Every morning I wake up and dread the coming day. I feel as though it would be good if I could spend about 10 days alone with a stack of books and jugs of cold water. But the people I’m seeing are making the days less horrible than they could be.
On Ash Wednesday I met with the pastors and went out to the funeral home to collect the ashes. It was a hard day. Yesterday I took my stepfather to Social Security, zipped up to a meeting to which I was late, and then hosted a meet-up. It was another hard day.
Yet all the people I saw, some of whom were strangers helping with the last of the arrangements about my mother’s death and some of whom were friends or colleagues or clients who don’t even know about the death, all of them were a pleasure to be with.
In the midst of all of this I’m getting behind with my work, and there will be consequences for that, I’m sure.
Today I go up to the Next County and teach a class all morning, and then the family starts coming in. I think it will be very good to see them. I think the service will be comforting even though it will also be hard. I hope to get some work done in between those two things. Or at least some housework.