Ramadan 2003: Day #13

Day 13: November 8, 2003
My parents went away this weekend to a Marriage Encounter—a guided retreat meant to emphasize, revitalize, and bring about greater focus to spouses both old and new. It was thus an ideal time for me to also reflect upon the nature of paired relationships: family and friends, work and home, here and there…

• Today in New York a friend goes to be with another half of another life of another pair, as my sister-in-law in NYC is living out of a relationship that is pairing away and another packs for Berlin.
• Today we visit the other half of our local friends, whom we haven’t seen in a year. One’s other half is halfway around the world in China. They have an uncertain wedding date set for Feb. 14th 2003.
• Eileen and I go shopping for another half on its way to whole, who plan to wed One-One/Two-Two of this year.
• My sister calls me in the afternoon and tells me that someone from the Marriage Encounter called. They want the children of our family to write “love notes” to my parents as part of a closing ritual to end the weekend retreat mass.
• My brother sends me an email sharing similar information, but also to remind me that we THREE, The father, son and, son were working on a three-part poem, which my father had begun. I was to write the ending, while my brother…is still in the middle.
• Psalm 50, were the words I was searching for to close yesterday’s sunset. “The Mighty One/ God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.” Interestingly enough, the Psalm is referenced in Chapter III of The Writings of St. Francis. The topic: The Divine Office and Fasting.