Through a glass darkly

One thing about vacations is that you get a new mental space to consider how things are going in your life.

I am staying with two of my best friends, and shared Thanksgiving with them. They are both artists. Being in a space with them and the artfulness of their gardens, interior spaces, and observing the way they each regard the other is a gentle space for me to think about my own "posture in the world".

We forget how much our lives affect people and things around us. I remember the old eighties corporate lingo about a person's "area of influence". That is what I am experiencing at the lovely home of my friends. Their lives make me a better person, smooth out my rough edges, inspire me to wonder.

Only six days ago they put to rest their last parent between them. For the past three years my friends gently cared for two parents in this home near the Pacific Ocean. Through that time I listened and learned from them about what true love means. Day after day they applied ministrations of their love and respect, making each parent's last days as comfortable and beautiful as possible.

As we prepared Thanksgiving dinner together, I asked about how things would change for them now...now that they were free to return to their previous life focused on their own needs and desires. I learned that the greatest lesson learned was patience. Of slowing down and learning to enjoy what was at hand, and not what might be or anticipated.

When I awoke from a great night's sleep this morning that was on my mind. I remembered the Biblical verse "We see through a glass darkly...." How often life brings us something and we see only the one facet of it - until we go fully into it as my friends did. It changed everything about their previous life with its flow and its considerations. But then, it brought treasures, personal gifts like patience and joy in the ordinary.

My friends' mothers and fathers are gone physically from Earth. But they left their children a gift beyond measure that will make the rest of their lives worth living. And now I am benefitting from it too, reflecting on what they learned.

Being away from my routine, I suddenly get a glimpse of the reality of my life. Its about how I choose to treat my friends and family, strangers on the road of life, and even the earth herself. That's what this is all about and nothing less.

Peace my friends,
Susan