Keeping Up
Alan Creech has a great blog note on Thomas Merton. So pleasecheck it out!
MORE THOUGHTS ON POET OF TOLSTOY PARK
Many of you added the five books you would take if you had to limit your library. The book of Jennifer Lash is titled, "On Pilgrimage." I was also interested how many choose The Imitation of Christ as one of the books. I might have to do the same. It certainly rates up there.
With my wife still in the hospital it reminds me of the Tolstoy Book. Henry Stuart (who the book is about) lost his wife 3 years before he moved from Idaho to Alabama. He was never the same after her death. Wives are like an appendage, we too often take them for granted. They are just THERE ! and we forget to realize that THERE means more than we recognize.
Seeing Janet sick has been tough on all of us. Sickness causes schedule changes. Eating habits are difference. We are always "picking up something." Or someone calls and wakes us during the night. Life becomes a mystery.
"Know the great void where all things begin," says Rilke as quoted by Stuart. "Oddly, before Molly died," Henry continued, "indeed, before anyone knew she was ill, early one morning I walked in brown study all the way to Gentry Creek and back wondering just what I'd do if Molly died before me. I got ahead of her parting from me, Will." (p.23 Tolstoy Park)
This came home to me last night. I visited the funeral home for a woman in her early sixties who had never been sick in her life. Last Wednesday she woke up sick and died 4 days later. It was a quick and difficult loss for her family.
I don't know if we can really prepare for those unexpected events in life. What do you think?
And Jennifer Lash has two famous sons who are actors. WHO ARE THEY? Answer tomorrow.
posted by Dan Phillips @ 8:48 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
BRO DAN......So right about appreciating our spouses more. We get in the habit of taking them for granted. Told my wife, more than once, that if I died suddenly these are the things I would have said if I had the chance. I had a cousin who was shot to death in his store...I wrote a poem for his widow: "What Needed Not the Saying"
IMITATION OF CHRIST.....I first got a copy in high school. I was fascinated...but at the same time, thought 'How could someone live like this?' I realize now that he was speaking of the 'ideal' and what the soul might 'reach for.' Much wisdom in that little book. (Book 3, Chapter 11) "...it behooves thee still to learn many things, which thou hast not yet well learned." I can say 'amen' to that one.
SONS of JENNIFER LASH.......Joseph Fiennes and Ralph Fiennes. Do I win the cigar?
You are correct....Joseph Fiennes and Ralph Fiennes. Who are you and where do I send the check? Contact me at
brodan at tmobile. com
WOW......I am the secret anon writer who won the check. Did not know there was a prize. Please give it to the poorest family that you know. Good health blessings to your dear wife. Blessings for you in your work...sometimes it gets really heavy. My best friend, now with God, used to say that he liked to go to where he was most needed...sometimes the jail...sometimes a family in conflict...almost weekly, it was to a funeral home to console the family and to offer prayers. He said that in the great times of need, people are more open and ready to hear the GOOD NEWS. God be with you and your readers.
I still do not have your name. For some reason any anonymous person's name does not show up. If you sign in as anonymous please add your email address or name. Thanks.
APPRECIATION.......A simple gesture of thanks and appreciation can do so much good. A clerk in a store was especially helpful to a customer. The customer told her "I was having such a sad and difficult day but your kindness has changed all that." What a happy thought...that our little effort meant so much to another. The chances are all around us. Maybe our kindness and help will be a real blessing to someone who really needs it. 'Lord, of all kindness, show us and lead us.'
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