My computer died last week. I was on the road, in Fort Worth, Texas, working with the good people at Texas Health Resources. A dead computer will make you pause, whether you wanted to or not. And it’ll make you wonder why we store so much of our life in a little box.
I had wanted to write my Sabbath Moment about Valentine’s Day, but it’s not easy to find the right mood when you have a dead computer. Maybe that’s part of the lesson, that life is. . .and always will be fragile. I needed to laugh at my compulsion to make sense of it all, and just “let it be.” Or in the words of Bob Franke,
What can you do with you days
but work and hope,
let your dreams bind your work to your play.
What can you do with each moment of your life,
but love ’til you’ve loved it away,
love ’til you’ve loved it away.
And today’s a pretty good day to do that. So, after a three day computer fast (and yes there were withdrawal symptoms). I returned home on Thursday night, wanting to get to my “home” computer to see all that I had “missed.” Thankfully, the moon was full, inviting, calming, delightful and heartening. A reminder that if I stop, and pay attention, I’m not really missing anything at all.
I have a friend who jogs on the path next to Lake Washington, “for cardio vascular work,” she insists. But she spends a good part of her walk stopped, standing there, just to look at the sky and the clouds, “It’s okay,” she says, “This is so much better for my heart.” How right she is. . .
4 Comments
Hello Terry,
What happened to the part of the blog where you say: “So I took out my Mont Blanc fountain pen and wrote my thoughts about Valentine’s Day.”
I’ve always been a lover of pens. I have a dozen or so. Yesterday I was sitting in my chair and used a fountain pen to jot down a few notes. The pen reminds me where I came from (I’m 79) and helps me to resurrect some motor skills that don’t get the use they once did.
Blessings, Jim Connelly Avalon, N.J.
Actually, Jim, you’re pretty close. Made me smile. In fact, I took out my Waterman fountain pen and wrote my thoughts. The funny thing is that I still write the first draft of everything I do (book, column, blog) with my fountain pen. And then I type it into the computer. Not very time efficient. But for me, there’s something about the connection of pen to paper that releases creativity.
I like your jogging friend’s prescription of what is better for the heart. I was intending to walk the beach in Wales today. Now, I will.
Yes, David. We need to get doctors to hand out more prescriptions with just those intentions. . .and a walk on the beach in Wales sounds lovely.