This is our place. You sit with your back to the tree I love, and I think:
“You planted that tree.”
The seasons turn, right outside the window of our place.
Before I loved that tree, I wondered of it: how do you change, so effortlessly, and with grace?
Then, I came to love that tree: I love that tree and that tree loves me.
You gave a gift the day you planted that tree by our place. You didn’t know then, don’t know now:
you planted that tree, and I love that tree and that tree loves me
And right here, right where that tree loves – love simmers here, too.
Well Mary Ellen Bahlert, what kind of tree is that? Is it a birch? Who planted it? Did you and Jeff plant it? Now you’ve gotten me very curious about that tree. 🤔
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Mary Elyn — I kept this WisdomYears email in order to tell you how richly, deeply, intimately beautiful it is! Love for a specific tree, love for partner, honoring decades of unfolding Grace in multiple dimensions, WOW! And thought I’d also write to follow up on our previous truncated mtg. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. BTW, Burgy Baby and I did manage to get all the way to Lodi Honda after having tire refilled both in Stkton and then again in Brentwood, and they removed the nail and patched the tire at Lodi Honda. So…
At present I’m waiting to learn whether or not I will have to move. Had expected to downsize from this spacious apt to a 1-BR (for more money and uncertain when) here in the Villa de la Paix complex, BUT… God bless the State of California… SB567 which became effective April 1 may make possible a different outcome. I’m talking to folks at Fair Housing (who were very aware of the bill but unclear about how the options would specifically unfold) this week to see what Hilda has learned. Of course, I’d like to stay in this apt which hz bn such a blessing, but… will speak with Hilda again this week — she’d requested several days+ to get more info. Meanwhile, another friend sent me $1,000 for moving expenses (before I learned about SB567 and possibility of not moving at all). and I’ve been saving money like mad to cover/prepare/anticipate the relocation and appreciable rent increase. Look forward to a sit-down catch-up with you this month, hopefully,… or certainly May!!! Doing several things at Central — Worship Comm (Central has NEVER had a Worship Planning Team and seldom even an effective, ongoing Worship Comm), Adult Education (just concluded Adam Hamilton’s DOUBT; Hamilton’s more mainstream than most of us on the team, but he is so compassionate and inviting engagement that we had wonderful class conversations. Yesterday I wound up doing the keyboard accompanying when Monica, the regular, got detained. Kept intending to tell musical folks I could always fill in, but hadn’t so just stepped up/in when Sungho hd returned from hz office w/ hz violin in order to give hymn support. (I’d witnessed that along w/ Hyesung at keyboard for Xmas carols and wanted to avoid repetition.) So… now they know. Lots to share about Central: Overall things not going well, I’d say, but we shall see. Very glad to be a part of the community. Heard this morning there were 3 shootings (homicides?) in Stkton this weekend! But I am still grateful to be here.
Stories on the Fabulous Feral Flea-Bag Female I feed twice daily in the patio. Her name is… TUX. You can guess what she looks like. So different from BLESSING of 3-4 years ago, also feral (as far as we knew her History), who behaved as fully domesticated and could be handled without skittishness. BLESSING got run over by a car… another short story. In addition to TUX, there is TOM-BULLY, a feral male (Maine coon cat, I think) who is receptive (well, that’s too positive a word) to being petted while eating out of your hand, but uninterested in such tactile intimacy at any other time. I love insulting him verbally along with asking him how he’s doing, etc, having grown very fond of him over the past few years. In this spring season of caterwauling females (much less this year — bet it’s the workmen and renovation going on?) I occasionally ask him on the mornings he shows up if he’s been out whoring and hz impregnated any females the previous night — he never replies vocally, but often throws me one of those sizing-up-humans looks that cats are such masters of. More later…
I’ll offer get-together options when I get more specifics on moving. If I can now stay here without renovation and paying another $500/mo, then I can move forward with a number of things, including visiting with you.
Blessings Abound, Mary Elyn,Alexis
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