight may be dim. She dumped first my telephone, then my stack of Bible, Prayer Book and Hymnal (on the right-hand table) and then my slanted mini-desk on which I keep all to do with my writing on 101 (on the left-hand table) onto the floor and was going for my water glass when I finally got her calmed down. All she was actually doing was expressing her delight in being with me, walking across my lap from right-hand table to left-hand table and back, rubbing her face on anything in her path. She does not do this damage out of wickedness, only awkwardness. I do love my little bear!

Jim was incredibly busy today, as the winds overnight had downed three trees on one of his customer’s property. At 4:30 he came up, his usual customers' work done, to say that he was on his way to clear the worst of the damage there. He worked until his chain saw quit. He did quite a bit of clearing, and promised them that he would come back as soon as his chain saw was working again.

He did not even make a dent in the first huge tree, he said, never mind the other two, which are even more gigantic. This customer lives on a farm, over 200 years old, originally owned by the Speed family, the oldest of old-Louisville gentry. The trees have been allowed to mature for all that time, so there be giants there! It is a wonderful place to be, with all the old, old trees and living antiques like an old hog barn and other outbuildings from when it was a working plantation in the early 18th century.

He finally arrived home, happy and weary, and we bathed and then had a date before descending to the downstairs for the Gaia Meditation, with Mick praying at the end, and a late supper with Gary. We all said good night around 11 PM.