all soul's day

WENT TO THE BLESSING of the tombs this morning in Catahoula. Wasn't expecting to BE blessed, but that's what happened. Twice! First, standing near my sister's tomb, and again near my grandparents' tomb. (They're on opposite ends of the cemetery, but we had more than enough time to cross the small cemetery as Father made his way up and down each aisle sprinkling the tombs and the people standing in front of them with holy water.) When he sprinkled us the second time, blessing us enough to dampen our clothing, he said with a smile, “Blessings for everyone, the living AND the dead. I think we need it more than they do.” Uncle Cheese said that was more rain than we've had all week.

gratitude

THE PATIENTS I TREAT rarely thank me. It’s not that they’re ungrateful. Many can’t speak or don’t know where they are, much less what’s happened to them. And those who can speak and aren’t confused think that nothing is wrong with them and that I’m some kind of jailer. Last week I got punched in the mouth when a life care patient of mine asked me when he would get to go home and didn’t get the answer he wanted to hear. A few weeks ago I got peed on helping a guy having a seizure. Yesterday I got called a f*cker at the end of my first appointment. All in a day’s work.

a caterpillar occurred

FOUND A CATERPILLAR on our doorstep when I got back from my bike ride, except I thought it was a furry leafy at first. It wasn’t until the what-I-thought-was-a-furry-leaf started walking that I realized it was actually a caterpillar. I wondered what kind of moth he might become. He seemed so fragile, so lost, crawling who knows where across the food desert of our doorstep.