Days for Reflection

I opened up my e-mail this morning and there was a request from a Dog Rescue Service for an old and grey fella ... looks mostly Beagle. Listed as a Senior. He's lying in wraparound position that so many dogs assume ... Is it the foetal position for dogs? Head on Tail. Sad eyes. What can he be remembering? I wonder.

Today is a Day for Remembering. So much, indeed, to remember. Met a number of older men ... my generation ... in the past few weeks ... bathed in memories of the past or bounded by them. So much depends on the position from which one views .... I guess that's perspective ... or something like that.

Similar to the preponderance of Fourth Quarter denizens, I am an orphan. I remember my religious parents praying to their God .... meditating ... eating ... meditating, still some more. My memory, need I add, is not of them but of my meditations and reflections on them. I don't rightly know if my parents were devout in their beliefs or skeptics. I remember them shopping and cooking much of the days before their Holy Days. M and I shopped and, this year, she cooked a great deal. By the time of a family gathering around the tablee, M was tired. I had been with visitors almost the entire day and had barely time to make a fruity green juice for the co-celebrants.

A lot of spinach and some red kale
2 oranges
2 lemons
2 apples
Celery ... maybe 4 or 5 stalks
A fat cucumber
A green pepper
A Big chunk of Ginger

I served it, last night, in a pitcher with a big stalk of celery to keep it mixed.

Only 2/3rds of my spawn and theirs were in attendance. By the time one reaches the Last Quarter, the magical slight of hand that has one believing that one has produced a new generation free of strife has been tempered by the light of too many days to count. Let's see. The Fourth Quarter begins after 31,000 sunrises and sunsets have been witnessed. The Sun Also Rises ... The Sun Also Sets.

The meal was joyously followed by a vigorous game of after dinner basketball in which napkins are smooshed up to find airborne pathways ... trajectories ... in an attempt to "sink one" in a water glass across or on the furthest side of the table. That doesn't sound "reflective" but I have a feeling that it is.

"Worship God with Glee and Awe."

My Mom and Dad had a sense of humor ... at least between them. So, do M and I. It's very good to meditate while hearing both the pratter and laughter of grandchildren. A teenager ... two tweens ... and the Big Time Cute 4 year old baby-of-the-cousins.

Mah Tovu! How good are your tents and dwelling places, O Jacob!

In my faith tradition, the word for prayer is in the reflexive voice and means roughly "to wonder at oneself."

How blessed are the tents and the dwelling place of  M & H .... Praised Be!

Gibran wrote of Tears and Laughter ... apparently in that order.