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For Those Whose Middle Is Messy

7/15/2014

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PictureGrandmother and granddaughter.

For Those Whose Middle is Messy

Our bookends are the best.  
Those parts of our lives that
Hold up the middle muck.  

It is the bookends,
Childhood and old age
That give us true support and
That tidy up our lives.  

The middle is messy with
Jobs and gobs and kids and gluck.
The middle is doing and digging;
It is climbing and clinging.  

But ah, the bookends—
Where we haven’t yet learned
Or no longer want to care.

The bookends that keep us tight
And help us stand up straight,  
Two end pieces that
Put our souls in structure.  

Oh, those strong and sturdy panels,
Those weighted, solid walls,
Sometimes pretty, sometimes plain
Always
Holding us together
Just the same.  


Susan Patterson
Copyright 2-2011 


Audio-


Discussion-

Most of us have messy lives at one point or another.  But isn't it nice to have a time when we just don't care about all the messy details of life's challenges and opportunities?  My retirement from the working world took awhile.  Since I write and sell books, I may not be totally out of the rat race yet.  But, golly, isn't it nice to take a nap in the afternoon, to hold hands with someone while crossing the street, to have someone stronger do the heavy lifting?   I appreciate my bookends.   skp

Tuesday

Picture
A quiet road somewhere in Oregon.
A woman on her way to spread her sister's ashes.  After a day's drive, she went into the high forest, up the deserted logging road, past the old hunting camp, across the meadow, to the edge of the tree line where her brother's ashes were laid fourteen years earlier.  There, under the firs, she spread her sister's ashes.  It was a good day.     skp

▶Summer is best for reveling in Earth's comfort.   Earlene Grey

Picture
From a window of a car driving through the Santiam Pass in Oregon. You gotta love trees!

Happy glorious summer days!  skp
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    Susan Patterson is a published author of three books of poetry and a book of memoirs.  She is heard regularly on RKWP podcast-radio. She also speaks at private and public events. Find out more at the website below.

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