Letter From a Friend (and my reply)
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Saturday, May 23, 2015 Dear Tony, I’m now officially worried about you. You’ve been a bit sporadic in our online Scrabble game, and I knew that you have been suffering from a very long cold! So I tackled your web site and found nothing more recent than that the very long cold was not entirely gone. Am I missing something more recent on your site? Today, on your public calendar/agenda you are marked as “busy” at noon. That’s perhaps a good sign. This note is neither nagging or complaining! It is just a “thinking of you and hope you’re well” wish. love, (a very dear but far away lifetime friend) |
Dear far away lifetime friend!
Thank you for your worry and concern.
I am totally fine, now. Completely recovered from that horrifying cold.
And... I’m catching up with everything that got put off in that forty-two day saga.
Here’s a sampling from this past week:
Last Sunday Heather and I went to church at the Cathedral, then I took a funeral at the Army Navy Air Force Veterans Association (their padre couldn’t do it, and asked me to fill in), then we went over to Troy and Marysia’s for dinner. Paperwork (bills etc.) consumed my attention on Monday, and we had company in the evening. Tuesday I worked on some music – for I am back playing my clarinet (did you see the recent video of me and a young drummer doing “Sing, Sing, Sing”?). In that vein, our daughter Ariel will be coming to Winnipeg in October and she and I are planning to put on a concert together. Wednesday morning I attended a board meeting (I’m a director of the Manitoba Medical Services Foundation), and in the afternoon went for an humungous and enjoyable 25 kilometre bike ride. That evening we went over to the home of a client of Heather’s for a “glass of wine” (actually some informal legal advice plus some very good general conversation). Thursday I had a FOUR HOUR coffee with a friend – long put off because of my ‘flu, and that evening attended a jazz concert with Werner Schulz. Yesterday I had a two-hour lunch with a different friend (another item that was put off during my incapacity), and in the evening Heather and I went for our regular session of card-playing with another set of friends (we won).
Today I had a two-hour coffee with yet another friend – having also put that one off during the illness. This is the “busy” item on my public calendar for today.
Now I’m preparing a speech to be given at 9:00 AM tomorrow to a national gathering of the JCI Senate. I’ve been asked to do a 25-minute reflection on the first clause in their organization’s creed: “That faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life.” 1 Following that speech, I will go home, pick up Heather to go to church, after which we will have lunch with a recently-widowed friend. In the evening, Werner and Mary are coming over for dinner – they’re leaving on a cruise of the British Isles, and Heather thought that we should feed them.
In other words, I’m fully back in action – except I notice that I don’t yet have quite the stamina I had... but it’s coming.
Gotta run!
I took this photo during my bike ride, May 20, 2015. The pond is called ‘Werier Pond’ and is found in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Forest. |
FOOTNOTES:
1 For the creed, its author and background, see http://www.usjayceefoundation.org/founders/brownfield.htm
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