AN EMAIL
Dearest Colleen
A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning up and I found a series of old notes between you and I from way back in our Briercrest days.* You sent me a poem by Madeleine L’Engle poem (or is it Luci Shaw?) where it mentions her friend polishing her silver? It is a poem celebrating their friendship and work together I have always thought of it as a gentler feminine version of the Bible's as "iron sharpens iron." In my note back to you I said, "thank you for polishing my silver." And I thank you again.
much much blessing be upon you,
*About 6 years ago.
A POEM
(found in Friends for the Journey by Madeleine L’Engle and Luci Shaw)
Madeleine’s Candlesticks
by Luci Shaw
Zabar’s, a New York Saturday morning, I bought
a box of rosy pillar candles, stacked
like quadruplets in the womb, for her four
silver candlesticks which stand, flanking
the orange tulips at table center, tall
and elegant as Madeleine herself. Flames
have danced their highlights on the
visiting faces around the oval table ever since
the sterling quartet was willed to her.
Every visit I search the kitchen for
the soft cotton rags and the clay-colored polish
(a favor; her maid “doesn’t do silver”).
One afternoon, buffing away, I noticed her name,
misspelled “Madeleine,” etched dark and faint
along one elliptical base. I knew then I was polishing
not just her treasures but my friend, burnishing
with the well-worn cloth of friendship her silver
self, lifting the light tarnish of time and wear.
Like my shining her words into their
places in her books; like her lighting
blooms of fire in a thousand shadowed minds.
THREE NAMES
I first knew as Kathleen as Kathy in the fall of 1998. Everyone knew her as Kathy. She grew up answering to Kathy. But during the time I knew her at Briercrest, she experienced a beautiful transformation that was both visible (her appearance) and invisible (her spirit). She went from sweet and smart, to graceful and wise. With the transformation, she wanted to start using her full name, Kathleen. She had already borne and was homeschooling three children, she ran a home business, managed her household competently and creatively, was completing a BA, and more, yet the choice to go from Kathy to Kathleen seemed to signal a shift from girl to woman. Loving it, I was among the first to call her Kathleen. It’s always a surprise to hear people call her anything else.
My friend Judith did the same. She grew up as Judy. She married, made a home, mothered two daughters, and was close to becoming a grandmother when she realized she had outgrown Judy and had grown into her full name, Judith: a decisive, mature, and comforting name.
Then there’s Eden whose name used to be Edith. Edith is a respectable name, somehow matronly, but Eden signifies new and fruitful life, rich and welcoming. This is Eden . Since changing her name, she has been ordained as a pastor in her church and her husband says both the name and the role fit her perfectly.
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