Sylvia's Journal

The cove this morning is no more than a puddle. I could have walked out into the middle to see whether the mussels are still there. This is always a surprise after a stormy winter. But there is a red tide warning out and even if I were to find mussels we could not eat them. So I might as well not know they are there.

I biked to Quaker Meeting yesterday, in between showers, and meditated on the topic of courage, leadings, openings and exits. Afghanistan is definitely a leading for me, an opening, not an exit. And so I shared it with my fellow Friends. If I go, they will hold me in the Light. I biked back with a light heart, evermore committed. I realize that I may not get the job if other more qualified people apply and I am committed to that outcome as well.

Axel put Tessa and Steve to work on getting the cellar, attic and porch ready for summer – it’s a big job that requires many arms and some heavy lifting. We were glad to have them around. In one day they completed chores that might have taken us weeks.

I focused on the gardening tasks. After planting the remaining vegetables (garlic, squash, broccoli, tomatillos) and digging up the last stray potatoes we drove to the cemetery to complete the annual ritual of getting the ancestors ready for Memorial Day. We do this with vodka: a thank you and a toast to their legacy, a few sips, followed by a sprinkling of the headstones (only of those who wouldn’t have declined a glass of vodka) with the holy water. On Penny and Herm’ headstone the liquid formed a map of Africa.

At the end of a the day we received a phone call from a tired and bored Sita waiting at JFK for the last (delayed) leg of her trip home from Jordan where she wants to buy a farm. We are glad she is safely back home and as enchanted with the Middle East as we are.

We dined at the house of our friends Gary and Christine and met Louise from Quebec who is a psychologist working with First Nations clients. We compared our work as psychologists in cultures that are not our own and found we had many things and interests in common. The only big difference between her work and mine is that she is paid by her clients, like the Cree or Iroquois, and directly accountable to them while I am accountable to the US government AND the government of the country I work in. Those agendas don’t always match. Third party consulting is my reality, a complex one, that is often unimaginable to people consulting in the private (for profit) sector.