It's crisp and cold tonight. Wouldn't want to be out there too long ... except to gaze longer at the perfect night sky. There are fewer and fewer these days who would appreciate this night's heavens with me. I hope one of them is safe and sound, and resting a much-needed rest.
***
WHAT GIRLFRIENDS ARE FOR . . .
Girlfriends are for lots of things. But girlfriends are especially for being really good at sympathizing completely with you about an ache; threatening to beat up the one who caused the ache; reiterating that no matter what, they are on your side first before being on anyone else's side; rolling their eyes at appropriate moments when you're telling your story; nodding vigorously when you need them to affirm a course of action; and finally, knocking some good old sense into you after all the griping is finished.
***
GERIATRIC COMMUNITY . . .
We have become a community that finds delicious joy in:
- - drinking coffee or tea
- talking about aches, pains and sales at the grocery store
- playing intense rounds of Scrabble
- playing noisy rounds of mah-jong
- making dinner for each other because ordering in is just too expensive
We would be utterly happy and content in a nursing home.
***
UNKNOWN LONGING . . .
Human Bob put it this way: if you stretch the analogy, our life these days is sort of like "The Manchurian Candidate," where brainwashed former soldiers start having flashbacks and similar dreams and can't identify the source at first. He and I (and probably others) are feeling an unknown longing, a strong feeling that is difficult to describe, for Kremenchuk and the friends we left there. It's not a feeling that can be easily chalked up to good memories of good times, and then shelved. Mabel asked me today who received the most from our trip, and I couldn't give her one name because I could see ways in which each person received the maximum that they could have from the pool of the grace of God. And as I catalogued my observances and intuitions, I realized that I had received the understanding of how important my new friends are to me, and how I might have to obey God's call to go and be with them someday, here on earth. Massive. What a fulfillment of longing that would be.
We had a huge round of introductions the evening of our first full day with NHC, Wednesday, January 3rd. Then we herded ourselves over into the main hall of the Palace of Culture (essentially the local community center) to take this group photograph. It is as if my family tree exploded.
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