#45.2, Tues., June 6, 2023

Historical setting: 602 C.E. A cottage in the Vosges

         The full burden of my absence and the travels of his older brothers puts huge responsibility onto our ten-year-old, Simon.  He is so careful with details and so mindful of the habits of farm chores that we really depend on him for the daily chores – stacking the wood, storing the harvests of the winter crops, minding the needs of the animals – all these things fell onto him in this crisis. I’m amazed in watching these children achieving so much beyond their years that I let myself loose sight of Simon and all his hard work to maintain the normalcy of every day. May these days of healing allow me a peaceful time to appreciate all of our children growing in their own ways.

         This springtime day remembers winter with a cold wind and relentless drizzle. I hear my children in the main room by the fire working on their lessons.  Ten-year-old Simon and four-year-old Haberd are pressing letters into the wax boards to practice shaping letters with a stylus. I overhear as Simon is being corrected, as usual, by his younger sister complaining about the spacing of his letters. Hannah is relentless when it comes to the layout of the full page, while Simon is probably taking great pains to get the swirl of the “E” perfect and the tail of the “Y” precisely aligned with the hoop of the “G.” Then little Haberd gets right into this thing of picking on Simon with his critique of this older brother’s bulky “L.”

         I hurt for this child. Who would notice if he saved our harvests and supplied our firewood? The animals know he cares for each as though it were his own brother. He knows which hen is suffering from melancholy, and it matters to him that the mule perks his ears when he speaks. I hurt for this child who is always being criticized by his siblings yet tries so hard to get every little detail correct.

         “Simon, I want to talk with you.” I call to him into this room.

         I can see he is uncomfortable standing at the bedside of this bedridden parent.

         “Yes, Papa.”

         “Simon, with your brothers away we don’t need to spend so much time working on the psalms and the chants.”

         “It’s okay Papa.  I’m trying to keep practicing them anyway. I was thinking of Psalm 139, but I can’t remember what comes after ‘when I rise up.’”

(Continues tomorrow)