I’ve been thinking about love a lot lately and the people I love who have touched my life. Some are gone now. Each spring when the Veronica first appears in the lawns near our home and around the area I think of my grandmother, Caroline Watkins. I can hear her voice and feel her presence with me very strongly. I feel good and wish she were here. I know how much she loved me and how much I loved her too.
Then too I was picnicking with my wife today in Cuba, New York in what the locals call Willow Bank Park. We used to picnic there in 1983 when we were newlyweds. Now we’re a bit older but we still like picnics and tonight we were able to have one. It was romantic and lovely to be with the one I love and who has most drawn me out of myself in these last almost twenty-nine years since we first dated.
I loved my ride to Mt. Irenaeus today and my time with the Friars there. I love Fr. Bob, Br. Joe, and Br. Kevin. I love Fr. Lou and Fr. Dan even though they weren’t present today. They are family to me and so are all the other regulars like Duane, Anita, John and my other Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters. I loved to the ride I took after Mass and brunch. A ride that took me south over the mountains to Bradford, PA. I found a nice little mountain vista and pulled my car off the road for a short nap in the lovely sun.
I love our children too. Devin and Dara though both away in Buffalo and Rochester, they are never far from my heart. Today at the prayer of the faithful I asked that God would bless all those I love and all that he loves which must be the whole world. He knows them all and blesses them all.