She is a wreck of her former self, a virtual prisoner of her limited mobility in the home into which she moved over a half century ago. But when I ask her how she is doing, she answers, "Fine!" Given her health and mobility problems, and her fear that she is "losing her marbles," she clings precariously to her life in her own home with ferocious determination. "Fine!"Fine for now. Just as she ends conversations with "Goodbye for now," meaning that we are parting only for now, not for the last time. And why not. Right now everything is just fine.
It reminds me of the phrase from the Sermon on the Mount, "Take no thought for the morrow. Sufficient unto this day is the evil thereof."
I guess that's how we all get through living with dying. Day by day, moment by moment. Like the fellow who jumps off a 200 story building. Someone on the 150th floor shouts," How's it going?" And he answers, "So far, so good!"
It's going fine. Life is one long rush over the edge of a cliff. The only real choice is to go for it with gusto, and see who catches you when you fall. Live in each moment, like a butterfly feasting on nectar from a purple coneflower. Echinacea to you herbalists out there.
1 comment:
Sounds like an interesting challenge. When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.
BTW, I made your site the Blog of the Week of one of my recent podcasts (one of the last two). You can find all the shows here. If you look, you will notice a show titled "Introduction to Mormonism, Part I," which might be a little different than what you've seen (or heard) before.
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