Friday, October 28, 2011

camels etc

I am off to the land beside the camels land - to Israel and then Turkey. I hope to be able to post photos and stories, but first the planes have to get out of the way of a big Northeaster barrelling down on the coast! We shall see what develops.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A time to be born and a time to die...



A neighbor friend has died this past week. This summer she added a beautiful baby boy, Finn, to her repertoire of grandchildren; Jessie Marina Ullo was born just a few days before Chalmer died, too. So there are times when the population of our worlds turns over. Births come, and people go.

Inevitably, we search for the reasons why people go. Rarely do we find them, especially when they are the people that bring us together, that help us when we need help, that welcome us when we are new, that count for something positive in our world. As Clint says in the movie Unforgiven, " Deserves got nothing to do with it." It just happens, and we are left with the feeling, and the song, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child."

Chalmer died of mesothelioma, a lung cancer that stems theoretically from exposure to asbestos. No one can pinpoint her exposure, but somewhere along the way something must have happened, and because she was sensitive to it, she acquired the cancer. It is a cruel one, and I am glad that I have not developed it.

We do not know what we will die from, before it happens, but we do know when babies are born. We celebrate birthdays, and we celebrate the people who leave us. We celebrate hope first, and then we celebrate the past. With the dying of the summer season, let us celebrate both the newborn babes, and Chalmer - who loved them.