Wednesday, January 13, 2010

FORSAKE YOUR SOCKS

Today we hear from Isak Dinesen that "...these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way..." This is what Hickman calls "a costly wisdom". It's even more costly if we waste it. How many do you know who allowed grief to embitter them? Did pain drive them apart and create a recluse?
Mae Sarton had received a call and been told Vincent had had a brain hemorrhage and another friend had heart trouble. She journaled, "How fragile we all are! How lucky to be alive at all!" I think she was speaking as an elder to an elder. I certainly recognize my growing limitations . I also realize I'm closer to the end of this earth journey than most people around the planet. Yes, nearly everyone in the world is younger than I am but I still have dreams, ambitious plans and great adventures before me.
Willa Cather penned, "So I recall our day of passion yet, With sighs of tenderness, but no regret." Mary O, "...by the laws of their faith not logic, they (egrets) opened their wings softly and stepped over every dark thing." Today I will be an egret and step over obstacles.
According to Clay Jenkinson, Jeffereson had a friend who was "willing to die because he'd grown tired of putting his stockings on in the morning." It's difficult to imagine anything so ridiculous! He could have given up his stockings and enjoyed his limited time on this fabulous earth. He could have given up his shoes as well. He could have run barefoot through Boston or Williamsburg screaming, "Freedom! Beauty! Love!"
I have a small sturdy notebook that I carry with me to jot down titles and authors of books and movies. I imagine myself at a banquet where I feast from a vast cornucopia of ideas. This is not my first such notebook, several have been filled and discarded. Do not think me morbid but I wonder if this will be my last. Yesterday I counted 225 entries and added one more, "Coconut Cures" by Fife. Of course many (118) have been crossed out. I have either read, viewed or lost interest in them. Some are not easily found in local libraries as they are too old, too new or too obscure.


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