New Little Free Library

Last year Chuck built three Little Free Libraries for three different locations in Corpus Christi. Today he posted the newly completed library for kids' books.
Both are at our church, All Saints Episcopal Church. The blue and yellow box is the original LFL.

I am the steward for both.





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"60 Minutes" in Heaven

Mother's Day!

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Going to San Diego, CA!

http://www.sdiworld.org/educational-event/2016-emerging-wisdom-educational-events/online-streaming

I am going to this Spiritual Directors International Conference in San Diego this weekend with a good friend from Corpus Christi, Mary Tom. We are going to be visiting with our friend Mary Jane, who used to live in Corpus Christi before moving to CA. Father Gregory Boyle will be one of the main speakers.

We leave on Thursday and return on Sunday night. I am getting excited!

"Science of Character"

This is really profound. 8 minutes long and worth that amount of time!

Running Out of Time?

In the Middle

of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s,

struggling for balance, juggling time.

The mantle clock that was my grandfather’s

has stopped at 9:20; we haven’t had the time

to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still,

the chimes don’t ring. One day you look out the window,

green summer, the next, and the leaves have already fallen,

our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn

again how to love, between morning’s quick coffee

and evening’s slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises,

mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies

twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between,

his tail is a metronome, ¾ time. We’ll never get there,

Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging

us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches,

sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh

of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up

in love, running out of time.

~Barbara Crooker

Crooker, Barbara. “In the Middle.” Good Poems for Hard Times. Ed. Garrison Keillor. NY: Penguin Books, 2005. 265.

Happy Easter!

If this happened today?

  
 

Pie-Baking and Me

it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?

what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?

did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?...

---by Drew Dellinger (spoken poet)

Listen!

Some of Our Family

Our Austin family came to visit us in Corpus Christi this past weekend.

Chuck, David, Emma, Annie, Avery, Jan at Cole Park

It has been too long!!

I have not blogged since August 2015, even with several friends urging me to write again. As I re-read Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande, I feel immersed in thoughts and reflections of members in the Wisdom Class book group concerning the end of our days. My father-in-law and a dear friend, both in WA State, are in those times, not going gently   Lots of memories, emotions, and fears circulate in my mind and heart.

Since my parents died in 1992 and 2002, I remember living far away and traveling to be with them in their last days. That is very important, and I want that time for my husband, too. However, he is teaching chemistry classes in a community college and awaits spring vacation in another week. Does he need to go? Will there be enough time left?

I am lucky that I have been in a group of friends who meet monthly to discuss books on death. We even call it the "Death Group." It has made us more comfortable to discuss death and dying over several years so that we are willing to discuss physical, spiritual, and emotional issues of dying. One member has ALS and wanted us to pursue this topic. She has helped the rest of us continue thinking about our final days.

Over this time, I have found various articles that help me. One of the best is by David Steindl-Rast, author of Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer. It is long, but very worthwhile:

Learning to Die by Brother David Steindl-Rast 

I hope I will blog again soon with love to all.