Truluv


“We all know that something is eternal.  And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars – everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings.”

–Thorton Wilder – a quote at the beginning of the book The Story of Arthur Truluv

Summer has arrived, and my husband and I are now settled into our summer home in Eagle River Wisconsin. Up here I make time to read.  I must admit that I am often pulled into “spiritual learning” books.  It is dangerous for me to get into my email where I hear about new offerings and I can be off, engrossed in reading for hours.  Authors/speakers such as Parker Palmer and Wayne Dyer have caught my attention lately.  I also love to read novels and mysteries!  My hammock usually calls to me about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.  What a great place to read.

Recently my next-door neighbor, who knows me well, suggested a book that I absolutely loved; The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg.  Elizabeth is an accomplished author, having won a number of awards and one of her books made the Oprah Book Club. I had not heard of her. In this book, she brings together so many of the themes that we have been thinking about; ageing, loss, continuation of life in the “ever-life”, experiencing joy, living from the heart, letting your LIGHT shine, living your gifts and passions, making lemonade out of lemons, finding peace.

Arthur Moses, the main character of Berg’s book, has recently lost his wife.  He is eighty-five.  One of the ways he is staying connected to her is by going to the cemetery every day to have lunch with his deceased wife Nola.  He no longer drives, so he packs his lunch and heads to the bus station and walks to her grave site.  This has been his routine for the past six months, rain or shine – or wind and snow. Finally, spring has arrived.   On his way, he “makes connection” with the people that are named on the grave stones.  He says, “It is happening more and more that when he stands beside a grave, his hat in hand, part of a person’s life story reaches him like the yeasty scent from the bakery he passes every day on his way to the bus stop.”  He has an ability to make a connection with the life of the person otherwise unknown to him.

One day he makes a connection to a living person that he notices is there in the cemetery too at lunch times.  A young teenager named Maddy, sitting with her back against a grave stone.  He waves – and she turns showing fear, but eventually they connect.  Arthur notices her, “spiky black hair, pale skin, big eyes.  Jeans all ripped like kids do.  T-shirt that looks like it’s hanging on a hanger…her nose ring.” She has been teased and bullied at school for years.  Why me?  She just can’t figure out why they don’t like her. Now when the taunts come her way, she thinks – yep, that’s me.  The cemetery brings peace to Maddy.  She wishes her mother was buried here instead of being cremated.  Her mother died in a car accident two weeks after her birth, and her father, in his grief, has never known how to connect emotionally with her.  She is an invested, talented student.  She is also disconnected, confused, and unhappy.

What brings this book to life for me is its connection to all that I have been learning since my Spiritually Transformative Experience (STE) that I called my LIGHT Experience in our book, The Light Gap:  God’s Amazing Presence. 

Sharing

“Oneness with our Source is achieved by becoming like it, and its essence is giving and sharing…When we ask the Universe, ‘How may I share?’ the Universe says, ‘You are a being of sharing, and I return the same energy back to you.’ ”

-– Wayne Dyer – taken from Living an Inspired Life.

Arthur seemed to be a person of Spirit who shared without thinking that there was another way.  Ultimately, three characters in this book The Story of Arthur Trulov, share their lives and resources, bringing joy and purpose back into their broken lives.  Injuries and mistakes are no longer the focus of their lives but are the catalyst for new opportunities, and renewed life.

Growing Old, Growing Up


“When young and old connect, it’s like joining the poles of a battery.”

– Parker Palmer – in his new book On the Brink of Everything

 

 

 

 

 

This description applies to the story of Arthur and Maddy!

Speaker/writer Parker Palmer is getting close to 80 years old and in his new book, he is reflecting on a question that we all do sometimes as we age, “Does my life have meaning?”  Parker Palmer says we are asking the wrong question, therefore getting the wrong answer.  So what is the answer?

“At the moment, I rest easy with the notion that I don’t need to answer the question, ‘Does my life have meaning?’ All I need do is to keep living as one among many as well as I can, hoping to help myself and others grow ripe with life and love as we stand under the sun.”

– Parker Palmer – in his new book On the Brink of Everything

Arthur’s neighbor Lucille is aging and is feeling lost.  Arthur seems to have figured life
out.  Not one thing is the same without his Nola, but he is thinking he might still like to live to be one hundred.  He still sees the Light – the Spirit in life.  He sees the new possibilities.  It gives his life purpose in a way he could never have predicted.

Let’s remind ourselves often, the power to change and grow is within each one of us.  We each have a unique blue print.  There is a quantum field of energy around us.  When we connect to that field, we are in flow.  We connect to the intelligence that builds bridges of love, of light, and of understanding.

Read!  We are good enough right now.  We learn with the help of others.  Growing in understanding is such fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Comments on “Truluv

  1. How inspiring! I love the battery analogy. I think one of the most misguided customs in our country is that of keeping the oldest generation apart from the youth. Our culture worships youth but as with all idealized persons we isolate them terribly….

    • Hi Heidi,
      As I was reading this statement by Parker Palmer it hit me like a “light bulb” going on! We need each other. As Parker was saying, it is about mentoring – both directions! Yes, it is sad but we are isolating the elderly instead of finding ways to be together so that passing on their wisdom occurs.

      • Great to hear from you Heidi!

        Yes, we need each other in our families and in our lives full of loving and caring people! There is a wisdom that comes with age and it is special indeed when it gets passed on to children at an age when it can make such a difference in their lives. And it is always a two way street when we realize we never stop learning at any age!

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