The Proposal Is Submitted!

All the reading and researching and composing is over.

I submitted my proposal to the Thomas Merton Society.

Done. Now I wait while focusing on other projects.

Ran to the library today (well, walked) because I had the wrong citation in a footnote. I needed to get a book back out and correct the citation.

Now I have three books of Thomas Merton's writings that can be returned. I'm half way through a large selection of his writings and I will keep that one and finish it. Then I have four books on physics and spirituality to read.

Lots to read always. A whole world of ideas out there all beckoning.

I didn't sleep last night - couldn't get to sleep. Got up and stayed up. Angus woke around five, I think. I made coffee, we had breakfast, I kept working on the proposal.

Around nine I showered and we went out for our Christmas tree.

It is a beautiful thing. I always feel ambivalent about sawing a tree down. It was, probably, fifteen years old. But we left plenty at the base, it will grow back.

The woods of the tree farm was so beautiful, the branches all laden with snow.

The needles of the tree are so green and glossy, the tree stretched its branches up to worship the sun, worship God the maker and sustainer of all things. It reached out to me and I asked God, silently, "Do I have permission to take it? Is it willing to come with us?

Yes came the silent answer.

And, truly, it looked happy even falling, like a big, floppy dog, who is anxious to come home with you and see what awaits him. (Projection!)

Whereas the lot trees are all tied down like hostages, the joy bundled and squeezed out of them with twine, our tree spread abundantly over the car roof, waving to all. It still contains life force. Perhaps, somehow, it knows I appreciate its sacrifice.

Tomorrow I will decorate it with lights and golden, handmade ornaments, string cranberries and adorn it with love. It is the kind of tree that will look beautiful through the New Year.

We are so blessed.

I stopped on the way home from the library at the market and bought fresh Brussels sprouts. They are the best I've had in two years. Dinner: vegetarian lasagna (my contribution along with the sprouts) and liver with onions (Angus's). Sounds odd, but it was delicious, a surprising treat.

I bought a copy of the New York Times, Angus bought the Free Press. Lots to settle down now, at eleven in the evening, with my hot cup of tea, to read and just listen to the house.

Rumi: (Remember he lived in the 13th century and was a Sufi who lived in the Middle East and was referring to his world. We could change the names to Western countries and it would still apply.)

Many people travel to Syria and Iraq
and meet only hypocrites.

Others go all the way to India
and see just merchants buying and selling.

Others go to Turkestan and China
and find those countries filled
with sneak-thieves and cheats.

We always see the qualities
that are living in us.