Here are a few of the pieces submitted for publication from this year.
BED
by Emily Grotta
My garden told me it’s time to put it to bed.
It speaks to me through color: the brilliant oranges, pinks and yellows of the snapdragons that self-seeded in July. The cloud-white of roses. And the red of my maple. It’s only four years old, but its leaves say, “look at me! See how beautiful I am. I’ve got many more years to please you.”
How quickly time goes by.
Beginning of April I returned to our Prescott home for the first time since John died. I sat in one of our two Adirondak chairs, looking at the garden. Although a few spring bulbs were peeking out, the bare ground told me it was time to get to work.
I heard the commands…
Reflections on the Next Phase of Life
Without Marsha’s Physical Presence
by Ernie Pancsofar
What kind of future am I viewing?
What to spend my time on doing
Or is just being present enough?
Will my path be smooth or rough?
Now is the time of pausing
To note what may be causing
Me to better understand that future wealth
May be better tied to my overall health. Of course, wealth in my view is not tied to money
But living my truths on my continuing journey…
TIME
by Fred M Rhodes
Time presents a conundrum: how can it be both in short supply and in surplus?
The answer is obvious to us old people. Unless the planet Earth changes its rotational speed, we know we have only a small amount of time left on that same planet, while at the same time the days are long and the nights even longer.
A wise man once told me: “Time is the essence of life. If you waste my time, you waste my life.”
I do not have the right to waste the time of others, but I have a monopoly right to waste my own time and thereby waste my life, which does not seem like the right thing to do…