It has taken me 24 hours to write about what a wonderful day I had yesterday. Two major visits on the same day and I still felt up for going to the hairdresser today. That is progress.
Jeremy Simons stopped by yesterday
afternoon to talk with me about the role of New Church women in the
ministry. It was so stimulating. He brought several pamphlets by for me to
look over and we shared how we see the current discussion going on around this
issue.
After he left, I remembered a couple years
ago when Gay Pendleton had dropped by and the two of us
were discussing women seeking a recognized role within the General Church
ministry. Gay asked Elsa what she
thought and she answered, "Nature hates a vacuum." I did not understand what she meant at first,
but Gay got it right off the bat.
I think there is nothing so beautiful as
men taking a strong masculine role and women taking a strong feminine role, the
two beautifully fulfilling each other in different ways but on the same
plane. I think of Pete and how much delight
he took in building a secure foundation for his family. We did not have a lot - for many years we
were comparatively poor, poor within a
wealthy town - but we never went hungry and always had a roof over our heads. We did that together.
I took the greatest delight in being a wife
and mother; I like to think that Pete
felt the same about being a husband and father.
It was heaven on earth.
Unfortunately, these are not ideal days
when it comes to the concept of conjugial - or true marriage -
love. Men and women TOGETHER are to
safeguard that priceless pearl, conjugial love. Women cannot be held responsible for the
confusion about gender roles or the breakdown of marriage. That is a 2-way street.
My goodness, this has nothing to do with
what Jeremy and I discussed, just shows that his visit got my little grey cells
sitting up and taking notice. What we
said was private to us, although I am delighted to say how uplifted I was by
the clearness of his thought and opinions.
Jeremy, please drop by again!
Jeremy stopped by in the afternoon. In the evening, Elsa was going to take a
young friend of hers off to Barnes & Noble to discuss the young lady's
upcoming wedding. A couple days ago, she
got the great idea of having Jessica come to our house for supper, so I could
get in a visit. Then that snowballed
into Darryl coming too, when his baseball game was rained out and he was left
high and dry with nothing to do. It
still amazes me that I was not too bushed from the stimulating afternoon to do
justice to their visit.
Jessica and Darryl are getting married next
June and Jessica asked Elsa to help with baking goodies for the reception. Well, I do not think there is anything that
Elsa loves more than helping out with a wedding. She becomes a sort of
"Adopt-an-Aunt".
Am smiling, remembering the fun she had
helping Stella Rose with her wedding and helping Rebekah Darkwah with hers and
Aline Cooper with hers and the incredible time she had last year helping out
with Shada Rabone's wedding.
There were so many things that I loved
about Darryl and Jessica's visit. They have
such an ease with each other, they seem like good friends. It was lovely to see how they batted back and
forth ideas about the wedding.
I liked hearing them talk about their
circle of friends, which includes some young people (or their parents) who dear
to my heart - Mike and Stella, Aline and Jeff,
Doug and Carla, among others. It
makes me smile thinking that if Scott and Kimberly were here, they might be
part of that same circle of friends.
Scott was Mike's best man, Mike would have been Scott's if he could have
gotten down to Australia, and Mike is Darryl's.
A lovely connection of sorts to a couple who are too far away.
We talked about so many things - Jessica's
teaching position in Toronto, Darryl working on his degree in architecture,
their families, the discussions taking place within the church, friends and
friendship, and glimmerings of what they might be considering for their
wedding, and lots of other things that I am too tired to recall.
I enjoyed their visit very much. I
would like to keep track of them. I do
hope I can go to their wedding. If I am
not there in presence, I am sure I will be in spirit.
It was a wonderful Wednesday. I am so pleased that I had the get up and go
to fully enjoy both visits. I feel like
I am getting stronger every day.
Who'd a thunk it?
Love to you all, a tired - but well-coiffed
- Grammie
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