RANDOM SCRAPS OF INFINITY

65 of #100daychallenge

McCoy, Nina, and Idrisse staying cool in the bathtub.

While in the depths of sweet morning sleep, Sebastian, my yardman, sent me an early text to tell me he is on his way. I staggered up and made coffee (which reminds me that my mom's coffee water is probably boiling away in the kitchen), but there is no alertness engaged anywhere. Even keeping open my eyes is a struggle. No news there.

The day flew by with no reading and no gardening besides what Sebastian did (plant the fig tree and trim the orange bougainvillea outside my studio window) and water, but I suppose that counts. I need to bear down and straighten up the house as the Domineers are coming here tomorrow for some yoga as well as playing and I haven't been doing a very good job of straightening up. After I post this, I can do a little housework after I take my meds and try to get up early tomorrow (we know how that goes).

The fireworks and strife in some of those near and dear to me continue. A significant portion of my non-Janet time was spent trying to get a helpful handle on these situations and provide help or just the counsel of listening. My niece in Utah who almost died last year and who has more health problems than are truly bearable (lupus, diabetes, prolapses uterus, cataracts, some heart condition, significant depression, and more), who cannot walk and must wear a diaper is now about to be evicted and possibly made homeless. She spent all her money on home health care and now can't pay her rent. Can you blame her for choosing clean diapers over paying rent? I am not sure how things got to such a dire place, but she wasn't speaking to me for a while.

I was able to speak to her Adult Protective Services case worker today, so perhaps working in tandem along with some other professionals and at least get her settled. A moved to Utah because as an LDS member, she thought she would have that community to fall back on and to support her. Didn't happen. Because of all her illnesses, she is reliant on pain killers (and who wouldn't be) and they seem to frown upon that  ... or at least that is what I think is going on.

So that was a large part of my day. I did have a great yoga class with H which certainly helped. I didn't even have much time to avoid life doing needlework and/or watching some series (catching up on Watchmen on HBO and not really getting it yet, although I like the steampunkiness of it.)

HYPOTHESIS

A long time ago, I think,

God scribbled this universe

Across a random scrap of infinity;

Paused midway for lack of ink,

And in the slovenly way of Divinity,

Let it go for better or worse.

Now and then

God picks it up again.

(Earth, I think, is a period

Or a semicolon’s half, or the dot

On an i. Not that it matters.)

And God

Pores for a minute or two at best

Over the dog-eared palimpsest,

And muses: “I wrote this, I know, but what

I meant it to be I’ve quite forgot.

“I’ll have to get rid of this rubbish soon.

It will make a bonfire some afternoon.”

— Ted Olson,  A Stranger and Afraid, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1928