REMEMBER . . .

In a few days we will celebrate, as a nation, Memorial Day. We will honor those who have fallen in the service of our country, as well as those in other countries who also gave their lives.

In this time of COVID, our thoughts turn also to all the medical people who have died in the battle to save lives.

Our best and highest calling is to remember . . .

• our loved ones, whom we no longer see
• the contributions they made to our lives, and to Life
• and to share our memories with those who have come after us

And while we're remembering, let us honor our friends and family who have died, some of them many years ago, perhaps in battles with disease and aging, but having lived their lives and whom we knew. They live on in our memories and in ourselves.

So let us remember . . . and give thanks.

Here is a quotation from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross:

GOOD MORNING!!

Today we're celebrating all the Morning People--you know who you are!--you love to get up early, see the day open up, listen to birds singing the day awake, and put your feet on the floor, find your slippers, and toddle out to the coffee maker (or the electric tea pot) and hit the BREW NOW button.

Now I know I'm speaking to only a segment of the readership today--maybe fifty percent? I like to think that's a good estimate. So for all of you who are up and ready to read and will appreciate good thoughts about waking early, here's a poem for you. It's by Mary Oliver, American poet (1935-2019):

                                  Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety—

 

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light—

good morning, good morning, good morning.

 

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

 

This poem was published in 2004 in a collection called Why I Wake Early.

Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28. Thereafter she published one or two books a year--sometimes poetry, sometimes prose--celebrating the natural world. She was born in Ohio, lived in various places, and chose as her last residence the woods and hills of Massachusetts. In later life, she moved to Florida.

For more poems, check out the website of The Poetry Foundation for her work.

Mary Oliver won many awards, among them a Pulitzer in 1984, the PEN/New England award in 1991, and the National Book Award in 1992.

Here's a thought from Mary Oliver that we can all take to heart:

Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.

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And we leave you with a piece of advice from poet Mary Oliver:

                      You must not ever stop being whimsical . . . .

photo: Rachel Geise Brown

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

Yesterday I drove through the countryside from my home to another small town to meet friends for lunch. Our meeting place is about halfway between our two houses.

And I saw many lovely things, Nature's offerings for our enjoyment:

• more flowering trees than I remembered from other years--pink ones, white ones, tall ones, short ones.
• yellow "flowers" along the roadside--at 50 mph I couldn't quite figure them out; then after a while I recognized a few of the yellow heads had gone to seed and then it was obvious--dandelions! I even love to see the ones with fluffy heads, though not in my yard.
• also yellow somethings in the unplowed fields, which I seemed to recall were a flowering mustard plant; not, apparently, the mustard bush of Biblical times, because these never get get more than six inches or so above the ground.
• in town, trees are outdoing each other to see who has the most leaves with the most green--or red, in some cases (Japanese maples, some of them).

Back home, I discovered birds of many feathers had discovered our recently filled feeders. There'll be another filling session this weekend no doubt. One suet cake is already down to crumbs. But then, this is the breeding season, and birds need more protein during this time.

On my front porch hangs a new flowering basket of fuchsia, a Mother's Day gift from my Ohio daughter. Elsewhere in the yard peonies, resurrection lily, narcissi, hostas, and some things I don't remember the names of are all not only up, they're straining skyward. Others won't bloom until fall, but foliage is already gung-ho. The rhubarb looks like a pie in the making.

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A lot of little things make me happy. Those flowers and trees and blooming weeds don't need to be appreciated. But their exuberant color adds joy to my days. We've had plenty of cloudy, rainy, stormy days already, and there'll be more. What I see in Nature reminds me that clouds and rain and storms aren't all there is to life. And thanks be for that.

Other things that make me happy--lunch with friends; the little phone bag my friend made and gave me when we had lunch yesterday; air conditioning to help us sleep on these suddenly hot nights; summer clothes that still fit this year; new books to read; library services (I'm in love with Evergreen, who keeps providing me with DVDs of a series no longer being streamed on the channels I get).

The worst part of spring--oho! you didn't think I'd say anything bad about spring, did you?--well, there is a part I don't appreciate: Allergies. Fortunately they don't last forever (it just seems like it). And I wouldn't be without the flowers that provide the pollen that drives my sinuses and eyes and nose crazy. What a drab world that would be.

Better to celebrate the things that make me happy, because then I can pass along some of my joy in Nature and her bounty to other folks who may have lost their zest for spring and flowers and leafing-out trees.

Wishing you happy days in your life!

Til next time,

Blessings from Thursday's Child

TRA LA, IT'S MAY!

May is the fifth month of the year. We're already nearly a week into it, so we can easily see ourselves on the long slide down to summer and then . . . .

But let's not go there.

Let's celebrate MAY. This month has all kinds of great reasons to celebrate, so I'll pick Mother's Day, which is coming up very, very soon, and let one of my favorite moms give us some insights into this holiday.

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Consider these gems from Erma Bombeck:

When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: 'Checkout Time is 18 years.'

One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child's name and how old he or she is.

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Not all of Erma's wisdom is in jest. She also wrote:

Children make your life important.

It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.
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We may quarrel with her opinions, but Erma and her humor did a lot to keep young moms like me from pulling out our hair or hiding in a closet until the kids moved out.

Thank you, Erma, you were an angel here on earth in your time.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you--and if you're not a mom, you have/had one. Give thanks!