Back again

The last couple days have been busy for me. Very busy. Filled with a whirlwind of contrasting activities and emotions. On Thursday, one week ago, my Aunt Sue (my Mom's sister-in-law) passed away. For years she had been fighting cancer and she had held on for a long time, no doubt to be with her three children for as long as possible as they are growing up. So my Mom's side of the family stormed the airlines' webpages in a highly successful campaign to fly as much of the family as possible together for the funeral. I was among the returning diaspora and it was with sadness and joy (and almost no sleep) that I mounted the plane to Austin 5 am Sunday morning.

The days that follow are mostly a blur: hours at the funeral home, visiting with relatives, playing cards, playing music (an essential for any Kinney get-together), talking about school, talking about home, sleeping (a little) and eating (a lot). What can I say, my Mom's family is Irish. The big day was Tuesday. There was the funeral mass in the morning and the family party at my parent's house that afternoon--a party that lasted till after 11pm. Perhaps the strongest memory that I have is sitting in the family room with my Mom and all her siblings while they shared stories, laughed, joked, smiled, and all in all re-connected during this time of difficult transition. It was beautiful to see.

"Transition" is the word that kept coming back to me as I thought about death and its consequences. We say goodbye, but not forever. It is a loss, but a temporary one--one that only effects us in time. So we come together for support for each other, loving support as we go through the transition of loss. And we pray in support of the one who has passed on as they pass through the transition of death. For us Christians, death creates this sad state of "in-between."

And speaking of in-between and transitions, I can briefly relate my misadventures in the land of Northwest airlines. To cut right to the chace, my flight that was supposed to leave from San Antonio yesterday at around 6pm got delayed because of bad weather. This meant that I would not be able to catch my connecting flight, and, Omaha being where it is (that it, just south of Nowhere), there would be no other flights that evening that would get me there. So off I return to Austin (total travel/waiting time: 6hr) so that I can get up again at an ungodly early hour and get on another plane that will take me (round-about, through Minnesota) to Omaha.

As you might be able to tell, the topic of sleep has been mentioned perhaps more than anything else in this post, and you would be right to deduce that I am thinking fondly of a full night in my bed. I've come to the conclusion that traveling is so tiring because even though you are sitting still, you are actively supressing many normal human activities, like movement, for several hours on end in a completely controlled environment (artificial air-conditioning, lighting, one-size-fits-all chairs, etc). And at the end of this maddening marathon of self control, we wonder why we are tired when we were "doing nothing all day."

Prayers for my Aunt Sue and for her family are much appreciated.

MJK