A special Maureen and Maria day
06/15/2004 01:23 a.m.
After years of friendship on poesie and on here, I heard Maria Massarella on my phone tonight, for the first time ever, when she treated me to a wonderful chat. On a hot Ottawa day that began for me with a stab of lightening and then thunder waking me at four in the morning, and three hours later, after a little sleep in between, the sounds of my daughter coming in to kiss me goodbye before leaving for her plane trip east. I rested off and on during the day, feeling unusually weary. Meanwhile, I'm cleaning house a bit and planning for our upcoming trip to Manitoba.

But the outdoor blooms from the garden and the gentleness of ferns waving coolly in the breezes, seemed to come right into my kitchen at the sound of Maria’s voice. It was like she had entered my world, and stepped right up to the back porch by the pond. It was early evening here, so after I heard her say "Maureen - Maria from Italy", and I repeated "Maria from Italy?" excitedly, I excused myself a moment and turned down the stove and the radio. It was a good time for both she and I to be awake and enjoy a splendid long talk. I had advised my husband and daughter since Saturday that Maria may be calling, (I think they thought I was imagining it, we don’t have a lot of long long distance callers or calls out) Maria from Italy, Australia, poesie and pathetic, and as warm and close-sounding as I’d dreamt she’d be. I can confirm, just like I’d often thought, from her writings, that she and I share the same philosophies and approaches to adversity and keep our senses of humour through trial. And our spirituality. There are many similarities, it seems, though I feel I flatter myself. She is so brilliant. We've both loved working in the school system, for the personal reward of the education field and interaction with literacy and youth, (not hugely financially gaining but a pleasure and growth for us) and love languages, just for starters. Both have a daughter and son and mature marriages. We laugh at the same experiences, refuse to cry over the same others. Unless there's a good point in crying. Or a real release needed. But we refused to dwell on the whys of our challenges or let them dominate our day-to-day growth. We've benefitted from the care of angels and nuns, believe in visions and prayer overall in healing, and pursueing the best health care possible. And that Cancer patients have rights, and should not be disgraced or neglected. I will have more to say, about the call, I’m sure, but just want to revel in it this evening, a hot day here, not too hot in Italy at all, a day when I was feeling unusually weary and imagining my daughter’s arrival in Halifax, from her first flight ever, and happy when she called in the morning to say she’d arrived safely and her friends had met her, for her four day stay there. She was already enjoying the coast and catching up with dear friends. Valerie was last in Halifax when we as a family drove down, when she was 7, her brother l0, and took our vacation in Nova Scotia and in P.E.I. A beautiful part of the world I'll revisit myself whenever I can.


The day was doubly intriguing and cheering as it also brought to me Maria’s lovely conversation. I will sleep tonight seeing the harbours of Nova Scotia and the groves of Italy in my dreams, I’m sure. Ciao, Maria, and keep listening to all your angels. Grazie.


I am currently Cheerful