Gather the Good

The door opened and the weary-looking woman made her way into the periodontists’ waiting room. She appeared to be in her 40s or 50s and not at all a picture of good health. Wearing a walking cast on one leg, her steps were short and choppy. The bra strap on her left arm lay about halfway to her elbow and appeared as nonfunctional as the dangling arm itself.   She stepped up to the receptionist’s window and gave her last name….

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We were supposed to be at the restaurant at 6:30, my husband and I. So, we felt pretty good that we’d made a three-hour drive and were arriving a few minutes early. We were happy to be celebrating our friend John’s milestone birthday but weren’t sure what to expect. It was our first time at the swanky hotel’s restaurant, The Tenderloin Room. We didn’t know the guest list, and as it turned out, we only knew a few of the…

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“Did you hear that?” my husband asked. There was a ruckus going on inside our fireplace. Apparently, some critter had made its way into the chimney. How could that happen? It was summer and the flue was closed. Plus, wasn’t there was supposed to be something around the top of the chimney to keep animals out? It was far too high on the roof for us to check, but we’d always trusted that things in that area were as they should be. What could…

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Aging with dignity. I used to think it was a necessary and even admirable goal. As best I could, when I was with my elderly parents, I tried to help them maintain a sense of normalcy, of “appropriateness.”  Especially when we were in public. I wanted the people we encountered to view them as they’d been in their prime. I think all of us kids tried to support them in that way. In their later years, a lot of their filters…

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“Please stand for the presentation of the colors,” the man at the podium requested. And so we stood side by side along with all the other friends and family members gathered for the graduation ceremony in the large arena. I’d brought my friend/English student to witness her oldest son receive his engineering degree from the university. I watched as the color guard slowly advanced with their impeccable precision stepping. I’d taken in similar scenes numerous times, and usually I was…

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I’ve known her all my life. For a time in the early years, I looked at her with eyes full of wonder. And then I didn’t. Moving through childhood, my focus shifted to all the joys and pains of my own development. I became so wrapped up in my own self that I seldom noticed her presence. I was generally unaware of her unless it was to complain about how she’d somehow unintentionally interrupted my personal agenda. Regretfully, I confess…

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Oh, the tears! So many tears! They’d been anticipating this day for several weeks, and they’d fully expected the emotional flooding that would come with it. What they’d not prepared for, however, was this. Not these tears. Not on this day. No, not like this. For this older couple, it began at 5 a.m. when they awoke suddenly to the sounds of their aged dog’s labored breathing. In the early morning hours, they cuddled her in their arms then lay…

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It’s happening again! Something I read a few years ago has been regularly resurfacing in my mind. From previous experience I’ve learned those thoughts are not likely to go anywhere until I give them some attention. And because the timing now feels so right, I’m ready to put in the effort. In one of his books, Father Gregory Boyle references Julian of Norwich, who said that the truest and most authentic spiritual life was one that produced three things: awe,…

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