LIFELONG LOVE LETTER

Some people think of family as an endless book where each day they engage in completing another chapter…in writing another page

Some people think of family as an endless song with notes varied and diverse…where each day they add another tune…another melody another verse.

Though both of these are appealing I find, for me, it is much better…when I think of my family..to think in terms of a lifelong love letter.

A letter started long ago…I know not when or where…written through the centuries with thoughtfulness and care.

A letter written by a million hands…young and old and new…a letter any family member can add their thoughts and feelings to.

This love letter is special to my family…we are the ones who see…within this letter…the constant rebuilding and rearranging of our family.

But here is where it gets interesting…mysterious even madcap…in the way so many of all our family love letters blend together…overlap.

For as we write a little every day how often do we find…I end up in your love letter…and you end up in mine.

For in this letter not only members born into my family will you see…but friends I’ve met along the way…who have become my family. 

If you’re looking for its beauty and its power once the seeds of love are sown…the proof is in our love letters…and how large our families have grown.

And if we’re lucky…

when our writing days are done…

another family member will pick up the pen…thus extending…

this love letter….started long ago…

that, hopefully…will never have an ending..

 

WHILE WATCHING WHALES SLEEP

 

I love watching whales sleep…it is one of nature’s wonderful adaptations…

how they’re able to sleep while floating in the water…in a kind of suspended animation.

I love how we are alike in many ways to our colossal companions of the deep…

but in particular…in the peaceful way our two species sleep.

Sleep is where our dreams come to life…where like a movie before us they stream…

I wonder while suspended in sleep…of what do whales dream?

Would we be surprised to discover…their dreams are similar to ours…

that they dream of a peaceful ocean…or what it’s like to touch the stars.

That they dream of floating carefree with a food supply that never ends

that they dream of moments from their past spent with family and friends…

When observing our two species…we don’t have to look very far

to see how truly similar we humans and whales are.

We are born, 

we eat, 

we breathe…

we love, 

we die…

we weep.

all things we realize we share…

while watching whales sleep.

SOME MORNING MUSINGS

As I looked around me on my walk this morning I began to wonder about creation…was it a BIG bang…or was it small…then I began to wonder how any of this…any of us…were created after all.

Were we created by a supreme being…a God…in whose presence we’d be awed…and, if so, when you stop to think about it…who created God?

But today as house after house filled with families I found myself walking by…I started wondering less about who and how we were created…and wondering more about why.

Since love created most of us and the place we all began to bloom was in the warmth…the safety…the security of our mother’s womb…I wonder if that’s one tacit way our creator makes it known…that none of us is meant to walk through life alone.

Perhaps we’re meant to walk as we were created…in love and kindness…among family and friends…from the moment we are created…until the moment our life ends.

And since we share how we enter the world with every other human who upon this planet dwell…perhaps we’re meant to discover all the other things we have in common as well.

I wonder if, when the Gods were creating, if they made one special person who…was created just for me..and, if so, one for you?

And what if sex, religion, color didn’t matter to all those Gods above…what if the only thing that matters to them what that we find our one true love.

What if life is to be a quest…over mountains, into valleys, across rivers, lakes and shores…to find that special person whom we were created for?

And when you discover that person (trust me…when you find them you will know!) what if our hearts were created in such a way…we will never let them go?

What if, when we find them, in our heart a perpetual light turns on…a light that will keep burning…even after they are gone?

And what if you haven’t found that person…what if you haven’t yet been blessed…are you meant to keep on looking…to never stop your quest?

As I came to the end of my walk I realized these are questions whose answers, hopefully, one day I will find…until then I am more than happy to leave these musings to greater minds than mine.

Happy every day just to walk through life elated…not knowing who or how or why…but giving thanks for their Earth…for their nature…for their animals…for their love and for the world that they created.

 

WAITING PATIENTLY

 Watching friends come together after 50 years I remember thinking…how cool!  How they all met as strangers in their neighborhoods or school.

And I thought about how they all first met…was it awkward…tentative…or sweet?  (Which, when you stop to think about it, is the way most strangers meet).

I imagine, from this uncertain beginning, a relationship extends when strangers find they have a lot in common…when strangers become friends.

A friendship strengthened by their laughter…by sharing hopes and dreams…by holding on to one another as they ride through life’s extremes.

But life is unpredictable…how often does it surprise…astound…amaze…and after high school many of these friends departed…they went their separate ways.

I imagine they parted amid some sadness…yet happy with what they achieved…for they were able to give the gift of friendship…and the gift of friendship they received.

