monique

Woolgathering
2004-10-31 16:57:50 (UTC)

Pieces

Another catch-up entry.

This week has been hard on everyone with John working 12-16
hour shifts. It has been especially hard on him. On Friday
he left for work at 7:15 a.m. and arrived home after 11:30
p.m. I was almost asleep when he came into the bedroom but
the first thing he said to me was "I was almost killed
tonight". That woke me up in a hurry. I worry when he
works long hours at the mill as there are many dangers there
but it turned out that he was talking about almost getting
hit on the drive home. There's a four way stop at the edge
of town which intersects two highways with speed limits of
55 mph. True, there are signs beforehand warning them of
the stop and the speeds slow to 35 mph but sometimes they're
ignored. That night they were ignored by a driver who went
right through the stop sign still going 55 mph. If John
hadn't waited as he had the driver would have hit him. As
it turned out, there is justice in the world. Our little
town only has sporadic patrol by the sheriff as the city
contracts with the county for a certain number of hours per
month but this was one of those times; John had the
satisfaction of seeing the driver being pulled over by a deputy.
***********************************
Being locked in the church last week made me do a bit of
research. In the Middle Ages an anchoress was a woman
called to a solitary life not cut-off from the world, but
anchored in it. Her life was one of prayer and
contemplation and her daily work. Her home was a small
room, or cell, attached to the side of a church. There was
a "Rule of Life" associated with anchoresses drawn up in the
13th century, which stated that the cell should have three
windows that opened. One into the church, so she could
participate in Mass and receive communion, one to
communicate with her assistant, who lived close at hand, and
one to give advice to those who sought it. I can understand
how that life could be appealing.
**********************************
I have updated my books read in 2004 entry (see February
19th entry). Last night I finished Everything Happens for A
Reason by Mira Kirshenbaum. I came to the realization of
this book that I needed to determine the reason for life
events, especially difficult and devasting life events and
what they were intended to teach me and how they changed my
life later, if I were ever to survive them. I wrote about
this in several entries last April. While reading this book
I realized that even losing my faith in God had a reason. I
left the Catholic church then and if I hadn't I could never
have married John, who is divorced. Still, I would never go
so far as to say that what happened was a blessing in
disguise or for the best or God's will. It just was or as
John puts it, that's life. The trick is what we chose to do
with it later.




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