Monday, August 2, 2021                               (today’s lectionary)
Be here now. Let’s play!
Jasper’s birthday continues. Miles smiles at everything, making jokes and laughing, enjoying this week every bit as much as his brother. We had Sunday dinner with the family, and Jasper pushed Margaret’s walker everywhere, hanging on it, peeking through its bars, and shouting approval at his own actions.
For a couple of weekend nights the Tomitas were guests at a friend’s house near Canyon Lake, 75 miles southwest of Austin. Their boating plan was thwarted when another boat blocked the path out of their own boat’s storage space, and no one could contact the culprit. But the beach beckoned, and good restaurants took good care of them, and they played a few games and slept well. Jasper had another chance to blow out two candles, and he blew hard. They went out. He laughed. Everyone was happy.
I will feed Israel with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I will fill them. Sing with joy to God our help.
Sunday at home again, they unwrapped the big family gift, a bouncy house. Castle, really, with corner pillars and a large gate, and plenty of room to bounce around inside. Jasper can be king, and then Miles can be king, and then Jasper can be king again. They put it up and took it down again before we got there, but it will be up again soon enough.
Jesus asked the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking five loaves and two fish he said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. All ate and were satisfied, about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
At the lake house they put up the train tracks again. And took them down. It’s a lot of work to be a mom and dad. While they were playing we had a quiet, sleepy Saturday and Sabbath. Church, making a nice lunch, naps, talking to my friend and cousin Mike, driving to Jasper’s in a blinding driving rainstorm that lasted ten minutes, until the sun came out again.
Mostly we watched the Chesterton Conference in Chicago, and I have to say the virtual experience was pretty good. We missed rubbing shoulders, but in fact we met the hosts of Austin’s Chesterton Society who also were attending virtually, and they invited us to the next meeting on August 9, just a few minutes away at a nicely named pizza bar, the Pour House, to discuss The Hound of Distributism. At last we’ll (hopefully) begin to understand this favorite political and economic philosophy of G. K. Chesterton and friends.
Today Margaret has appointments with her cardiologist and her heart surgeon. Hopefully someone will remove her PIC line, which is still hanging from her arm. So much is ending. Cardiac rehab begins on Thursday, though, and might last for 36 sessions. Might not. I am beginning to stop thinking in crisis or rescue mode, but it’s not easy. I keep expecting something else to happen.
We’ll be spending some time with Miles and Jasper this week, not long, but a few hours, and being with them will be good for me. They do not yet get caught up in anticipatory crisis thinking. They look around for something, then play with it. Then they look around for something else. What I say about myself is really true for them: there is no hurry. There is always more than enough.
One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
(Numbers 11, Psalm 81, Matthew 4, Matthew 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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