When embarking on this CWH/Dreemport challenge I had very little awareness of what it entailed or what was expected of me. But that didn’t stop me from making up my own expectations. As usual, the self-made expectations proceeded to consume me for a bit causing all kinds of ‘problems’. The need to be clever or cute, laughable or lyrical nearly smothered my chance to be real, to be brave, to just be.. For a time I forgot a favorite manta “The Problem is rarely the Problem”.
But as the three-week journey progressed most of those limiting, self-imposed expectations were eliminated. (That happens when you show up for class.) But that didn’t mean I had any clue about the direction this final post of the challenge would take. So, in preparation, I looked back on my journal entries and noticed plenty of phrases, lists, random thoughts, and favorite quotes. I was re-reading my first journal entry and the first thing I had written was ‘Age is a Blessing” After reading that I glanced up, and a quote, which has been on a sticky note on my monitor for a couple of years, seemed to jump out at me. The quote is from the artist David Hockney and says “ We Always See with Memory”. Seeing those two lines together opened a door that the following fell through. Is it a poem, free verse, prose, or simply ramblings emerging from my nearly 68 years? Who knows.? I do know that for me “ it’s not right, wrong, good, or bad… it just is.”* (*another favorite quote-this one from Brian Klemmer”), and that is a blessing..
Age is a Blessing, Hidden in Plain Sight
Age is a blessing
It creates space
where diminishing vision
brings clarity and sight.
Age is a blessing
It offers grace
to the forced march of youth.
Forgiveness to the march that served as an excuse.
An excuse that allowed speed bumps
to become cement barriers.
An excuse to stop seeking
the steep path.
An excuse to forgo
adventure and be
an adult, a lady, a mother, a wife, a professional, an educator….
Age is a blessing
It recognizes
all those pieces
as elements of enhancements
to be celebrated
not as labeled limitations.
Age is a blessing
It blurs the hard edges,
embraces the wonder
absorbs the scents,
hears the smiles.
Age is a blessing
It respects the try,
seeks to know more,
recognizes perceived fails
as perfect practice.
Age is a blessing
It honors the comfort
of a slow wandering walk,
the serenity
of silent moments,
the confident joy
of a spontaneous puddle stomp.
Age is a blessing
It completes
a perfectly imperfect circle.
Hidden in plain sight
Age is a blessing.
(photo by me: couple dancing in the zocalo on the first night of Day of the Dead celebration, Oaxaca, Mexico 2022)
