Month: April 2022

In my 80s

April 30, 2022

Thank you, Sam Steiner, for sharing a report of your walking. I have been well aware of your resourcefulness as evidenced in Facebook reports. Now I better understand what supports and even builds that resourcefulness.

I want to share here an item I placed into Facebook this evening. Two bird events, minutes apart. Just to the left of the door into the den, a hawk attacked a robin’s nest. What was left was a dead naked hatchling. Then shortly thereafter a dove came to the nearby birdbath, sat there immobile for several minutes, even as I slowly approached it. Did the dove know about the hawk’s attack?

In my 80s

April 27, 2022

I am a walker. I’ve been a walker. I’m not a credentialed walker, but my walking history includes forty days and forty nights devoted to hiking El Camino in Spain. That pilgrimage five years ago contrasts dramatically with my walks today.

  1. Currently I walk 2 – 3 miles four or five days a week. In Spain I walked daily for three weeks before I stopped for a long rest.
  2. There I walked alone … alone for hours at a time. I excused myself to others who seemed attachment-needy. Here I walk with a friend, a retired professor like me, but in another discipline. We chatter constantly.
  3. In the wide open spaces of northern Spain, I came occasionally to small hamlets. Here we are hamletted, excepting when we walk the golf course.
  4. We said “Buen Camino!” while here we say “Good morning.”
  5. There a coveted snack was a piece of fresh fruit, here an ice cream cone at Wallapaloosa.
  6. Weather may have inconvenienced us, slowed us down, left us wet and cold, but we walked through the weather. Here we opt to stay home, although we have braved very cold days.
  7. On that long up and down Santiago trail, I used two walking sticks. Here on occasion, I walk with a cane.
  8. El Camino is marked. It has to be or the pilgrim would get lost. Here we choose our route, with variations the norm.
  9. Fatigue? No, here I may get tired some days, but never do I suffer fatigue as I did in Spain.
  10. In Spain I needed medical help for infected bedbug bites. Here I was sidelined by fasciatus.

    But common to both is the deep pleasure of walking.

In my 80s

April 26, 2022

My Grandma Good kept a diary for many years. It’s a pleasure to skim the entries which typically mentioned the weather, the labors of the day, visitors, food, letters written and received.

OK, I will write a diary entry — actually I took notes yesterday, which will destroy the immediacy of the entry. Further I wrote down everything I did; thus it reads like experiential account, not like Grandma’s pattern. I wonder how far you will read!

*****

get the newspaper … clear breakfast dishes … complete today’s WORDLE … skim the newspaper … bring in the garbage can … enter pix and caption into Facebook … write a short blog … write weekly note to small reference group … sit quietly in presence of thunder and rain … work on Tuesday Times which goes to grandkids weekly … go to Walgreen (vitamin) …go to hardware (battery) … email Felissa King … clear old inbox entries … send photos to Merv … clean the garage …empty top soil on compost pile … nap … lunch … nap #2 … walk … have a belly ache, take a short nap #3 … read (The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos) … open a mailed box — air buds , a surprise from Gretchen and Ben … learn how to use air buds … give an hour to classical music … complete a crossword puzzle … go to bed

In my 80s

April 25, 2022

This Monday morning rain and occasional thunder nicely set a time and a space for grateful thoughts. The garden is planted (but not fully weeded), the water barrels were emptied as of yesterday, the garbage cans were set out by the curb. Here in the meditation nook, the coffee is hot and time is comfortably now.

The driver of the garbage truck might try but hardly can he accurately know and feel retirement as it has been doled out to me. Nor can R.G. a former student of mine now teaching in fearful Lithuania reconstruct my moment of peace in her mind and heart.

I shall ask little of myself today, other than to extend these boundaries of peace and gratitude … to extend them out and beyond.

In my 80s

April 23, 2022

This week opened with snow and now today, Saturday, the temp has risen to 85 degrees (F). A cool spring sustained a fine flower show, but 85 degrees will wilt most of the crop.

Two separate thoughts arise, depending on the context in which we consider weather changes. Locally we note this week’s weather with curiosity. But when weather abnormality is placed into a global context, our curiosity changes, sometimes into anxiety. Is our unusual springtime one local expression of the globe’s heating?

I am reminded of the biblical passage about the lilies of the field thriving under the constant care of the heavenly father. How would that passage read if it were written today?