Banjo - Ice Storm - Jan 2024 - 2024 01 21

 

LOVE DOES THAT

All day long a little burro labours, sometimes

with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries

about things that bother only

burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting

 than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes

to her stable and brings

a pear, but more than that,

he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free

and even seems to laugh,

because love does

that.

Love frees.

Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328)

Today I spoke to my Cousin, who has taken on the work of caregiving for my 98 year old Aunt and my 101 year old Uncle. Aunt has been taken off of medical supports to prolong life and put on 'comfort care' as her body cannot survive the pneumonia she contracted after hip surgery from a fall. 

Although we had not talked for years, our conversation picked up where it left off, insightful, empathetic, spiritual, and extremely funny. 

I am remembering the winter that my Cousin got me a job at Hudson Bay to work with her on the annual inventory of all the goods in the store. All I remember about that work was how hard we laughed as we worked together counting merchandise and writing down our numbers. 

An earlier memory still, we are children and I am staying out at Aunt and Uncle's house for a few days. They had this toy telephone that felt like a real phone. The dial haptics and the bell ring were very satisfying when I would pretend to make phone calls. They had an Eaton's catalogue. I would pour over all the magical pictures of things that I could order. I was old enough to read and write. One of my greatest joys was pretending I was taking an order over the phone with my Cousin. I would carefully fill in the order form with the product information scribed into each box on the order sheet. A sense of comfort and contentment at the simple order and containment of life in that game.

Right now, in real time, my daughter and her family, including Banjo, the donkey, are sheltering in place waiting for the weather to warm and break the grip of a ferocious ice storm that has been knocking out power, freezing water lines, bursting pipes, and covering the ground in 4" of treacherous ice. 

In both cases, my frail, dying, beloved Aunt, and my courageous, strong, determined daughter, I am helpless to change the course of events. I am helpless except to send my love, pray for easy passage, and hope for tomorrow.

My Cousin and I laugh at the difficulties we are each facing and bolster our confidence that we, too, will get through all this. For a few seconds we are free, we laugh, because love does that. Love frees.