2008-04-11

The rains came, but in fits and starts, driving poor Mick past good humor as he repeatedly tried to work, only to be forced into his truck for cover.

After Morning Offering I wrote my journals and then started a long letter to Aubine, a friend since the early 1980s, when she lived in Kentucky. She moved back to her native France in 1992 but we have remained in touch, and I visited her in 2004 at her home in Igny. She is a wonderful woman, creative, quirky, fun and with a depth of heart not often found on Planet Earth. Currently she is trying to help her daughter, Ariane, with her new baby, Fassely – named after the African musician – and also trying to reopen creative outlets that have been shut down for years as she brought up her children.

This was a day for my girlfriends near and far! At lunchtime I drove to Indiana, rejoicing in the first hints of green on the trees along the expressway and overlooking the preparations on the Second Street Bridge for Thunder Over Louisville, an amazingly full-blown, day-long event with air shows, lots of vendors and entertainment and after full nightfall, a thirty-minute blast of fireworks which is North America’s largest and longest fireworks event. Technicians take over the entire bridge for days to prepare the concussive entertainment and it is spectacular. We always watch it on the telly and avoid the massive traffic after the event is over and 300,000 people try to leave the waterfront at once.

With rain spattering the windshield and lots of traffic, I was cautious but got to Clarksville safely and met Connie at Ruby Tuesday’s, our favorite place. It is handy to her work and just as easy for me to drive to as any downtown Louisville spot. We had a wonderful and very extended lunch, talking about her work and mine.

Connie is a licensed psychologist and works at a halfway house for criminals returning to society. She is wonderful at her job and although at first her clients were deeply suspicious and continued to behave as they had always known to behave, according to their subculture, within the past year she has turned it around completely.

And she loves her job! She has become a workaholic because she sees so much that she can do to help these men – it is a facility for men only. And her clients have come to appreciate her and are increasingly able to learn new ways, the ways of middle class America, which they never got a chance to learn before. That "straight" lifestyle which most of us enjoy is certainly not ideal, but knowing how to live in that society means freedom and family life, so it is worth learning.

It was a most absorbing visit and I was sorry that our time was eventually up! I drove back home through the raindrops and the glorious spring. While I was gone, I promise you, two dozen tulips bloomed in our yard! The glory of spring is truly upon us! I used the last half-hour of my working time to finish Aubine’s letter and called it a day.

Mick and I watched Star Wars IV, the first of that series made by George Lucas, during the evening, pausing for the Gaia Meditation at 9 p.m. Mick offered the closing prayer.