When I checked my email this morning before work and opened the attachment
from a colleague, I burst into tears. My colleague Mary, with whom I
co-teach a Natural Science class, had put as the subject to the email
"Aunt Eileen."
"Aunt Eileen" was Eileen Jaqui Kuhn,
88, of Metuchen, who died on Holy Thursday at home with her family by
her side. My husband and I have lived in this corner of New Jersey since
1995 and our lives have intersected with the Kuhn family's ever since. Tonight, Easter Monday, my husband and I attended Mrs. Kuhn's wake, which gave me a
glimpse into the beauty of a life spent from start to finish within a
three-mile pocket of friends, family, work and parish.
1. Sweet Potato Knishes. Found a great recipe here.
2. This boy. Now, don't get me wrong. He is not my favorite son. He is simply, a favorite son. We just had an IEP meeting today to set up his learning plan for high school. After he left the meeting, his caseworker told me and my husband: "He is a gem. He is as good as gold."
And yes, that just about sums up how I feel about our 13-year-old. He's an athlete who also sings in the choir and plays the trumpet. He is friends with a wide range of kids. He is a hambone and he is a loyal friend. He takes his faith seriously. He is willing to work hard to succeed in school, even when the going gets tough. Plus, he makes an awesome chili. 'Nuff said.
3. This man and this book. I just finished listening to it in the car. Wonderful, well-researched and inspiring.
4. Saturday Date Nights. Now that our boys are teenagers, and well
past the need for babysitters, my husband and I have been taking
ourselves out to dinner on Saturday nights. Lovely. Here is where we
went on Saturday; he ate mussels and I ordered salmon.
5. This fascinating interview with Dean Koontz, best-selling author of supernatural suspense stories.
Three small things happened this afternoon that provoked me into thinking, yet again, about why we're gifted with time on this planet.
I woke up late, really late today. Well past noon. My husband and son are at middle school basketball practice. The coach asked Greg to help out. Our son is the point guard. I vaguely heard them leave about 11, then went back to sleep.
I woke about an hour later to the smell of something cooking in the kitchen. I plodded downstairs and discovered our 16 year old, who also rose late, was preparing pancakes. He had added peanut butter and bananas to the batter. He offered me some. As I settled into the sofa to eat and to catch up on my reading I thought: Who brought this young man to us?
“If you really discover God in the face of Christ, you will no longer think of the Church as an institution external to yourselves, but as your spiritual family.” Pope Benedict XVI
Within the past year, my husband and I switched from our hometown parish to the parish where both our sons were baptized. We discovered the parish, which sits beside a New Jersey Transit rail station in downtown New Brunswick, NJ is being revitalized: inside and out, spiritually and physically.
I headed back to my public high school teaching job last week and our boys went back to public high school and middle school, respectively. This time of year brings changed routines and busy days. We have to find a new rhythm and routine for everything, down to who walks the dog when.
My schedule has radically shifted; I wake by 5 a.m., head out the door by 6 a.m. and generally don't sit down again until about 9 p.m. My day includes trying to manage our small household - the grocery shopping, the meal preparation and overseeing my children's homework or at least nudging them toward it. The nine o'clock hour finds me and our 11 year old snuggling upstairs as I read "Johnny Tremaine" to him.
A 78-year-old widower I know, married to his first wife for 55 years, tomorrow will wed a never-married, lifelong Catholic in her sixties. They planned to marry in the Catholic Church. Instead, they are hoofing it across the street to his church, which is Lutheran.
What prompted this change of plans? The priest’s insistence this older couple attend PreCana classes, classes designed for folks in their 20s and offering information ranging from Natural Family Planning to how to manage a household budget.
I’m a crime-show addict. You name it, I’ll watch it: Criminal Minds, Law and Order, NCIS, Bones, CSI Miami, The Closer, The Killing, Without a Trace, In Plain Sight. What is it about my heart makes me seek out such creepiness? I think it has to do with a longing for justice.
