Mother to my right adjusting our old grandfather clock

Kingsgrove, NSW

A return to hospital for another reminder of my mortality; it is good to be retold that the body is a temporary tent; humility cannot come any other way but through sickness and suffering; my cup of peppermint tea resting on my soaked essay; paper still has many good uses; words from the heart run like tears; Mother to my right adjusting our old grandfather clock; in profile she is the goddess of time; then she moves, walks away, stooped and bent; Saint Perpetua (d. 203 AD); Saint Felicity (d. 203 AD); Saint Monica (AD 331-387); “A mother’s love endures through all” (Washington Irving); how rare is true friendship; it is the most beautiful of precious things; rare and beautiful; Achilles and Patroclus; Hamlet and Horatio; Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn; “If you live to be 100, I hope to live to be 100 minus one day, so I never have to live without you” (Winnie the Pooh); Baloo; Rupert Bear; Paddington Bear; Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936); Mary Tourtel (1874-1948); Michael Bond (1926-2017); “Becoming A Healing Presence” (2014); Albert S. Rossi; Jesus passes through Gennesaret; (Matt. 14:34-36); no greater force than love; it raises the dead; births into a second life; to my left our dissertations; mine and my amazing Katina’s; we aged decades in that time; Pink Floyd, Time (1973); theory of special relativity; union of space and time; erosion; gradual destruction; the power of water; I still remember when I was 11; sitting at my favourite seat in the Reno Café; working out the difference 2000-1961; the present touches upon eternity; as close to the past and to the future as possible; “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10); movement in stillness; Bolshoi Ballet; Salle Le Peletier; Teatro La Scala; then all becomes silent; in darkness pray for the light; lightning always accompanied by thunder; cloud-to-cloud; cloud-to-ground; China releases largest study on COVID-19 outbreak; HSBC signals mass job cuts as profits plunge; woman survives five days lost in Australian forest; time for my tablets; painkillers numinous names; oxycodone hydrochloride; lots of movement outside today; across the park children are playing; in the other room George creating music; chords; keys; signatures; Zarathustra; Ahura Mazda; star-studded globe; Carlos Montoya (1903-1993); Paco de Lucia (1947-2014); John McLaughlin (1942-); headstock; frets; six strings made from nylon; temporary and permanent anchors; Delta anchor; Mushroom anchor; geographical coordinates; latitude; longitude; Katina and the young ones in Mexico; a beautiful photo of Eleni and Jeremy beneath the sunset; each moment in time a complete history; Herodotus; Thucydides; Polybius; “The Greeks and the Irrational” (1951); E. R. Dodds; triumph of rationalism or not; “Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture”; Arthur Erickson (1924-2009); rationalist painting; across from where I am writing, three icons; the Christ Pantokrator; the Virgin and Child; Saint George slaying the Dragon; Andrei Rublev (c.1360-c.1427); Manuel Panselinos (fl. late 13th/ early 14th centuries); Photis Kontoglou (1895-1965); Gold; Blue; Purple; solid wood board; eggs and wine; gold leaf; Athena; Hephaestus; the Nine Greek Muses; the Koh-i-Noor diamond; from the Mughal Peacock Throne; oval brilliant; Alexander Nevsky Cathedral; Tallinn Old Town; eleven bells; the Tsar Bell; the Maria Gloriosa; Liberty Bell; double basses; kettledrums; harpsichord; Filiae maestae Jerusalem RV 638; Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741); “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable” (Leonard Bernstein); some light rain beginning to fall; it is one of the loveliest sounds; like the sound of sizzling bacon; awaken; mistaken; forsaken; Trump ‘offered Assange pardon for Russia denial’; Harry and Meghan’s royal duties ending 31 March; Storm Dennis more heavy rain falls; calls for lunch from Mother; chicken soup with wild rice; green salad with lemon vinaigrette; Blue Jay; Atlantic Puffin; Golden Pheasant; Airbus A380; wing span 79.75m; length 72.72m; second draft of my long story done; the trials and tribulations of a monk; I loved him for the battles of his heart; perseverance; endurance; “ability to last”; J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973); “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings”; and so all will be well, I do then say; Sirius; Canopus; Arcturus; Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543); Galileo Galilei (1564-1642); Johannes Kepler (1571-1630); a sharp pain down the right side; like a shooting star; I make a wish; hope for; long for; yearn for; children returning home after school; I hear the excitement in their voices; one is shouting out to a friend called “Nicole”; Moorefields Road was much quieter back in the day; I knew the grand old lady herself, Mrs Moorefields; she once got cross with me when I cut her flowers; Clemton Park; Cripps Avenue; Garema Circuit; I remembered a companion; I thought he was; I would ask him “why have you done this thing to me?”; how are we to be saved you ask; not by good works [we have but few]; not by faith [we have so little]; but only by our endurance [this we can do]; the Marathon; 26 miles 385 yards; Pheidippides; opening batsman; goal keeper; catcher; “Catcher in the Rye” (1951); “Game my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot shots are...”; J. D. Salinger (1919-2010); antimonies; contradictions; the twilight zone; the link; the image; and the mind; Beethoven No. 9 in D minor; Tchaikovsky No. 6 in B minor; Mahler No. 9 in D major; consider the women in Shakespeare; strong, intelligent, disguised; Rosalind; in front of me a picturesque rural landscape; two dark green armchairs with brown leather trim; four cream pillows with cottony tassels; caramel; toffee; butterscotch; Lindisfarne Gospels; Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux; Godescalc Evangelistary; once upon a time people replied to their letters; you can tell a lot about people from their correspondence; they pretend to be too busy or too important; some point their noses up at you; others wear sunglasses in the shade; please show me your eyes, I catechize; “Let him not want my eyes fair/Prophetic and never-changing…” (Anna Akhmatova); I turn for a moment look outside, to my left our front garden; four beautiful rose bushes; guard petals fallen into little piles; Red Meidiland; Amalia; Adrenalin; measurements for units of time; multiply by 60; divide by 60; the old grandfather clock chimes on the quarter; it is 6.15 Post Meridiem and counting; so much to be grateful for; and so hasten to do good.