PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I am grateful for understanding 

how every day I am alive

a different gift comes my way…

And I’m happy to wake up every morning 

unwrap the gift

and see where it leads me that day.

May we be blessed to understand

this life we have been given is a gift…

to this there can be no doubt…

and it’s up to us to use this gift…

to help each other out.

We tend to realize the older we grow

how in life there is a definite ebb and flow…

How sometimes the sun will shine 

making the landscape clear and bright

and other times our eyes have a hard time 

adjusting to the darkness of the night

When it’s bright outside…we laugh and play and run 

we try to enjoy and store in our memory 

every moment in the sun.

So when darkness falls and we can’t tell night from day

we’ll have those memories in the sun to help illuminate our way.

When sadness darkens our world

memories of the sunlight help us overcome our fears

reminding us there is joy out there 

Floating…in the wake of all our tears

Reminding us somewhere in our sorrow

if we look for joy…we’ll find it

and that every dark cloud…

will one day surrender…

to the sun …waiting patiently behind it.

Every milestone we meet is wonderful

but upon further inspection…

Every milestone is just a reminder

that we are heading in the right direction

We were talking with a friend over dinner the other night…

(as friends have a tendency to do)…

when we started sharing memories from a more distant point of view.

Birthdays, weddings, funerals, vacations, people we’ve met

from a place where memories begin…

vacations, moments of joy and sorrow…places we have been. 

As she shared her memories with us…and we shared ours with her

somewhere in the evening…this revelation began to stir.

As we brought each memory to the surface…made each recollection known

I realized what we were remembering…were actually milestones.

How each milestone in life is a turning point…

and as we shared the wisdom from each memory we learned…

I realized how each turning point is also…a point of no return.

Because once a milestone becomes a memory

although we may remember when…

that moment…that milestone changed us 

and we can’t go back and live that moment ever again.

I wonder if that’s why we were created with memories….

If there isn’t a gene…or a set of hormones

located throughout our bodies to remember our turning points…

to record our milestones.

Allowing us to relive a moment in time…

to see it clearly in our mind…to remember what we learned..

to return, if only for a moment, to that point of no return.

It was a wonderful evening…as we shared milestones

turning points in our lives…so far…

giving each of us a better appreciation of who we were 

and at that moment seated around the table…

A better understanding of…who we are.

I am grateful for understanding

one of the basic truths of the human race…

How every person…

just like every flower

blooms at their own pace.

May we be blessed to understand

one of the most important lessons of life

that is perhaps the farthest reaching:

How as children or parents 

we should never stop our learning

because life…

will never stop its teaching.

Ava, our youngest granddaughter, headed off to college yesterday…

And as another milestone is passed….

I wonder how it’s possible the years have flown by so fast.

As I walked up to hug her and say goodbye…and she did the same to me…

my mind immediately flashed backed…to a fond old memory.

It seems like only yesterday…I could see it clearly in my mind’s eye..

a time when Ava was much younger…but then again…so was I. 

It was a summer day in North Carolina…(did I mention how time has zoomed?)

when all around our cabin…day lilies were in bloom.

We noticed, (this is the way it happens) how much Ava had grown…

and decided it was time she picked some day lilies of her own.

We drove to a day lily farm…with day lilies as far as the eye could see…

where Ava picked her own day lilies…to be planted in our garden in NC.

It was a simpler more carefree and innocent time…as I look back…marvel and muse…

when the only thing a little girl had to worry about…was which day lilies to choose.

We planted her lilies at our cabin…and like clockwork every year…

when summer comes to the mountains…in the sunlight…her day lilies appear.

As Ava headed off to college…this was the wonderful memory that found it’s way to me…

of the day we picked then planted day lilies…at our cabin in NC.

And no matter where life takes her…I hope she knows 

waiting for her at our cabin…there will always be a room

where she can visit us for a while in summer…

and together we can watch her lilies bloom.

 We made plans to have dinner with our daughter and her family…

(It’s nearing the end of their summer vacation)

And as the day approached it made me wonder 

how much of our life is spent in anticipation.

How life is a lot like reading a book…no matter what our age

We’re happy experiencing the moment…

while anticipating what’s on the next page.

Birthdays and holidays from the time we’re young…

going to school…dating…

think of all the times in life we spend anticipating.

When we find someone to share our life with…and we ask them

we anticipate with hope in our hearts what they might say…

We anticipate a life together…as we prepare for our wedding day.

When we decide to have children…to begin creating and raising a family

We anticipate who each baby will look like…and the kind of person they’ll grow up to be.

And if we’re lucky…in the life we chose…the one we have created…

the joy and happiness we feel in the moment…is more wonderful than we anticipated.

That is exactly what happened to both Deborah and to me 

when we finally sat down to dinner with Ali and her family.

As we drove away from the restaurant…what should catch our eye…

but a double rainbow stretching across the eastern sky.

Proving we can be blessed to fill the book of our life 

with special pages we create…

But we’re also blessed that are book is filled

with special pages we could never anticipate.