Notes - Family

         You had a good day seeing friends on Carol’s side of the family. It was a good direction on an otherwise rainy dreary day. Home in the afternoon. Nap. Relax with a couple of episodes of “White Collar” on USA network and finding “Car Talk”, one of your favorite PBS radio shows, on the Internet.

         It is after twenty-two hundred hours and you had a ‘tug’ to write a note (the preceding paragraph). Nothing on your mind that you can think of. Carol just headed up to bed as did the cat.

         I read the newest Time magazine, which arrived today thinking it might spark some thoughts but it did not.

         What is happening is that you are on the blog so much that you feel like you need to write a daily column to keep up the experience of daily writing. That is not what this blog is about. Thus, the reminder:

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Encounters In Mind

This journalistic, turned novelistic focus is on the spiritual aspects of being human through the author's inner writer, Amorella

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         Spiritual aspects, what are they exactly? One would think I would know, but presently, none are on my mind. Well, passion. To me that is one of the most important aspects. I don’t seem to have much passion this evening. I feel dreary like the fine Ohio spring weather we were having (a snow shower is supposed to return tonight, dusting by morning). I enjoyed seeing Aunt Catherine today, she looked better than she has for awhile, she was fully enjoying the moments between 12:30 and 2:30. Made my day to see the sparkle and enthusiasm in a ninety year old in a wheel chair. Her shining face erased the wheelchair entirely. We saw old photographs of the Hammonds, some taken back as far as 1903.

Photos of Carol’s father, Scotch (Granville), Uncle John, Aunt Catherine, Uncle Bob from one year olds to middle age or more. Carol’s Grandma and Grandpa Hammond when they were young. Grandpa Hammond was an upholster most of his life. He upholstered furniture on the White Line’s Titanic before its voyage. He used to tell that story every Thanksgiving, and his pupils would grow very large at the end of the story and he would conclude with “It should have never sunk.” He said it with such depth of voice full of earnest and quiet passion. You could tell he still did not believe it after some sixty years. Carol’s Dad was born in Glasgow, Scotland. The others were born here in the United States in New Philadelphia, Ohio where they were raised. A lot of grandchildren and a few great grandchildren were there today. Full of energy, full of life and eager to live in the moment just like Aunt Catherine. That’s what comes to mind, but nothing spiritual in it as far as I can see. It was a good day all around. Better than many for seeing Aunt Catherine and Uncle John, the only two left of that generation of Hammonds. It is amazing to think on the fact that Carol and I shared a great grandfather in Scotland back in the thirteenth century. So, these Hammonds are my people too, not just by marriage. Who would have ever thought such a thing possible?

Above, I see heartansoul struggling to meet with mindanmemory. Your last line is exemplary as it seals you with the rest of the human species. That’s what I see. Here it is, twenty-three hundred hours. Post. – Amorella.