Giving Thanks

Tonight at sunset walking on the snowy road,

my shoes crunching on the frozen gravel, first

through the woods, then out into the open fields

past a couple of trailers and some pickup trucks, I stop

and look at the sky. Suddenly: orange, red, pink, blue,

green, purple, yellow, gray, all at once and everywhere.

I pause in this moment at the beginning of my old age

and I say a prayer of gratitude for getting to this evening

a prayer for being here, today, now, alive

in this life, in this evening, under this sky.  David Budbill

I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, the days of my life, already lived, and held like a legend, and understood. The knowing comes: I can open to another life that's wide and timeless. So I am sometimes like a tree rustling over a gravesite and making real the dream of the one it's living roots embrace: a dream once lost among sorrow and songs.  Rainer Maria Rilke

I remember all the different kinds of years.  Angry, or brokenhearted, or afraid.

I remember feeling like that walking up the mountain along the dirt path to my broken house on the Island.

And long years of waiting in Massachusetts.  The winter walking and the hot summer walking..

I finally fell in love with all of it.: dirt, night, rock and far views.

It's strange that my heart is as full now as my desire was then.   Linda Greg

Reflections on turning 70.  Of where I have been, what is a part of me...Memories kept, just for me.  Where I am going...and coming to peace with aging.  I don't think we have to like the numbers but we should live the life that is given to us...in joy and celebration.  Some never get the chance to be older, some never get a chance to forgive the past and celebrate the future. Enjoy the great memories and finally live in the moment every day...giving thanks for this life of mine...I know it's value and I'm full of gratitude for those who have joined me on this journey now and those that were with me in the past...I sure hope the 70's are going to rock and roll...gotta keep on moving...