Life in Her Eyes

My Old New Friend

A quiet murmuring rose from her lips as I joined her at the picnic table and sang along. It was such a perfect moment filled with indescribable brightness. To walk through her memories I felt real and personally grateful.

We started to sing,
"I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses..."

She lifted a finger to direct us as she cocked her head and waited to insure that we were not off key and keeping time. The chorus seemed to buoy her spirits as a wry smile crept in at the corners of her mouth.

"...and He walks with me and He talks with me..."

Eyes filled with life and river's deep meaning surged across my heart. 

"...and He tells me that I am His own and the joy we share as we tarry there - None other has ever known."

We sang Elvis even though she didn't know me. We were one, caught up in another place and time. As she insisted I hold her hand, tenderness passed between us with our voices lifted in joy. I looked forward to singing as old friends again and feeling part of her quiet, gentle life. I saw her at her best, whole and complete if only for just a moment. Walking the well-worn path of her soul, her mind sometimes clouded, her body weakened by age. Yet, I was filled with peace as we crossed the divide of time, distance, and knowing. Valued time now used only with family and those no longer strangers willing to join her in her world and experience love. 

I never knew that I would be invited into her circle to warm by her fire and be at home in a place filled with love. I was so honored to hold her hand.

Geese on the Edge of the Desert

You don't expect on a Great Basin drive to find lakes filled with Snow Geese. Mile after mile of open space, yes, but not 1000's of geese floating as rafts. Alkali and sand give way to irrigated fields strung as beads of water tucked in as jewels in a belt safe from intrusion protected by miles of desert. Collected on them are birds content to sit and rest a spell on their forward march to the Arctic. Instinctual navigation has led them to this precise dot for centuries. As if a mirage rising and falling in spectacular white, black-tipped wonders drift in rhythmically, pulsing clouds, constantly calling reassurance. I sat; I watched, listened caught up in thought and feeling a thin thread tracing back to antiquity. I have been here before. As if written in my DNA, it penetrates my soul. We are one - interconnected and intertwined - time and space are gone. I follow the ragged line of geese into the air and I am carried with them. 

I See The Flock Breathe

What are they saying? 

As the spiraling calls lift from the flock,

they seem to breathe as one,

softly rising and falling.

The pulse taken, a spike of birds flies up

and circles above for a time...

then gently settles back to 

quiet, rest, unmoving.

Waves of sound soften and then intensify,

lulling me into security...

and suddenly caught off guard

by jarring sirens as they take flight.

Sparkling as glitter, the sun 

catches each angled wing,

swirling above the water

then drifting down to rest.

I think that I shall never know

what this transcending voice intones, 

but I shall be ever grateful to experience

their sonorous chanting

that strikes a harmonious chord deep within me.