Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We got some REAL rain last night, and this morning, as we walked with our daughter and eleven month old grandson, we noticed many branches down and one car smashed from the wind. We live in an area with huge trees, and many old ones, so it's not surprising. There may even be lightening tomorrow. I was awakened this morning by a call from a cousin in the midwest who was informing me of the decline of one of my aunts. My mother was one of 13 children, and now many of those are dead or dying. One of my favorite aunts was the mother of this cousin who called, and she described again her mother's decline after her son died of cancer. My cousin didn't realize how telling me that her mother gave up living after his death was not the most tactful, but I am really only an abstract being to her, after not being in the same room for over thirty years. I listened, because that is what she really wanted, to her life and heart problems and back problems and expressed sympathy. She first reached out to me when my brother died six years ago, but though I appreciated the thought, the conversation was all about her and her husband's health issues. She appears to be a little bit short on the empathy spectrum. Anyway, I heard some news, which I will not act on in any way. The laws of aging are in effect everywhere, not just in my family. We bear up as best we can, and pray for those suffering. Our turn will come, but for now, I'm appreciating my health, family, and friends.