10 minute vision

i did say we boarded a chopper, didn't i? a side offering of the great ocean drive that i took family along...

and the view from the cockpit just underneath a canvas of space. the white winds and blue surfs of sky. nothing but miles of land and ocean. hard to believe i was right there, almost touching the tip of a continent.

i look back and see the weeks ending. all too soon. gone so soon. still, the vision is pure; the height and depth of my thanksgiving.

a home to belong

family visited for the week. it is good to travel again and see the years of common growth and conflict maturing into a kind of richness & quiet depth i cannot find elsewhere. some say we can choose our friends but not our family. leunig once penned these thoughtful lines in one of his collection: 'Love one another and you will be happy. It is as simple and as difficult as that. There is no other way.' indeed, there is no other way. seems like a constraint on the surface but a decision and a necessary commitment, for a lifetime. it's a daily miracle i have learnt to behold and treasure on my hands.

it speaks for all families. given, gifted, happened indeed. the first face of the beloved and of God for me.

my best memories of the many trips we took: sis, children and me playing & scattering autumn leaves on a wide expanse of grass...dad , sis , ig & myself boarding a chopper overseeing the ocean, veron feeding wild parakeets in the rain and mom finally, learning to see. another picture of autumn- blessing the days that went by so swiftly. and yet, are there to stay.

some portions of our lives will require us walk a road we would rather not go. but there is only one way, and no other. there is little else to do except to stretch out your hands and be willing to be led. i'm glad i did, and was given a grace to follow through.

retracing

and bearing the silence, you hear your name. spoken in time, and pushed back again. there is only so much left to say. polite talk takes us nowhere. i thought once was enough. and then, it came back and the haunt begins . this grieving must stop. get back on feet. will afford to have less. not the first time. i will be ok.

waiting once...

Tis better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all...

lord alfred tennyson