Late nights and dear friends

It's a very slow start here today. I haven't moodled online in almost a week because of our L'Arche Annual General Meeting, which is my busiest work time of the year, gardening (spent four hours on Friday sifting this season's first batch of compost) and a wonderful series of re-connections with old friends. I am also working on a brief review of Pope Francis' latest letter to the world, but it's a long encyclical that takes some time to read. So today's moodling is just a stream-of-consciousness note to my regular readers, so that you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet.

Yes, there have been a lot of late nights lately, and as a result, my vertigo/dizziness is spinning my brain more than usual today -- I'm actually quite nauseous, which isn't often the case anymore. The dizziness never quite leaves so I've learned to live with it, and it's guaranteed to be worse after I've been out for the evening, or have stayed up too late. So much for my life as a party animal! But late is the operative word for the last few nights!

On Friday night, longtime friend Brother Dan came for supper and visited well into the evening with me (most of the family had gone to see the 9:30 showing of Jurassic World  and youngest daughter was supposedly studying for her final exams). Dan and I went to Newman College together in the early '90s when I was getting my religious education degree, and we have made lots of music together over the years. He's an Oblate of Mary Immaculate who has been living in New Orleans since 2013, working with the homeless not far from Congo Square, where jazz was born. He has a lot of amazing stories to tell... and it's easy to see that as much as he ministers to the homeless, they are also ministering to him in different ways. It's a beautiful thing.

Saturday's late night was completely different, as I welcomed 11 friends from High School (three on Skype, believe it or not!), a couple of whom I hadn't seen since we graduated. In High School, we had what we called hen parties -- no boys were invited -- and because we're all celebrating a significant birthday this year, I decided it was time for an un-birthday hen party with lots of wine and too much food. I pulled out my yearbooks, and we had a little game where everyone had 5 minutes to answer the same ten questions about themselves so that we'd leave feeling like we at least knew something of each others' lives. The friend stuck in Heathrow Airport (where it was hard to hear us) managed only to say hello to everyone, but the other two on Skype, calling from BC, participated in a good part of the evening, and we had so many laughs. The picture below is one of them, taken from the computer's point of view!

It's always so amazing to me how so much time can pass, and lives can change so much, but with some people, it's possible to pick up right where we left off... I'm still chewing over all the wonderful conversations with Dan and my High School buddies, revelling in special friends and renewed friendships. Definitely worth the dizziness!!!