To Everything There is a Season

Domani, Tomorrow so many things happen, it will be one month since my knee injury and it is not 100%, damn, it is also the day my daughter arrives from Seattle, and it is the first day of the weeks of house blessings leading up to Easter here in Piegaro. My lovely friend Maria brought the itinerary of the streets and/or houses the priest, Don Augusto will be visiting 4 days a week until Easter, it was sad to note that my home will be blessed the day after Katy leaves. But an interesting turn of fate happened so that we could attend the house blessing of my friend Maria, the first death of a person I knew happened and the funeral was today, today was to be the start of the house blessings and I was to be in Florence at the time of Maria’s blessing. To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

The person who passed away was an interesting man of great knowledge who I would talk philosophy with, and when I was looking for an apartment was quick to step forward with an offer of his second home. It would have been nice, but it was another first, the first cheap apartment I ever turned down, because there was more than money asked for in the price of rent. My philosopher friend turned into an aquaintence immediately, pity. If I had moved into the apartment I might now be swiftly looking for another place, while my daughter is here upon his death. To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

My philosopher friend would be counted as my first step toward boldly saying NO when a man acted inappropriately in a rapid fashion. My normal pattern had been to freeze, panic, and take way too much time, effort and fear for my own good. But with a few good friends here, this area of learning during my sabbatical has been taking place. This is a time for healing and recovery that I sorely needed, and God has brought me good friends to guide and support here. Women of multiple generations. Women who would understand that I had more reason to laugh at irony than cry at death this week. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.

This interesting man is to be missed, he had a quick mind and an easy manner that were endearing values that I honor, respect and will mourn. But as all of us, he had human frailties and hurt or offended people without knowing. I can laugh at the irony of time, I can rejoice at newfound strength that began with him, and I can be sad for his son who I know and other family members who are in mourning. Each life, each death is ripe with a depth of meaning that no one of us can ever comprehend, for no individual ever fully knows the life of another. And yet we are all created in the image of God, we all have free will and sometimes fall short of graceful actions, and we all touch people in many ways. The wonder in this world is how God can use us in life and death to bring forth a myriad of thoughts and emotions and remind us that the lives of others do touch and influence us, even the lives of acquaintances…and that we should remember that whenever we encounter another, as friend, acquaintance but mostly as a fellow child of God. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.

How have seemingly minor characters in your life touched you profoundly?
Have you ever realized that some little simple action on your part effected another person?
How do you allow all moments in your life, even the darkest, to inform how you move forward with grace and kindness?

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8