The Power of the Cross

     

 

 

 

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 Wikipedia

Have you ever entered a place, and felt an unease? I mean, like you needed or should leave. Something about it hung heavy.

 It was a moment in our trip with our granddaughters. Hard to describe, but it was definite.

We had just gone on a winding road drive from Sequoia to a small town on Lake Isabella. It was one of those roads where one curve swung onto the next, then the next, then more and more. We laughed at first, then we made jokes, and ended the trip with robust singing, and asking "Are we almost there yet?"

One gr-daughter arranged for an AirBnb, nice quiet place. The yard was filled with New Age art sculptures. It was amazing. Lots of stain glass had been formed into a garden that one doesn't forget.

When the owner came, he showed up the house, gave us tour, listed the places to eat. He was a young guy, and this was his house. I don't know why, but there was a heaviness around.

 I was wearing a white gold crucifix on a nice chain. The latch was coming loose, so I pulled it from under my shirt, and started to re-attach it. The young man's eyes opened wide, and he took two steps back. 

I still think of that few minutes when he took two steps backward. I wonder now: What would he have done if I had taken two steps forward.

He quickly left, we thanked him, and settled in. The darkness left.

Have you ever been in a place or situation where you felt this heaviness somewhere? And then you left?

 

Changes in the Wind

 

Copyright Rochell Wisoff-Fields

Edith had stared

Out her window

For nearly 50 years.

Edith had watched

Weather changes,

Children playing,

Family picnics.

Today, fields

Were silent.

Her house was silent.

Edith herself was silent.

Last mourners had closed the door.

The parlor was overpowered with

The scent of roses and carnations.

The table held remnants of

Sandwiches and pie.

Edith did what she always did:

She cleaned up.

Now she stood at the kitchen window.

What to do? What to do, now?

Edith carried her suitcases

To the car,

Locked the house.

And left.

To where?

She did not know.

Everyone, at one time or another, looks at the empty house and winding road. Sometimes they close the door and start the car.  Sometimes the doors and cars remain silent, and sometimes the suitcase goes back in. Have you ever been there? I have.

Termites and Tents

Source

By the time this is posted, we will be out of our house.  No, we paid our mortgages and all our bills.

Termites were discovered and the best/only solution was to tent the house, stay somewhere for three nights and four days.  In the days before that, we had to pack, double wrap, box and store all the perishables, medicines, lotions, and anything else that we recognized as a “must move”.

This was a real Magnus Opus; it forced us to move to the next level in the house purge.

See you on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday next week.

Post Script:

Source

Okay, I am cleaning out the shelves in preparation for the termite tenting. 

The spice shelf is filled with surprises, as most of the spices’ expiration dates are June 2007 or 20010.  It reveals that I don’t cook much at all anymore, since our house is filled with just us two semi-old people.

But before I started the big clean-out, two bottles of extracts spilled and broke.  The extracts spilled out onto that shelf and then onto the shelf below.  A river of extracts dripped out from the shelves and onto the counter.

Every box of corn starch, baking soda, powdered sugar, and paper bags of stuff were soaked in extract (these were big glass bottles.)

When the tenting is all said and done, our house will still retain the scent of extract, since the current product in killing every insect or pest in the house in odorless. 

Next bottle of extracts I buy, I will throw at the wall and enjoy its scent.