Then years slip by (perhaps 50) until they meet again…this meeting more familiar…more tenderhearted…it’s as if no time was lost between them…as if they never parted.

And I felt privileged to be observing one of life’s wonders…shared only among old friends…how friendship has no time limit…how its memory never ends.

How true friendships are never over…how true friends never say goodbye…how, even after 50 years, true friendships never die.

Yes…it’s a secret old friends understand that new friends will, one day, learn:

how friendship dwells within the heart…

waiting patiently to return.

UGLY TREE?

 

Ugly is an ugly word…whether in prose or in a rhyme…and I apologize for not only using it thrice already…but in this poem…you’ll see it three more times.

On a walk the other day a man and woman a little distance ahead of me…looked up and said simultaneously…”That…is one ugly tree”.

They walked on…unaware of their disrespect…of this I have no doubt…

but I found my interest piqued…so I stopped to check it out.

What I saw was an old palm tree…its fronds a faded brown…

the tree was standing tall…but its fronds were pointing down.

As I looked up at this tree…I found myself enthralled…for it seemed to me, in its old age…this tree was going bald.

I imagine, like some of us humans, this happens to some old trees as their life begins its slowing…but out of the baldness of this tree…another tree was growing!

Another seed had found its way…perhaps flown in on the wind…and landed in the place where this palm’s fronds had thinned.

By the grace of Mother Nature…this fortunate seed was sown…

on top of that old palm tree…where it’s taken root…and grown.

The tree I saw was not an ugly tree…something quite different instead…

I saw one old tree happily taking care of a new tree growing from its head.

I saw an old but younger looking palm tree…who, now that the seed has grown…realizes for the rest of her life…she will never stand alone.

No…I could never call this tree ugly…

not just because to do so would be mean...

but because it happens to be one of the most beautiful trees…

I have ever seen.

OUR MUSIC WAS/IS THE BEST

 

It’s funny how each generation thinks their music is the best

that the songs of their youth are the best songs…

and how each generation knows that they are right…

and every other generations out there must be wrong…

For instance my generation listened to the Beatles, the Jackson 5…

we felt like dancing…we came alive.

We listened to James Taylor and Stevie Wonder too.

Karen Carpenter…what a voice…Simon and Garfunkel was a choice,

we listened to Three Dog Night and a band called the Guess Who.

There was Norman Greenbaum, the Temptations…the tunes of our young generation

with the music playing our heartbeats all increased.

We could have been a little smarter…we did listened to Patches by Clarence Carter

okay, we were eclectic to say the least.

Neil Diamond kept us grooving…The Supremes kept us moving

We listened to 8 track tapes inside our cars.

We sang along with the Kinks and Four Tops…we danced without shoes at sock hops

Credence Clearwater Revival we affectionately called CCR.

In sharing this music with each other…we became our sisters and our brothers.

We liked the way the music moved…we liked its rhyme.

Why…is difficult to say…but music had a way

of linking us all together over time.

And though it’s hard now to behold…how we and our music have grown old

separated by time and often distance

I’m sure my generation would agree…even those who sang off-key

those songs were vital to the heart of our existence.

Which is why we not only have a knack…but we love looking back…

and listening to those wonderful old songs…

I imagine that’s why whenever we hear…a song from our past…we cheer

and why we pump up the volume…and sing along.

So my case…I must now rest…it’s plain the music from my generation is the best…

and why the songs from our youth are the best songs…

And though you might have the temptation…to think the same about your generation..

I’m sorry to say…you would be wrong.

CHILDREN OF THE '60'S AND EARLY '70'S

Deborah’s 50th high school reunion starts today…one year late

because of Covid last year it was dismissed…

but vaccinated and wearing a mask this year she’s attending

which gives me this opportunity to reminisce…

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

We stood up for kindness…for peace and love

our symbols were the peace sign…the flower and the dove

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

It’s when we first experienced war and killing and bombs

in a place many of us had not heard of before…in the south of Vietnam.

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

We learned how our world of psychedelic and tie-dyed colors could quickly turn to black

when some of us who fought in Vietnam…never made it back.

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

We were shaped but not defined by that war…

We were sure we saw the world a little differently than those who came before.

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

and many of us would grow up to be

more independent, 

more accepting

more innocent and free…

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

And though it’s been…now…quite a while

We know…even if our taste in clothing has changed…kindness…peace and love will never go out of style.

We were children of the ’60’s and early ’70’s…

Who are no longer children…who have grown

Who now have lives and families

children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of our own…

Who when we think about the last 50 years

often pause and wonder how…

How we children of the 60’s and early ’70's...are in our 60’s and early ’70’s now.