A Visit with Justin, in a way…

Shoveling through papers and notes that need to be filed, I tried to tuck just one more stack of papers in an already bulging file of class notes from past years of teaching, wouldn’t you know the hanging pendaflex folder said “no more” and the lot of it fell to the floor. Of course I was working on a top drawer so the acceleration and distance of descent made for a spectacular design on the floor. Often times it is not the big stuff that derails our day, but the small stuff.

Gathering up papers and notes, now empty file folders…sighing all the while…I made one large frightful looking pile of papers going every which way and stacked them on a precarious tower of stuff that was already sorta scary looking before I added  the stack of papers now to be sorted.

With half a heart, I began the tedious task of sorting through papers that I didn’t want to look at or think about….and there, very unexpectedly I found copies of two emails from Justin when he was in college. I saved every email he sent me from the first day he  started college, it was not unusual for us to correspond quite frequently and we are blessed to have almost five years of his little anecdotes, insights, sometimes his frustration and weariness in letter form.  He was extraordinarily generous in sharing his time and life with us. How these two were in this bundle, I am not sure. I keep his emails in a separate file, not all of them printed out even, but all saved electronically.

The first one I read was like a visit from my boy, I could hear his voice so full of life and see his smile. It was dated September 18, 2006, five years almost to the date of me spilling all the papers on the floor.

Subject: Words from Fr. Dominic

Hello,

Fr. Dominic’s weekly letter in the bulletin from the first week of school (yeah….I just got around to reading it now) has some wonderful words of wisdom.  I wish I could include the whole letter, but the last few sentences were especially poetic.  He writes, “Yesterday is history, learn from it.  Tomorrow is a mystery, we should not be anxious about it but must put our trust in God.  Today is a gift, that is why it is called the “present”, we must make the very best use of it.  May the good Lord bless you and grant your every success through the coming school year.”

Going back to my “present” now. Hope all is well. Talk to you later!

Love,

Justin

Hello my baby,  know you can’t visit long, may your “present” be the eternal peace and light of our Good Shepherd.  All is well, we miss you, but all is well. Living in the hope that we will talk to you later.

Love you forever,

Mom