Gratitude

Intensity burns away the superfulous and reveals the significant.
Loving relationships = wealth
Gratitude and forgiveness are essential elements.
That seems to be about it. 

Upon returning home, my sister Cheryll sent this Mary Oliver poem:

The Place I Want to Get Back To


The Place I want to get back to
is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let's see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground, like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;
and so they come
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.


I am truly grateful for the rich and full life I have lived.  Sherry is grateful for her life and wouldn't change a thing even if she could. We have been nuzzled by the deer.
It is a blessing to be able to prepare for one's death.