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As I sit down to write this, it's the eleventh of November, 2020 – so far the worst time in the worldwide Corona virus pandemic. If that weren't enough to worry about, for the past month and a half my 75 year-old wife has been in two rehab centers where they're trying to strengthen her legs and get her back onto her feet, interspersed with transports to two different hospitals, due to a bowel blockage and vomiting blood. Somehow in spite of all these transfers and multiple contacts, we have both managed to remain Covid-free so far. The doctors and nurses and other medical personnel here in Arizona have been really wonderful in their adherence to all the PPE (personal protection equipment) rules.

No young bride or groom ever imagines that in twenty years one of them may be chronically ill, and the other partner may become a full-time caregiver. They may blithely repeat, “in sickness and in health.” But starry-eyed Youth cannot conceive of the crushing reality hidden within such a serious promise.

This morning my wife asked me for the fourth time, “What day is it?” A few years ago I would have said, “Oh for God's sake, I just told you three times!” But now I simply speak as clearly as I can (because of her hearing loss), pretending that I'm an actor on stage, and the director has asked me to repeat a line from the script. (There's nothing unreasonable about that! In fact, it's an expected part of my professional job.) “Thursday,” I say smilingly. If she thanks me, my next line is a cordial, “You're welcome.”

Whether or not you believe in psychic abilities or in the predictive accuracy of fortune tellers, to my mind there is no doubt that in extraordinary moments of one's life there are definite messages that can come through to each of us.

In the early years of the 20^th century, my Dad was a young doctor in New York City. One morning he received a phone call telling him of the death of his older brother in a foreign country. We cannot conceive of the lack of communication in those days; there was no television or Internet and most homes didn't even have phone service. So my Dad-to-be went out to the subway, to deliver the sad news in person to his mother who lived in the Bronx.

Psychologically, we are made of very tough stuff – the mental equivalent of Titanium! As a consequence, it is extremely difficult to knock off our rough edges. It takes a painfully long time, and many abrasive experiences.

However, when those rough edges finally have been smoothed off, we will find it easy to slip into the next life with no catching, complaint or resistance.  It will come as naturally as the progression from caterpillar to butterfly, as consciousness graduates from one level of experience into a higher one.  

We're all trying to become better people. We've slogged through endless exercises for positive thinking, and we hope to evolve in the fullness of time so that we might commit fewer mistakes. But, in the meantime, what a long, bumpy, land-mine strewn road it is! And we are always told that there are no shortcuts.

Oh come on, not even one? Isn't there at least one little trick, one small Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card that we can use to our benefit when the going gets rough?

For the greater part of our lives, most of us want someone to say this to; and most of us want someone who will say it to us: "I love you, and I will take care of you."

When we commit to caring for someone, we feel a sense of purpose. And when we know that a parent or a partner - or a God or a Goddess - is taking care of us, we feel comforted.

June 27, 2018 – I just read a beautiful prayer by Francesca De Grandis on the Witches and Pagans website. In it, she references the fear of extending one's arm to help another human being – which means, I think, the fear that our intentions may be misinterpreted and that the arm which was extended in love might get viciously ripped off at the shoulder! Her prayer is for strength of faith, to remember that Mother-Father God supports us always, no matter what the outcome seems to be.

This concern is especially rampant in these times of political and religious division, exacerbated by an Internet gone out of control - with so many plausible versions of reality that nobody can tell, any more, what is true and what is false. To an old wannabe hippy like myself who used to live in hopeful dreams of a world united in love, it is unbelievable how the most benign expressions of goodwill and acceptance can be met with the most ferocious hatred and condemnation - by people who consider themselves just as reasonable and educated, and just as socially sensitive and spiritual, as I am myself!