Before all the happenings of this week, Mom (and Anne, and Kirsten, and Jean Paul Sartre) had invited us to this conversation. So, from Mom's emailed journal entry, with her permission:
Whole bunch of blessings to report, and I've just gotten as far as the hymnal this morning. Anne's blog yesterday, on the Sartre phrase which she gifted to Kirsten for her dorm room, "Hell is other people", we struggle to understand. For one thing, that came on the very day - yesterday - when I knew that "HEAVEN was other people." I was so profoundly blest by the folks I delivered meals to. Several long visits - Jeanette, Lolly, Alan. Dick, at breakfast, surmised that maybe it means "other people are judgment." (They words they say or refrain from saying?) I know existentialism has something to do with "you are how you act". Where words come into that I don't know. We are a family exulting in the joy, the power, the flavor, the turn, of WORDS. And then I happen upon a delightful hymn, "As Rain from the Clouds". (It's raining - lightning and thundering - right now, awesome, breathtaking to watch by our deck window.)
"As rain from the clouds will your WORD come to earth, as snow from the heavens refreshing the land.." (and we thought it was a terrible winter!).. "then soften our soil that the good seed may grow, and ripen rich fruit to return to your hand. We praise you, our God, for the dew (vs. 2 the seed, vs. 3 the light) of your WORD; we thank you, good gardn'er for your tender toil. We bless you, best farmer, for hundredfold yield, for harvest of grace in our once-barren soil." Word. Word made flesh, Dwelling in us. "One little word shall triumph."
Oh yes, I'm confused. Need more study. But already feel so rich. Besides that, leg is healing, I walk almost normally.
Oh! Psalm 105:1 "Give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make know his DEEDS among the peoples!... Talk of all His wondrous works!" There's more - verse 8, "He remembers His covenant forever, the WORD which He commanded for a 1000 generations." And then today's Proverb, 4: 20-22 "My son, give attention to my WORDS; . . for they are life to those who find them."
Since journalling is largely stream-of-consciousness, you get what you get. But I look forward to dialogue for my untutored mind. Love you all, Mom
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