A walk home in this afternoon light, holding my husband’s hand. Glory floats in the air; chimes chant the hour.
Calling my father from the early porch dark. More is lost, his world even smaller now. Closing in.
Packing to leave for Bangkok in the morning, for work, and life, and what I love. My world larger than ever with praise.
Going out. Going in. We move in two directions. Both swimming in the same light.
this, to you, dear father, as I go on my way ~
No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.~ Wendell Berry ~
(The Sabbath Poems, 1993, I)
Susan
Stephanie
A Still Life...A Life Still 
Vaya con dios, Susan. Arlis and Georgia Hinson were just through Bham, and I sent your father their greetings through a mutual friend, Crawford Taylor, who visits you father each Friday. You may not remember that my late husband, John Sims, and I were at Louisville the same time your parents were. They were special people then and now..Ina Sims
Thank you, Ina. So great to hear from you.
Susan:
Months ago, Bill sent me your blog and added: “Too bad I can’t write as well as my daughter.” Well, that’s a draw, or may I be so bold as to suggest you may have just a bit to go; however, both are challenging and uplifting. Thank you for sharing.
Of course, your column and the poem of Wendell Berry are a perfect salutation to this blog.
Jack Brymer
Lovely words of yours AND Berry’s. Harriet
Thank you so much your words! You savor it as it deserves – “holding my husband’s hand”! Gracias too for this Berry passage I had not encountered before. I am noting it now to reread.