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ספירת העומר
GEVURAH sh b' TIFERET
Discipline and Restriction in Compassion, Truth, Love
Kabbalistic Sephirat Counting of the Omer day 16,
which is two weeks and two days of the Omer.
day 2 of week 3.
I think of dear “old and sick” Friend (as she calls herself) with discipline and limitation of Gevurah, as 86 year old Friend has specific expressed needs and desires as she recovers from CA surgery. (She is moving away from home to be cared for). Yes, I wanted to be present again for Friend in hospital following this big surgery so she feels she is not alone (having no family), but she did not want visitors in her current state.
Friend wasn’t picking up phone because it was out of hospital bed reach with her moving difficulty, so in Tiferet/compassion I called nurse’s station and sent messages of love for them to deliver on rounds. (Nurses station even called me looking for Friend’s needed and missing info.) Withholding phone calls to Friend is sad for me, and I’ve continued to buy snail mail stamps for pretty purchased cards and I hand-wrote Get Well messages. Respecting the needs of Friend, With Tiferet/love I’ve used Gevurah in not calling while Friend is in rehabilitation. In Tiferet with Gevurah and with permission of Friend, I send fast and easy e-mails to her elderly friend in Israel updating situation. At Friend’s request and when necessary, I notified all important others of her condition.
For last few years this Friend and I have lunch time together each week at our favorite restaurants. We’ve been friends for decades and I care about her spirit, mind, heart and body. During this time I use extra discipline in my communications with her.
~ ~ ~
I think of another friend who is blind and deaf and most times is able to use her recent cochlear implant for hearing if batteries are working... We’ve been close for a couple decades.
After reading spiritual teachings daily to dear friend my age for over half a year, some months ago I wasn’t able to continue the reading over phone. (Local Gas Leak Blowout stole my lungs.) Although in great Tiferet/compassion, I had to explain that our daily call needed to be reduced and finally postponed, as If I’m on sabbatical. This Gevurahdic necessary change has been difficult to accept in Tiferet for both of us, but limitation of routine was necessary.
~ ~ ~
Another dear friend, 93, and living only a few blocks away, requested that I come over at night to help her with necessary medical need so she stays healthy and for years in Tiferet I continue help my friend. That’s easy for me as I don’t otherwise go out at night, and if I do, planned in Gevurah, I visit her earlier or later in evening. In Tiferet/compassion and friendship I may visit for up to two hours at end of my day that begins before sunrise. This friend and her family are grateful for our mutual friendship. My other friends know my friend as 'Edith', the gardener and my swim life-guard. I use Edith and her garden and pool as my model for many photo-theme challenges. Love my friend Edith. If you are reading this you’ve seen many of her Tiferet-filled flowers or cat photos on my FB or in my web sites. Edith sees them also as she is an avid computer user! With her I watch movies of her great-great grand twins!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Golden Poppy*
Old friends are "gold".
Edith's Garden
© Joy Krauthammer 4.2016
Old Girl Scout Song
1/2 of Make New Friends
Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
* the other is gold.
A circle is round,
it has no end.
That's how long,
I will be your friend.
A fire burns bright,
it warms the heart.
We've been friends,
from the very start.
Across the land
Across the sea
Friends forever
We will always be.
~ ~ ~
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