Norman Lear

Dayle in Limoux – Day #24

July 29, 2022

Very sad. The woman who owns my building, from whom I contracted Covid, was put on a ventilator overnight. She is not well. Her daughter who lives in the U.K. is making her way to France now. Friends and family are bereft. The rain and clouds, although welcomed, have given a backcloth to many saddened hearts today.

I continue to improve and isolate; was able to practice gentle yoga last night. I’m going to test again in a little while.

“Greater love has no one that this, that someone letdown his life for his friends.”

-Saint Martin of Tours

She waited a long while before her friends joined today. I wish I could have sat with her, there, on the other bench. And smiled.

Practicing presence. What a beautiful art.

Norman Lear, creator of iconic sitcoms like “The Jeffersons,” “All in the Family” and “Good Times,” turned 100 on July 27.

He shared a message recorded by his daughter, one of his ‘breakfast thoughts,’ centered on the joys of living in the moment…practicing presence.

“I guess my breakfast thought at the moment…is the moment…the moment between past and present, present and past, the moment between after and next. The hammock in the middle of after and next. The moment. Treasure it, use it, with love.” 

Not writing much today. My heart is too sad for my new French friend. Here are words to the song, her song, Joni Mitchell sang at the Newport Folk Festival with her revelatory journey back to the stage after learning how to sing and play her guitar again. She suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015 and retaught her self to play after watching her old videos. The last time she sang and played before an audience was on her 55th birthday. She’s 78. It was a moment.

“Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all”

Oh, but now old friends they’re acting strange
And they shake their heads and they tell me that I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day.”

Stay safe.

Boost.

Mask.

À bientôt.

✿