To The Well (again)

From Thomas Merton....

"The person is defined in terms of freedom, hence in terms of responsibility also: responsibility to other persons, responsibility for other persons. To put it in concrete terms, the Christian is not only one who seeks the expansion and development of his own individuality and the satisfaction of his most legitimate natural needs but one who recognizes himself responsible for the good of others, for their own temporal fulfillment, and ultimately for their eternal salvation. Hence, the Christian person reaches maturity with the realization that each one of us is indeed his "brother's keeper," and that if men are suffering and dying in Asia or Africa, other men in Europe and America are summoned to self-judgment before the bar of conscience to see whether, in fact, some choice or neglect on their own part has had a part in this suffering and this dying, which otherwise may seem so strange and remote. For today the whole world is bound tightly together by economic, cultural and sociological ties which make us all, to some extent, responsible for what happens to others on the far side of the earth. Man is now not only a social being; his social nature transcends national and regional limits, and whether we like it or not, we must think in terms of one human family, one world."

~~Thomas Merton. Love and Living. Naomi Burton Stone and Brother Patrick Hart, editors. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979: 152-153

Ode to a Morning Alone

I love a morning alone. I haven't had one in a couple of weeks. Not one where I didn't have somewhere I had to be sometime during the morning hours. Yesterday I went to KTC and did my bookkeeping chores in the hopes that I could have alone time this morning after F went to work. The morning started off with me being woken up by the Boogies. It wasn't bad though, not like it was 5:30 a.m. or anything. They patiently waited until 7:15 to wake me.

I could have woke up F as she had to get up at 7:30 to get ready for work, but as she hadn't come to bed until 5:30 a.m., I thought I should let her have at least 2 full hours of sleep.

The dogs were good and they left me to watch TV and drink my coffee quietly. At 8:45 F walked out the door, got in her car and drove to the gate. There she found that a large tree limb had fallen across the lane blocking the road. It fell from a neighbors tree onto the lane and their pick-up truck. F came in and called her job and asked if someone would come and get her.

I went out to look at the tree and realized there was no way me, F, or even a couple of others could move the tree without it first being sawed up. That is usually done by our neighbor Wayne. As a matter of fact it was Wayne's tree branch that had fallen and it had fallen right in front of his house and onto his wife's pick-up truck. But Wayne and the little missus are away looking for a new home and job in Alabama.

I decided I would be proactive and walked down the lane to ask the assistance of A. I called to her from her driveway and she came out, beckoning me to come closer to the house. I told her the tree had fallen on R's truck and did she have Wayne's son's phone number. I know his sons have cut trees in the past. A. said that Wayne's sons could not operate powertools without supervision (they are mentally impaired, which I knew). She also told me why she and R aren't talking, what her health issues are, her frustration at trying to arrange medical appts., her husband's prostate problems, his blood sugar level of 756, the day he called 911 from his hospital bed to complain about a nurse who was trying to kill him by being inattentive, and many other things.

A. told me that if our other neighbor came home or if her son came home she would ask them to get their power saw out and clear the tree. I thanked her and went on my way. Yes, good neighbors are hard to find.

I went back to the house and got my camera. I decided to photograph the tree in case Wayne needed it for insurance purposes. So now it is 11:40 a.m., and my morning alone is passing into oblivion. I am stuck here on the property - like I needed a reason not to leave home today.

I would really have preferred to have nothing to do this morning but sit quietly, write in my journal, read my email, watch the JAG episode I've been saving all week. But then I wouldn't have photos of that to post with my blog.