A Woman of Mystery

I know just how Bea feels as she peers through her magic magnifying glass at an ever-more-mysterious world. How can things be so blissful one moment and so terrible the next? We will have to teach her (as if we ourselves knew) how to roll with the punches.

I was stunned to hear about the destruction of the city of Port Au Prince, Haiti. Why would an earthquake strike the capital of one of the poorest nations on earth, where people are already struggling for existence? If I were a traditional believer, I'd be asking, "Where was God when this was happening?"

But as I look at the photos and videos coming from Haiti, I know that God is there--in the hearts and hands of people helping each other, and in the generous donations and prayers offered by folks of all nationalities and beliefs for the relief of the stricken. Most of all, I behold the Christ spirit in the people who are coming from other countries to set up hospitals for the wounded and to reconstruct the homes and buildings that have been destroyed.

God doesn't make bad things happen. Sometimes (often) people make terrible things happen. And sometimes it's just Nature. We are spiritual beings in human bodies and we are subject to the workings of our planet. What is a disaster for many is also an opportunity for many to reach out with kindness and tenderness to our fellows.

In this photo, Bea is the watcher and Monkey and Paco are her children. She is only a little child now, but already she is conscious of a world bigger than her home, bigger than her yard, even bigger than her city. I pray for her that she will be a generous and loving woman, and that she will be God when there is help to be given to others. And I pray, too, that she will be forever under the protection of the Universe, where the Mystery dwells.

Here is a photo of Bea with her cat Tutu. Tutu used to be named Chloe, but after Bea came along and started calling her Tutu, now we all call her Tutu. And she couldn't care less.

I have to admit that all the women in our family are pretty commanding. If you were being held hostage in a foreign land, with a knife at your throat, no sight would be prettier to your desperate eyes than the women of our family coming to your rescue.

We are simply tough and determined.

Recently an old friend said to me, you are too independent to tolerate a husband. Tolerate a husband?

Is that what I'm supposed to do?

Surely not!

A husband is someone to cherish. I have, in my lifetime, cherished not only husbands, but several lovers and boyfriends. I have cooked for them, done their laundry, paid their bills, remembered their family's birthdays and treated them with all the tenderness I could muster.

However, I have never tolerated any of them, and perhaps that is my failing.

This is a new year, and I believe that it is going to be a great one. I believe that all of us are going to move forward in our lives, and if we've been stuck in a rut since last Fall, we're going to break free and strike out in a new direction. I have never been afraid to reinvent myself, nor have I quailed at seeing my daughters reinvent themselves. Sometimes it's necessary and lifesaving to just pull up your roots and plant them in healthier ground.

I pray for my children and I pray for my country. We haven't always lived up to our own standards. We have gone astray (or ganged agley, if you're Scottish) and we have self-corrected and started over. This is a good a time as any to do it again. Forward!

Even the dinosaur is laughing...

This photo of my granddaughter Bea and her dad was taken on Christmas Day. You can see the happiness in their faces as Bea discovers how to make her new little train run along its 8-shaped track. Tim is holding Bea's new guitar, something she especially asked for. Just like the butterflies on her pajamas, she is an emerging spirit--growing every day in comprehension and the ability to modify the world into which she was born.

In a larger sense, we're all emerging from the ratty old cocoon of 2009 and bursting bright and new into the new decade. It's an exciting time to be alive.

It's also a huge challenge. The United States is a nation at war. We tend to forget this in the pageantry and parading of the holiday season. I complain constantly about being out of my own home dog-sitting. It really bothers me. But at least I'm not out on some desert in a tent, expecting to be blown to bits any minute.

Then there is climate change that no one's seriously addressing. We're just going on about our business and hoping that it will go away. Al Gore did his best to scare us into making some major leaps into conserving resources, but even he has been silent lately.

Finally, there is health care. The big problem as I see it is that the American Medical Association and the big insurance companies are not willing to clean up their acts. They won't change their wicked ways without being forced. The doctors are over-treating and over-medicating us, especially the older generation, because they can. We are not able to discern which medications are really necessary and which are just money-makers.

Old age is not a disease, people. Old age is perfectly natural. And we who are old are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful people with strong hearts and a lot of wisdom. We don't need to be prematurely buried by folks who don't have our best interests at heart. We don't need even to pay attention to our children when they tell us we are repeating ourselves. Repeating ourselves. Repeating.....