My heart is so full tonight I hardly know what or how to write. Here are some ways that love has manifested in my life the past couple of days:
A dear one took me to lunch before leaving for New Hampshire, and then emailed an invitation to Barack's Inaugural Ball on January 19, 2009. I have put it on my calendar.
A friend in Kansas City whose son fought and won a battle with leukemia sent a beautiful paper crane. When her son was sick, she wrote, a friend gave him an antique mobile from China with 1000 paper cranes -- for peace, love and healing. The friend told her son that when he was better he should pass it on to someone else in need of healing, which her son did. "So I am sending one crane for peace, love, and healing," she wrote. "I believe one will be enough."
Buddhist friends in Canada sent a yukata, the Japanese summer cotton kimono, to wear during treatment, along with a generous gift for my Zimbabwe family. Two other people made or promised contributions for the Zimbabweans.
Members of my godmother's family sent notes and prayer cards. I haven't seen them in many years. Cards with Frida Kahlo images came from France and Hyde Park, along with many emails from well wishers. My beloved 93-year-old friend in Northern Ireland, John McLarnon, phoned when I was out.
I'm about to watch the news wrapped in a beautiful handmade quilt, a gift to help me through treatment. My upstairs neighbor offered to make extra food when she cooks for herself and bring it down or freeze it for me. Several more people have volunteered to help out. I'm told the volunteer list now numbers more than 70.
When I was a young English major at Knox, some lines from William Blake wrote themselves on my heart:
And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.
I am learning. Slowly. But I am learning.
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3 comments:
what a beautiful post!!! i love it, as usual... was thinking a lot about you this morning as i am catching up on emails and was reading a month-old story about gordon brown boycotting the summitt that mugabe was invited to in lisbon..... whenever i read about zim--of course, i think of you and your dear family there!! btw, some of the old batemanites want to have a reunion--maybe later this year, an all school, all-year one... i will keep you posted!!! love, b
Good luck tomorrow (Tuesday) with your first round of chemo and radiation. You've got a lot of friends that will be thinking of you.
Thinking of you tomorrow...with love,
Ray and Gloria
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