Looking Around

What new stuff? Ok- I am still breathing.

At the moment, I have several hundred photos loading on my computer's hard drive. They are of Niagara Falls (from the Canadian side, if you must know). I know- I have been doing the joke from the Three Stooges show all month- "Niagara Falls!!! Slowly he turns, step by step, etc." It was getting good laughs until we finally got there and stayed a day. Oh, yeah... over the last three months I have managed to lose a job with one company and keep it with the new owner, something else, and get married (then go on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls..."Niagara Falls, slowly he turned, inch by inch, step by...well you get the idea).

That is a lot to pack into a late summer and fall. Not to mention, the travelling we did up to that point. We went to Pittsburgh in August to witness the women's ordination on the river there. That is kind of a big deal in some quarters of our life (like my new brother in law who is studying to become a more regular deacon in the Roman Church- They don't want women in that role for some reason). And, some of my photos got published. There were many really good photographers there, so my success was kind of a lark for me (and a pleasant surprise). I am kind of hesitant to mention much of this- it is such a hot topic with people taking sudden sides and issues, but it was important.

September went past in a flash. With not much to go on about, except planning the big day, it still seemed like only a week packed into 30 days. The big event was in October. So, why did I do it? The time was right. I have loved this woman for a very long time, and have been very appropriate the whole time. We met back in the 80's- she was married to someone else. I later got married to someone else. We both have daughters about the same age... with the same name arrived at indepentantly of each other. We even interacted as families for awhile. Then as people do who live a hundred miles from each other, we eased out of contact. I didn't realize at the time, she was just before having serious difficulty with her then husband. Neither did she, it did happen though.

I stay out of contact... I was married and it would have been confusing. Then one day about 10 years later, I realized that I was now "not married". I had just been through a fairly traumatic year starting with my Father dying, my job shifting me 90 miles away, and my up until I had no inheritance wife, sueing for divorce. I needed some reconnecting to a part of my life from when I last felt whole. I dug through an old addressbook and found her old phone number. I figured she had remarried and I could met and reconnect with who I used to be in a supportive way.

What I didn't know was that she had spent a day the summer before, standing on Lake Ontario chanting and singing with the intention of calling her mate to her. Because of our marriages, we had put each other "off limits"... even after our marriages died. I was not in her mind, nor she in mine at the time. When I called her phone the following spring to leave a message, she heard my voice and something inside of her "chunked" into place. The rest as they might say... was history. Six years later, we have made things official in a legal way. The spirit and connection have always been there in a holy way... it is now complete.

So, for some reason, over the past three months, jotting musings here seems to have been far down the list of "things to get done". That may or may not change. And, it doesn't matter that much, yet.