Let Us All Emulate Water

Photo taken by Lee Sauer at Malice Domestic Convention 2015.
Thank you, Lee, and Rita Owen, for sending me this photo.

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GIFTS XXV. January 18, 2015

I see how I am living in
the right place, giving like water
gives, seeking truth, serving
others well, timing my acts to go
through defenses, and when people
fight with me, go around, let it go.
It takes two to fight.  I will not reject
those who reject me.  Bertha used
to tell her sons, “You’ll need me
before I’ll need you.”  They all
came to her funeral.  Let us all emulate 
water.  I know that I know how.  –Gifts XXIV.

I’m still walking my leyline path
without a cane.  Three doctors wanted
me to use a cane.  “I can’t farm with
a cane,” I said.  True, once I fell
against one of my raised beds, but
it cushioned me as if the earth were 
my mother’s breast.  I do remember
my mother’s breast.  It had a certain
smell when she held me close and
rocked me.  She aged well, lived
to be ninety-four and hiked the
Smokies to eighty-six.  Aging
does test us: how to stay healthy
and independent?  I still work a 
sixteen-hour day but rest more
often.  My creative mind works
more effectively and easily than
it ever has.  I learn new things
more slowly; need more aids to
memory, where riches are stored 
and names are elusive.  People
surprise me by saying, “You’re
the lady who walks your dog
on the dam road.”  “Yes.”
I cut firewood until the saw burned
out.  I see the daffodils penetrating
their leaf cover.  I must remove
the dead cosmos and zinnia 
stalks and fertilize the gardens
where crocus and more daffodils
are being stirred awake by winter
rain.  The hens begin laying four
or five eggs instead of only one.
Slowly I’ll learn what I need
to know, cut wood again, receive
and plant new seeds. Order baby
chicks. If I want to flourish many
more years, I must keep doing
what I love when it’s harder.
How do I quiet the worry of
friends and doctors?  I’ll say,
“If I have a crutch, I’ll become
dependent on it, and then I won’t
flourish as I do now.  Let me
demonstrate my independence
and courage, grow my food, saw
my wood, raise chickens, write
my books.  You see this is my
path.  Statistics don’t help me
for I am unique in my being, my
lifestyle, and in the way I walk while
I flourish.  If I defy gravity, so be it.

Observe me, and learn.”

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