July 30, 2024- The intrepid bicyclist said he'd taken eight days to make the trip from Tucson, to his former residence. He happens to be a paraplegic, with pretty solid looking steel prostheses. He told me a few stories about the stately eight room home, with two stone "horse quarters" on the property (which are rented out as apartments). He lived in one of the horse quarters, but was now just waiting for the property's owner to show up, that he might spend a few days there. Eric had come home.
I am ever in awe of people who don't let life's mishaps deter them from going on. Most of us plan carefully and are having to make a modicum of adjustments in our daily and long-term activities. As long as we are careful with our health, things go on as normal. The presence of those who are "differently abled", then , can be initially jarring, but also can serve to affirm the greater goodness of all that is here for us in this life. So, we watch the Paralympics and encourage those with artificial limbs, developmental challenges and loss of sight or hearing, to the best of our abilities.
Having lived with a woman who could no longer walk, and eventually, no longer move a muscle, I can say that the inherent worth of human beings never diminishes. The love we have for each other does not depend on physical presence, or even, as I am finding out, on proximity. Our souls are ever present, until the day they are carried by our spirits to a place just on the other side of a thin veil. Baha'u'llah said that the departed souls are "closer to you than your life vein.". Penny was always able to communicate, to the time of her departure. So, in a more limited way, was my mother. They still do, from the other side.
When I came back along, after stopping in at Raven Cafe, Eric was settled in for the night. I wished him a safe evening. He replied that he was where he needed to be, and would stay right there. Indeed, we are each, at any given moment, where we need to be.
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