day's end

Low overcast and noisy surf action below. Still dark, at 7H porch rail windy Thursday morning. Weather radar shows rain in the Gulf of Mexico, coming this way. 

Tentatively, one commitment today so far.

An issue of aging: to be taken seriously regarding personal concerns. Correction, not concerns, which sounds like worries yet isn’t, but ordinary things about advancing life. Not to hear such as “oh, we don’t want to talk about that” if what’s on mind is dying and death, or “oh, we all die, that’s true for all of us.” In the past couple weeks, as priest, pastor, neighbor and friend, I officiated three funerals. This week a friend and onetime parishioner whom Linda looks after was checked out at hospital for strange symptoms and found to have in a lung, a “large mass” that spreads to the adrenal gland. Even pastoring can be quite personal and though my health is decent, I’m self-aware and at this age it’s somewhat like the tide coming in. Absolutely not to say worry or concern, but facts of life that Time catches up with. So, if a relative, loved one or friend wants (needs) to talk about end of life, death and dying, don’t toss it off with σκύβαλον trash such as, “Oh well, we all die, that happens to everyone.” Play it like a man and have the guts to engage.

Thursday is dawning, but so hazily that I can’t see Shell Island from here.

DThos+