Category: Uncategorized

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Homecoming

It’s 5:30AM and Devin is leaving home after being here for five days. It’s been his longest visit home in three years, but as I watch him go I think of how blessed we are to have him. How many other parents have lost sons and daughters in the war or how many parents never have any children at all. Still parting is always sweet sorrow. He’s a young man now and no longer under our roof. Our daughter’s been home too though she’s with us more often, at least for now. She’s in her senior year of college and I know that soon she too will be out from under our wing.

We’ve had a full house these last five days as both our children have been home along with their friends.  Most of the time its much quieter at the Crestview cloister as I call it. We’ve been empty nesters for almost four years now and though we enjoy the freedom that brings we still long for those times when we were all together. Life is fleeting and it seems that children are too.

Devin left home this morning to drive to Rochester to attend a Buffalo Bills game with friends. He’s been an ardent Bills fan since he was a little boy. I watch the games sometimes,  but only once in my life have I ever attended a game at the stadium. This morning it’s 18 degrees Fahrenheit and although Devin assured me it would be 40 at game-time that just seems too cold to me.

We pray for Devin as he makes his way home to the Rochester area and we remember the good times of the past week. Today Diane and Dara will decorate our newly cut Douglas fir Christmas tree and then Dara will leave too and then our home will be still again.

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Wordless noise

I regularly read Gerry Straub’s blog and usually what he posts touches me. What follows is something that I feel a bit more deeply about. Yesterday, while at Mt. Irenaeus I was touched by the poignancy of this silence.

Listening to God requires silence. Silence is more than not speaking. There is within us a wordless noise which also needs to be muted. A silent listener tunes out all exterior and interior chatter in order to be totally attentive to the silent voice of God, actively listening and responding to the very Source of his or her Being. It is only in deep silence that we can perceive the reality of God and the world around us.–Gerry Straub

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Inherit the wind

The words and thought of Proverbs 11:29 have been with me a lot this fall. I’ve been pondering these words and not even knowing their source. What does it mean to inherit the wind? There is a lot of wisdom in the Book of Proverbs.

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind:and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.–Proverbs 11:29

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Angelico

This has been a very busy and productive week. It’s been a week with a full range of emotion. On Monday of this week I received an email from a doctor with whom I worked at the Naval Air Station Dispensary in  Albany, GA thirty-five years ago. We were re-introduced on LinkedIn.  The power of social networking is incredible. What an experience and I’m very grateful that we had the chance to exchange news and updates on the progress of our lives. Thirty-five years seems like a life time ago. I shared this news with my colleagues at work, most of whom had no idea that I worked in an Ob-Gyn ward, assisted in the delivery of newborn babys and worked in the newborn nursery.  I’ve had such a rich life and I’m not as grateful as I ought to be.

Add to that I’ve been working on a Ubuntu Linux terminal server and getting ready to attend the New York State Computer and Technology Educators Conference in Rochester, New York tomorrow through Tuesday of next week. I’ve been re-reading some books that I  haven’t looked at in years and going back to basics in my life.

The sudden onset of winter weather too has been a change. We’ve had overnight lows around 10F and nearly a foot of snow in our yard. Add to that I’ve been recovering from a chest infection. In all it’s been a very rewarding but very busy week and though I’ve written a lot on my professional blog, I’ve not felt ready to write anything here until now. This morning I’ve been reading Huffington Post and some other blogs and listening to music. I want to share a beautiful clip from one of my favorite artists, Bill Douglas, it’s entitled Angelico. There are always angels in my life and this is a week when I noticed them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb5f1zeSlM0&feature=related]

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Mindfulness

I was looking at LearnHub.com and I came upon this wonderful presentation by John Kabat-Zinn. I hope you’ll take the time to view it and to wonder why we are aren’t teaching mindfulness in our classrooms. I have a link to Mindfulness in Education in my blogroll, but this is an invitation to mindfulness and meditation by one of the masters.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc]

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Yesterday

Yesterday I had to run a couple of errands. I left home around 11AM and drove to my mother’s in Arcade, New York. Mom’s computer needed to be rebuilt last week. Mom’s rebuilt computer is running Ubuntu 8.10.  Mom’s been using Ubuntu Linux for a couple of years now and its been a good fit for her. The simple interface, one-click access to electronic mail and no time wasted scanning for viruses and spyware.  Along with Mom’s computer I had the computer of another customer, whose Windows XP system had to be rebuilt because spyware had done it in.  After reinstalling all the applications and installing the computer in the customers home they elected to pay me more than I had billed them for. What a nice surprise.

I climbed into my car and drove to the local McDonalds for a cheeseburger. I love cheeseburgers and french fries. I don’t get them as often as I did thirty years ago, but I stilll enjoy them. It was only 3PM and how was I going to spend the rest of my day. I turned my car east on Route 39 and drove to my Abbey of the Genesee. It had been nearly a month since my last visit. When I got to the Abbey I was tired and elected to take a nap in my car before venturing inside. The lot was full of cars. I’d never seen so many cars there. I awoke from my nap just as Mass was ending, but I did stay for Vespers and a time of quiet on my own in the chapel. I spent some time in the bread store and picked up a couple of Monks Brownies along with a small book.

As I emerged from the abbey I looked through the mist toward the State University of New York at Geneseo. I stood silently looking at the distant campus and at the statue of the Our Lady of the Genesee just a few yards from me. It was good to be home again. I’ve come here often in the past thirty years. Where have those years gone? When I look at the monks I think, what did they look like in 1978? Were they here? Some of them must have been. We’ve grown old together.

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Tracking snow

Deer season has started in our area and hunters like my Dad always loved tracking snow as they called it. It’s easier to hunt and kill deer when there is a cover of the white stuff. I live adjacent to a wooded area and just last week as I returned home I saw three deer crossing our street and moving into that wooded area. I hope they are safe now, but probably not as the deer hunters comb the nearby woods looking for animals to kill.

I’ve only hunted deer a few times in my life. My last hunting trip was in November of 1982. I find no pleasure in killing deer. I’ve collided with many deer in my car. The last collision occurred on Good Friday nearly five years ago when a deer intersected my path on New York State Route 242 in the Town of Ellicottville. That deer cost me a $250 deductible on my insurance coverage. Despite that I still love them more than not. They are such graceful creatures and move about like the Ruach.

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Just in time

I’ve been following the transition of Barack Obama and I’ve enjoyed how President Elect Obama and his team continue to leverage the web. They’ve skirted traditional media outlets and they’ve taken their case right to the people. This is a groundbreaking approach and I believe it will be the end of politics as usual. Sunday talk shows will become passe. No longer will CNN, Fox, CBS and other cable outlets be the prism through which we view our leaders. They’ll be coming direct to us.  It’ll be refreshing not to have the filter of the main stream media. I’ve grown weary of food fight television shows where guests are shouted down by loud mouth hosts. Meaningful discourse instead of talking points supplied by corporate managers. Valerie Jarrett spells some of this out in this useful Youtube presentation. Gobama!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJzg5IJN8o]

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Grateful

Yesterday Dara was involved in a car accident. It’s a moment every parent dreads, getting that call. She was crying but wanted to let me know that she was alright. She was one of this winter’s first victims of slippery roads. She survived and without injury. Her car is a little banged up, but not too bad we hope. She’s been student teaching this fall and so the use of a car is necessary. I’m grateful that she wasn’t harmed in any way. I’m grateful to a wonderful member of the New York State Police who came to record the accident at my invitation. I thanked him repeatedly. I hope to pick up a gift certificate and drop it off at the New York State Police substation in Machias, New York.