fall on the fens

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Oct 2014 fall walk web-9

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."  Nathaniel Hawthorne here

The quote caught my eye but now I want the journals.  Speaking of which I am going back through this one and finishing up this.  Years and years and years that last one has taken me but I feel like I have digested it in chunks and each next section hits me at a certain point in life, no doubt the very right point at which to read it. I was drawn to finish this last section after recent discussions about end of life laws and suffering in general. The accounts of Louis Martin's last years came to mind during these talks and I am revisiting his final trials now.  

Anyway, today found us discussing Ghandi and hence, Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King. (maybe tomorrow we will just discuss fashion or latte or something but you know, probably not)  Can you guess why?  The increasing inability to disagree with others and the tendency towards coercion that seems to be rampant everywhere I turn lately. Lawsuits, slander.  Gah.  After reading a comment on an article that insisted, "It's ok to hate a bigot,"  I realized our current teens missed the first round discussion years ago about how to oppose civilly. That it is ok and sometimes necessary to challenge a wrong position but it is never ok to hate anyone, no matter how terrible their actions may be.  Digging up some examples of what that looks like in history. Much of this they smile and nod over and it no doubt goes over their heads but I pray they leave our home with this message firmly planted in their hearts.  We hate the sin, and we oppose wrong always,  but we love the sinner – because we are that too. Respect is not just for the few. 

What else?  I read part of Beowulf aloud to Moira for her lit class and became fascinated and inspired.  Tutored some Spanish, which is funny because I don't actually speak Spanish.  What they say about the Romance languages seems to be true though.  Somehow it's clicking after dabbling in French and latin.

We made birthday cupcakes.  That was enough though since Moira and I are catching a cold so husband brought home pizza.  Abbie practiced a song she wrote for the piano.  Moira put the letters on the keys with washi tape so now Abbie is bent on writing songs as a series of letters and then replaying them.  

And the Aga is on.  ahhhhhhhh.  It is so very nice to be warm at night.  I will never again read Dickens nor any other British author describe the cold months without a slight shiver. There is something especially chilly about an English autumn and winter though the thermometer teases and assures that it isn't as cold as many other places.  Damp I guess. 

Daytimes are still lovely and crisp though.  These are from a walk on a new trail locally. 

 

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nasoni di Roma

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Oct 2014 rome nasoni web-2

So what's a boy to do when it's 80something in Rome and the water's run out? Well one's mind immediately turns to these….

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and these….

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What are they?  They are nasoni, a slang word for the public fountains all over Rome, which turned out to be more than decorative.

 Yes I see that green stuff.  But for realz, we saw a lot of people doing this….

 

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Even the dogs were in on it.  The dog on the right was playing with his owner at the dog park which is off left and down two stories.  The guy sent him up for a drink and he knew just where to go. 

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So yeah, I caved which is really huge for me.  I can handle a lot of mess in my own home but get REALLY weirded out by other people's germs as a rule.  It turns out though that the water is safe, potable and just a courtesy of the city for the past 2000 yrs. You can even pick up a map plotting out all the nasoni in the city center. Which is way better than paying four euro for a bottle of water.  Kid you not.  

When in Rome….

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walking through Rome and other miscellany

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This is the self-guided tour since it's super late here.  After nearly two months of away from the house activities we are bringing our focus back to home.  We have one child who recently arrived on the continent and another who recently left for a short time.  Homecoming weekend took all our energy for the past week and now we are winding up the fall sports season.  Home stretch!  

Home.  It's definition is ever expanding and contracting.   : )

While my energy is there right now I am stealing a few moments to walk through Rome before hitting the hay. Hoping to just keep bringing bits of my random comings and goings to this space as I can for whomever may be out there wandering along. 

 

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Apartment in Rome

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I love seeing how other people live around the world so in that spirit I caught a few pictures of the flat we rented in Rome to share with you.  The white walls were so nice.  The white sofa….less nice.  I think I am officially over my white slipcover obsession.  Ok not really but they'd need daily washing in my world and I AM over that. 

It was a wonderful sunny bright space.  Definitely Euro-sized but fabulous for our needs. 

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(elevator going down past the window and from the front, entering)

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a room with a view

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Oct 2014 rome window web

We have been in Rome and my camera card and my brain are both completely full up at the moment.  Such a different world.  Maybe that is a continuing thread weaving through my life right now. 

There was a discussion I overheard recently about population – over population specifically.  Two individuals were debating the data, one completely certain that space and resources were nearly gone and the other that vast open spaces still existed and that people were being paid to leave fields lie fallow or to dump harvests to boost markets.  It turned out that one of them lived in one of the world's most populated cities and did not see even a patch of grass from his apartment.  The other looked out onto the open prairie. 

Perspective.  

They were both right, in speaking about their own realities, but could not speak well to each other's.  This is the irony of living I guess, the challenge of it.  How do we come together and see out of another's window? To look at things from a different angle.  To incorporate that perspective into our framework of truth.  This is my personal challenge right now. To hear more, care more, and speak less. To focus less on being right and focus more on being there. 

I will come up short.  Guaranteed.  Still, I left Rome certain about embracing some Franciscan ideals:  To watch thoughtfully enough to actually see.  To listen for the things that aren't said.  

 

give me a simple heart

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"Give me a simple heart which will not retire within itself to savor its own sorrows, a heart magnanimous in giving itself, easily moved to compassion, a faithful, generous heart, which does not forget any favor received, nor hold resentment for any injuries done to it.  Make my heart meek and humble, quick to forgive and capable of bearing tranquilly all opposition, a heart which will love without expecting love in return, content to vanish in the hearts of others, sacrificing itself before the heavenly  Father, a great and indomitable heart, that no ingratitude can close." 

Leonce de Grandmasin, SJ 

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Happy Sunday

the best remedy

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“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”   Anne Frank

  

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 Go outside.  Get your feet wet. All is as it should be. : ) 

the cusp

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“Each golden day was cherished to the full, for one had the feeling that each must be the last. Tomorrow it would be winter.”  - Elizabeth Enright

 

It's that.  And it's more than that. This changing season feels more than just a turn of the weather sometimes.  

I spent this whole day at home. It was the first in many, many days although the journeys out have been wonderful.  There has been lots of listening lately.  Old friends, new friends, passing acquaintance, sweet children making big lives.  Whispered wishes, tentative plans, bitter regrets all mingling and mixing and floating in the air.  By days' end sometimes you need to just let all those words settle down into your heart, rather than stirring them up.  So it's been quiet over here in this space. 

We went to a house party a few days back and I found myself between a former Russian actress and her Irish husband.  He told me stories about working as a UN aid worker, being taken captive in Beirut years ago, about how that thing where they put a gun to your head and they shoot and it turns out to be a blank and you're still alive?  How that happens for real.   

The actress?  Oh my.  At 68, she has outlived two husbands and still has the energy of a teenager.   She lit up the room with her tales, each more improbable than the last and all likely true.  Then she demanded to know everyone's birthdates being, among a dozen other things, an armchair astrologer.  She came to mine, looked me in the eye and said in her thick accent ahh, so you're on the cusp.  

I do not follow the stars for my fate but yes, she was onto one thing for sure.  The cusp. The point of transition between two different states, Webster says.  I am trusting it is, as always, the verge of good. That the seasons of our lives are marching along in their intended order. That it's all just a change in the type of beautiful. 

That these are golden days and should be cherished to the full.