{"id":821,"date":"2014-10-06T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=821"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:10","slug":"oct-6-nancy-toth-1958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/10\/06\/oct-6-nancy-toth-1958\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct 6 – Nancy Toth + 1958"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0October 6 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u201cHow I was glad he\u2019d stopped me there”<\/p>\n

Making oatmeal and tea this morning I felt sad. \u00a0 \u00a0Several good friends have lost someone too young to lose; \u00a0others have been orphaned while keeping watch with someone much older. \u00a0Some soul friends carry wounds lodged in their flesh and memories. \u00a0Me too. \u00a0 How many of the 1612 members on our list woke today close to grief? \u00a0How many woke fresh with the beauty and the play of life? \u00a0 Or maybe both. \u00a0Or maybe we just grunted a little, got out of bed, and prepped for a work day. \u00a0No matter how we woke, it\u2019s a safe bet that we are more beautiful than we usually notice.<\/p>\n

It happens that, on this day, \u00a0A woman died who is beautiful to me.\u00a0\u00a0 In October 1958, I spent a month working at a hospital in Oshkosh WI, part of ordinary training for baby Jesuits. \u00a0 Nancy Toth \u00a0met me there. \u00a0Cancer was stretching her gaunt and tired and near death. \u00a0 I was a teen-ager trying to manage cathaters and bed pans and closeness to sick people. \u00a0 It amazes me still, that \u00a0she found the inner energy to welcome me. \u00a0 I wonder what she made of that earnest 18 year old boy, \u00a0searching for an identity? \u00a0 \u00a0I like to think she sparkled with amusement and affection, no matter her deathly fatigue.<\/p>\n

Have a good day even if those Lions and Tigers lost yesterday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/b><\/p>\n

I came across a poem about a turtle trying to cross a road. \u00a0Feels like good stuff for the 1st day of the week. \u00a0 The poet\u2019s boy car driver reminds me of Nancy. \u00a0Dying she was, but she found a way to stop me in my tracks and show me the human.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Interruption\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A boy had stopped his car
\nTo save a turtle in the road;
\nI was not far
\nBehind, and slowed,
\nAnd stopped to watch as he began
\nTo shoo it off into the undergrowth\u2014
\nThis wild reminder of an ancient past,
\nLumbering to some Late Triassic bog,
\nTill it was just a rustle in the grass,
\nTill it was gone.
\nI hope I told him with a look
\nAs I passed by,
\nHow I was glad he\u2019d stopped me there,
\nAnd what I felt for both
\nOf them, something I took
\nTo be a kind of love,
\nAnd of a troubled thought
\nI had, for man,
\nOf how we ought
\nTo let life go on where
\nAnd when it can.<\/p>\n

Robert S Foote \u00a0The Hidden Light: Poems<\/span> (2012)<\/p>\n

\"Robert-Foote\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTurtle Crossing Road\u201d photograph by Malcolm MacGregor , May 22, 2013<\/p>\n

\"Turtle-Crossing-Road\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0October 6 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u201cHow I was glad he\u2019d stopped me there” Making oatmeal and tea this morning I felt sad. \u00a0 \u00a0Several good friends have lost someone too young to lose; \u00a0others have been orphaned while keeping watch with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}