I Love You Too

The love of friends is a great gift. Yesterday was one of preparation for dinner guests.  It included some tree trimming, some candle lighting in which we discovered that the fuel in our lighter was all used up. HWMO used his blow torch to light the grill. It sounded like overkill, but worked. We are a good team in the house and in the kitchen.  Of course we cooked.

Last night we had two couples over; the guys all worked together in the architectural/engineering firm for over 20 years.  They enjoy each others company.  They all worked in" sludge," they sometimes jokingly say, environmental engineers...in other words they kept the drinking water clean and set up large and small waste-water treatment plants for towns and cities in the Midwest including our own Omaha.

We visited about the wonderful Jewish wedding ten years ago.  The discussions we wives have are  from the viewpoints of three decades.  What wisdom we draw from that.  We talk about everything, our aging husbands, our own expectations, and determine that there is more stereotyping and little that is normal. I treasure our diversity.  Each of us live lives of quiet desperation over our particular situations.

It is heartwarming to be with friends, especially friends of such faith and love.  We are three Catholics, two Lutherans and one who is celebrating Hanukkah this week.  Our table graces include a blessing in Hebrew with the salted bread, the lovely Catholic blessing said by the three in unison, and instead of my prayer, I read from Jeremiah, " I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."  ..."This is a very fundamental truth of your identity.  This is who you are whether you feel it or not.  You belong to God from eternity to eternity.  Life is just a little opportunity for us during a few years to say, "I love you, too." Henri Nouwen

It is a wondrous time of the year.