My friend Karyn e-mailed me from the Dublin airport that she had tied “clootie” prayer rags at trees next to the sacred wells of St. Brigid and St. Kevin on my behalf. I was able to reply that it was no wonder that last week went so well with good will emanating from different quarters of the Emerald Isle for me. Tylenol and a couple of hot baths kept me moving through the achiness that hit over the weekend, and I surprised everyone by showing up back at work on Monday, sooner than expected.
Many have asked me if, now that it’s summer, I actually have to go in to the office? The answer is yes; although the pace does significantly relax once we get past Commencement, my work goes on year-round. My summer programs for high school students are about to start, incoming freshmen come and go for orientation, I have graduate students taking a summer course, and then there’s the planning for the fall semester activities and programs and the start of the academic year. I’m in charge of the undergraduate accreditation reviews and now’s when we (I) prepare for the five reviews coming up this next year. By the first week of August, we are back in high gear.
Akemi, in the meantime, has moved into her new apartment, getting settled with her new roommates, assembling furniture, and cooking in her first kitchen. I’ve mailed care packages of soba noodles, S & B Golden Curry, mapo dofu packets, and other “necessities” I missed when I lived on the east coast. I’m sure they can be found now but necessarily not in her small local grocery store. Too bad our local Mexican food stuffs don’t ship quite as well. She’s designing new experiments for the Museum of Science on her internship, and had fun helping some children in French the other day. Between her internship hours and summer restrictions on the access to the Tufts Performing Arts Center, she is confounded in getting in enough practice time, her perpetual dilemma. And doing some computer modeling with the Tufts Spatial Cognition Lab just got added into the mix. No moss is growing on that stone.
In keeping with all good wishes Irish and in keeping up with all that is needful and pleasing to the Lord, I share with you this prayer that I came across and saved:
This day I call to me:
God’s strength to direct me,
God’s power to sustain me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s vision to light me,
God’s ear to my hearing,
God’s word to my speaking,
God’s hand to uphold me,
God’s pathway before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s legions to save me.
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