Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

The Hospice bereavement group started last night. Essentially, what is said in the room, stays in the room. For some reason, I thought everyone in the group would be exactly like me and have my exact same experience. Instead, the only thing that we have in common is that we are together at this same point, and the experiences that have brought us here are as different as we are.


One of the initial introductions, before we told the why, was to say our name and the person that has invited us here. (I think invite is my word, not the facilitator's. He may have said something to the effect of "Who have you lost?", but really Mom has invited me to this table.)


To say this was so very hard. And I think back to the words that I chose for Mom's funeral. "Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it." When I chose this cannon for Mom, these words were so important to me and what I had hoped for everyone that knew her.

So maybe this is the starting point.

My name is Robin. My Mom invited me here. Her name was Pat and I loved her very much.

Beginner's Greek - James Collins

You would not believe the effort that has gone in to me reading this book. The librarian recommended it, put it on hold for me. I was too late to pick it up the first time. Back on hold, I missed it again, somehow it gets put on the New Books shelf and I grab it. I don't read it. It goes back to the library, I get shamed by the librarian, back on hold and I finally pick it up.

My excuse was "I am in a strange reading place right now." And she tells me.. "Good, this is a strange book."

And, when I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. When I started, I never believed it would actually end how I hoped. Not that it isn't strange, but if you get a chance, pick this guy up.

As far as authors, I usually hang out in the "How to Build a Car from Scratch", anything from Reynold Price, an occasional biography and whatever series has a new book. [Honestly, I read about anything. My only requirement is that you are a prolific writer. If you happen to write good stuff, that is icing on the cake. What I read for work is so incredibly boring, cereal boxes are an entertaining read to me.]

My goal in life is to read the library. I want to start at the A's and work all the way to 999.99. [This will tell you how bad I am.. When they rearranged the shelves in the library, I was confused for weeks. How dare they move the R's to the next rack..]