Bloggerlife.blog

08/09/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Saturday’s summary

This morning Enya is playing. Her music generally makes me feel peaceful and grateful, but today I am more subdued and reflective. It has been a busy Summer and the fact that we are into August already makes me think of how fast time flies at this age. I have adopted an attitude towards time that I heard Kathleen Madigan describe when talking about her parents in their 80’s. Her mother once told her that she and her contemporaries “have a different relationship with time at this age.” I get that. These days I can’t quite place happenings where they belong – I don’t usually know if something happened a year ago or 3 years ago. I’m lucky to remember that something happened at all.

It has been quite a Summer. Barely two weeks ago my cousin Sarah died quickly and unexpectedly. The only bright spot in that was my quick trip to Indiana for a celebration of her life and a reconnection with family. Less than two weeks ago my friend Mary was in a serious vehicle accident. Thankfully her injuries are not as severe as they might have been given that it was a five vehicle accident that closed an interstate highway for at least an hour. This last week my grandsons’ parents celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary. I was taken back to that magical time in Bermuda when I watched my first born get married against the backdrop of a very blue ocean. In June, my youngest turned 40 and now my children are 40-somethings. 

Less than a month ago I traveled for a long weekend with Katie at her sweet apartment in Baltimore. We spent one morning working to catalogue Kemet’s paintings and made some trips down memory lane. Kemet has been gone for 19 years, another trick of time. This month, on August 19, Jan and I will have made our first acquaintance twenty years ago in 2005 at the Starbucks at Lindbergh and Hwy 64. On July 22 we marked 19 years since we had our commitment ceremony at Trinity Episcopal Church in the Central West End. That was a lovely ceremony conducted by our brave minister in a time when gay anything was quite a hot topic in the Episcopal world.

Today I’m perched on the threshold of a new ministry. A couple of Sundays ago I gave a talk during service at my church about starting a prayer ministry. My minister and I have met a couple of times to consider this new endeavor and the talk was designed to inform the congregation of the possibilities that this new ministry contains. I have gotten messages that this is something that would contribute to the greater good. Two people have expressed an interest in being a part of this.

While I was at Katie’s we did card readings using “Sacred Rebel” Oracle cards. Each card carries a message, spelled out in a little companion book. Every card I drew mentioned the dawn of a new activity for me, and we decided it had to be about the prayer ministry. In the last two weeks I have drawn the same card twice. The title of the card is “Collaborative Dreaming”. Here is a part of what that card means: “You are being asked to honour your growing desire to co-create with conscious, like-minded people.  Your collaborative dreaming is a heart inspired win-win, bringing mutual enhancement to you and others…working with others creatively is a way to allow the heart to grow.” I am sure this has to do with the proposed prayer ministry. 

Finally, last week I met with a close friend. The purpose was for me to “give away” my 12 Step inventory in the form of a “Fifth Step” encounter. This came from work I have done on a Fourth Step, the one that says “We made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves”, followed by the Fifth Step, “We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”. It was a collection of character flaws that need correcting at the very least and require an amends at most. It is a somewhat painful, yet very cleansing, thing to do. My friend kindly gave me her thoughts. I left her house feeling a lot lighter.

I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of my slightly sober, solemn self this morning. My conclusion is that when life happens it’s good to pay attention to the lessons it brings.