Sylvia's Journal

The only thing I remember from my dreams was about text aligning, endless pages, in Times New Roman even though I wanted Arial. There were no memorable feelings attached and it wasn’t important. Today I will put those documents I have been working on to bed, hopefully, for awhile.

I found a message in my email from one of our participants in a virtual program we did with Iraqi doctors. He invited me to his Facebook page. Imagine that! I had resisted joining Facebook until now but that email compelled me to sign up. If he can do it, and feel sufficiently safe, why not? The force towards removal of boundaries continues relentlessly and this seems another sign that it is unstoppable, even by the evil people (you-know-who) our president is combating so valiantly

Some time ago I had set up a lunch with two women, Susana and Sandra, who both teach about moral leadership; one does it from the ivory tower of Harvard, to the elite and the well off, while the other does it in small villages in Nicaragua, Guinea and Peru. It seemed a good idea to bring these two women together. It meant that I would not have the entire Friday to focus on work but it was the only day that worked for all of us, and, being the connector I am, it fell in the realm of worthy causes. I got into my car and drove to Cambridge where I only found Susana who is my colleague and with whom I could have had lunch any day, not requiring the sacrifice of my precious work-at-home day. At first I was annoyed about Sandra not showing up but then remembered something that Joan used to say a lot, we plan, and God laughs. Not only did I have a wonderful lunch with Susana, I also decided to forget about the work planned for the afternoon and join Axel, Tessa and Steve at the Institute for Contemporary Art in its new home at the Boston waterfront. We had a great time. Of course I had to make up for this indulgence later at home, but it was worth every minute of it.

Tessa went off to celebrate her best friend’s 30^th birthday, at a surprise party and the main reason for her quick visit to Manchester, while Steve waited for Roy (his buddy who made the tiny ramp into my sickroom some 8 months ago) and then left to see friends in Everett, taking dog Chicha along.

London and sleeps, with her Jim, across the driveway, while Tessa, Steve, Chicha, Axel and Roy are sleeping upstairs. All is peaceful, even the storm of yesterday has gone. I think I’ll start a fire and curl up with a book.