Waiting

 Here Comes The Sun

Waiting for Mary Grace, or Maria Zoe, or Mary Claire ... or Katie Scarlett.... ooops! For a moment I thought I was character actor Thomas Mitchell in Gone With The Wind. (I just watched him as Dr. Boone in Stagecoach two days ago, and coincidentally he delivered a baby girl in that movie, too.)

The baby girl - in real life, not Stagecoach - is my granddaughter who grows weary of the lack of stimulus in that in utero antechamber. I cannot remember that far back myself, but I suppose waiting to be born after almost full term was a lot like sitting in a doctor's office, reading the same old magazines over and over, and you want to get some new reading material with your own brand-new library card, with which in your 14th year you will discover Olaf Stapledon's writings and they will transform your world-view...
or maybe you just want to go get a pizza.
.... and being in the dark maybe too film noir, like playing solitaire 'til dawn ("with a deck of 51"), and you know in your heart that you are actually more akin to Rosalind Russell in Mame than you are to Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon. And you want to go visit Shell Beach in the sun!

The drive to my daughter's was OK. We had very light snow between West Mifflin and Mann's Choice, Pennsylvania, but it did not even stick to the road surface. The Ohio turnpike looked as if it had had at least 2 to 4 inches of snow in the past 48 hours; its was well cleared, but the trees were blanketed with dainty tea-sandwich layers of white-bread snow, and the road signs well often splashed over from plow-throw and the road looked white and dusty, as if a good deal of road salt or some other chemical has been used.

 Tea-Sandwich Layers of Snow

My weather research said that the Ohio area we would be in could expect 1 to 3 inches of snow on Thursday, the 11th, and that looked correct. On the 12th, everything would be smooth sailing until late in the day.
I had used a GFS numerical model starting back on February 3 and an NAM model starting on February 9 for (1) areas of precipitation, (2) accumulated precipitation, (3) surface temperature 2 meters above ground level, and (4) wind direction and speed at the 250 millibar level (jet streams). Then on February 10, I went to the Weather Channel and got 5 day forecasts for Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Youngstown, Pittsburgh, New Baltimore, Breezewood, Hagerstown, etc. and a southern route which followed Toledo, Findlay, Marion, Columbus, Zanesville, Wheeling, etc.
I also got a few southern spots, like Leesburg, since the moisture that caused the 31 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago came up from the Gulf of Mexico, so I wanted to be on the qui vive, and not allow General Snow to turn our right flank!

General Snow and General Pickett Memorial, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

I am filled.
Filled with all possible things which may fill a soul.
One of the subsidiary cycles of our lives is Filling/Emptying - Plerosis/Kenosis; most of our feasts are Filling feasts: visiting, eating, drinking - taking in emotion, food, and drink - followed by a draining off back in the extra-festal world.
Some feasts are Emptying feasts: fasting, penance - staying away from emotions, not eating nor drinking - like Lent and Ramadan. However, these usually culminate in a Filling feast, thank heavens!

I am getting back in touch with life's miracle.
I was born and forgot heaven.
My daughter was born, and I was filled with wondrous things, but the drudgery with which we build our usual lives drained away the stars and silver of my acme of happiness..
Now I have another chance to taste the wonders.
This time I shall not let the power of being in the presence of God's work leak away.

All my life I have had the feeling that this society was heading for disaster. Society seems to be keeping its part of the bargain, but God keeps sending us miracles of Mary!

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