Nestled in the Woods

“Soar Above the Yesterdays” is with the publisher and should be available by the end of October or before.

Thousands of volumes
Millions of verses
 line the shelves
 of libraries
 book stores
 stacked away in attics

Poems of autumn
 scents…
 spicy wild flowers
 decaying leaves
 apples
 pumpkin pie
 sights… 
  golden rod
  purple iron weed 
  joe pye
  birds
  packed for a trip south
 sounds… 
  turkeys chirp in the woods
  crackling fires
  tractors turning tufts of summer down
 savors… 
  grapes
  new potatoes
  cider
 sensations…
  chill after summer sweats
  noses tickled by ragweed pollen

What about the country festivals?
What about the craft fairs?
Need I elaborate?
All these images…
 overdone
 sometimes trite
 
Autumn rather may suggest
 that winter
snaps at its heels
Lucy says,
“Time flies when you’re having fun.”
“As if you could kill time without injuring
eternity,” opines Thoreau.

What remains to place in store
 for children
 of a later year?
Will they know
 that we have
 walked our season?

Those million verses
 nostalgic
 sentimental
no harm to fill our senses
 with the memories
 with the images
They are our own
 to savor and enjoy

Yet…
 values
  tucked in
  next to the pumpkin pie
 beliefs
  shared
  on a walk down memory lane
 encouragement
  sprinkled with the sparks
  at fireside…
These a greater legacy
 for seasons yet to come

The new book “Soar Above the Yesterdays” is with the publisher.  Target date for availability will be within 2 months.  I’ll keep you posted.

Soar Above the Yesterdays, a sequel to All Things, brings Susanna Elder more life-changing decisions with romance, history, and mystery.  Old characters are revisitied and new ones introduced.  What mystery does her antique desk reveal? Susanna finds two paths in front of her; which one will she take.  Does she follow her dream of a career in music, or will Providence lead her in a different direction?  What hope for a future lies in the path of a single mother of twins?

September 4, 1959 was a beautiful and bright, if hot, day. It was our wedding day. What a trip that fifty years has been!
I have learned so much in those five decades, but I think the lesson I learned the best is that it is not “all about me.” I couldn’t really learn about love until I addressed that issue. When it’s all about me, any diversion from my desire, my feelings, or my control creates a barrier between us. Throw in some legalistic religion on top of that and you have a recipe for conflict.
When it’s all about the one another, we begin to see that our life is a connection. Marriage should be the greatest example of that connection. We live for our mate, and in return, we receive the benefit of love.  We have children together to express that love and the connection grows. This is the way it is supposed to work, but the minute “all about me” intrudes, love is compromised.
I hope that I have learned this lesson, and my goal is to perfect it over the next however many years God gives us together.

FIFTY YEAR SONNET

It’s been a fascinating fifty years
Of marriage, both “in sickness and in health.”
We planned for challenges and new frontiers,
And hoped for great success and maybe wealth.
Of course there would be trials marked by tears,
And sometimes conflicts cause by prideful self.
On some occasions undeservéd fears
That one would leave the other on the shelf.
But now we’ve set aside our separate spheres
While yet retaining differences we held,
And to our great surprise it now appears
Success for us has been unparalleled.

‘Twas neither pleasure nor prosperity
But love and trust has sealed the guarantee.