Bittersweet

Life on Planet Earth is bittersweet these days, is it not? Some people are hungry, others have lost their freedom, not to mention how many people are being exterminated in Ukraine, all for the ego of one monstrous man.

Yet in spite of all these things, adversity makes people grateful for what they have. The Ukrainian people are to be marveled at as they rise each day to see yet more destruction and evil. They help each other and love each other in the face of a cold and harsh winter. The grief must be palpable and yet the love rises above it.

Here in America, autocracy is keen on edging democracy out, but it has ever been thus. Man is both good and evil and there is no such thing as stasis. It remains to be seen whether freedom will prevail or not.

My son and I are fighting a virus. That is such a small thing relative to the whole. We are a tiny family and sometimes we get at cross-purposes with each other, as all families do. The sorrow we carry seasons the stew of everyday life. Tonight Rob fixed a beef recipe in the Instant Pot. It had both fat and lean and we could use a bit of both.

Tonight I will watch 60 Minutes and work crossword puzzles. I run through them so quickly, but they keep my mind occupied.

I used to study truth compulsively and constantly, but those days are no more. Now I see more clearly that I am always on the brink of sleep and the battle is to remember myself, as Gurdjieff used to say.

We are forgiven as long as we have contrition. Without that, we are just brainless heartless automatons. And who wants to be like that!

So I shall sign off now and retire to the great room until it is time for bed.

Love,
Vicki