1. Goddess
2. Meditation
3. A good walk around campus with a small group. The sun was warm and bright, and there was shade and a cool breeze, which were refreshing.
4. Having food brought to me.
5. I love you and naps. (Want that on a T shirt).
6. Meeting with my treatment team and the medical student, whose last day with us was today, and the mental health specialist, who is also a researcher at the hospital.
7. Watched the news on TV. I like to watch and listen to as many perspectives as possible, and work for and vote for the candidates I agree with and who support my whole community.
8. Deacon Cynthia came to visit me. She bought me a card, signed by the community. She also bought me coffee from Dunks, coffee with cream, just the way I like it. We have a lot in common.
8a. Most of all, she bought me a bracelet of African prayer beads, made of brown opal. I can make a cruciform with them, and say the Jesus prayer or any prayer my Goddess moves me to speak.
8b. Deacon Cynthia prayed with me and we prayed for the Church and the hospital teams, and all who suffer, visibly or invisibly, externally or internally.
9. After dinner Avi S. And Jeff P. Came to visit me. We know each other from AA service work. We read from “As Bill Sees It” and I heard the words” Service gladly rendered; obligations squarely met”, which is one of my favorite passages in all of AA literature , from the 12 & 12. I told of how I came to be hospitalized, and how things are looking up for me, in that I slept 6 hours last night, and my medication regime is getting simplified, and I am confident it will work. I accept the judgment of my treatment team, whether I am liberated from the hospital next week or must remain under observation longer, so be it.
10. The NBDI meeting , which doesn’t start for me until I get there, the topic was a higher power, and I told of how I strive for a relationship with my Goddess. As Robert Browning wrote:
” Ah, but a man’s reach must exceed his grasp/
Or what’s a heaven for? “
11. Made a new friend named Naomi. Who texted me when she thought I was her friend Anne. She said “You are so nice”, after I replied that it was no trouble , she told me her name and asked about me, and I told her my name and that I am a college librarian. I asked her what she did. I also texted her and wrote “I believe there are no accidents, just unintended consequences.” She didn’t write back and either she’s busy, went to sleep, or thinks I’m a real weirdo. I’m fine with whatever.
”I ought to be equal to every relation” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friendship
”Let’s have a Union, Jesus listening
Let’s have a Union, Jesus died. “
Spiritual taught by either Bernice Johnson Reagon or Ysaye Barnwell, of Sweet Honey in the Rock, held at St. James’s Episcopal Church, May 1998 (?).
”The sun has gone to bed and so must I” The Sound of Music
