generations

by

Milestones

Tomorrow

is

my birthday.

Decades declare milestones.

At certain ages

there can be

the realization

that there are fewer

years ahead

than

already lived.

Mid-life

it is called.

Demographers

and cultural observers

 now offer

more gradations than

young,

middle aged

and old.

Early middle age,

middle age

late middle age.

At what point

does your category

become early old age?

Are you in

middle old age

and when

really old age?

For some,

lifespans

extend into the ninth and

even tenth decade.

When Social Security

was made available

at 65,

people weren’t

expected to live

much beyond that.

For some,

there can be

many decades

beyond

that mark.

How to live

these years,

whatever they are called?

Wisdom

offers

the suggestion

to shed

as we age.

Things,

images of ourself,

expectations,

hopes,

dreams,

disappointments.

Shedding

seems to say

that

growth stops

at some point.

Adults

we are.

Approaching

this birthday,

I am beginning

to understand

that letting go

is a better perspective

of what no longer

serves me.

Traveling

lighter,

I

hope

I

am

Growing

Into

Older

Age.

Learning,

growing.

Shifting gears,

slows me

to follow

the Inner Light

to savor

each moment,

each friend,

loved one

and stranger.

Sometimes the

Light

offers

a clear path.

Sometimes

intuition

brings

me on the path

I cannot

see

in this moment.

by

Synchroncity and Opportunity

I see

synchronicity

In

the shocking murder of

nine people

in a Bible class

at the AME Emmanuel Church

in Atlanta

by a young white supremacist ,

many retailers no longer

selling Confederate flags,

the decision in Georgia

and other states

to remove the

Confederate flag

from public display.

President Obama’s

moving eulogy,

words moving into

singing

Amazing Grace with

all joining in.

Conjecture, publicity

To Kill a Mockingbird

 Harper Lee’s beloved book and movie

told by young Scout

seeing her father Atticus

through a child’s eyes.

The much anticipated

release of the

old, discovered

first book

taking place twenty years later.

Go Set A Watchman,

portraying Atticus

in a segregated  town,

challenged by a

climate, calling, demanding

equal rights for blacks and white.

An Off Broadway show

Hamilton

moves to Broadway

full of hip hop

historical characters played by

multi-racial cast.

Another play

Amazing Grace 

opens on

Broadway,

its writer, leaving his job

compelled to write this story

and produce it.

Publisher of Between the World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

moves up release date

so we can read

his words written to

his fifteen year old son.

Growing up in Baltimore,

he feels the same

fear for his son

as week by week

there are

unnecessary murders

by police of young black men

barely adults.

Whatever events, words, books, musicals

might stir you,

move me,

the convergence

is an opportunity.

In the words of Amazing Grace

that forgiveness and redemption

are possible

regardless of sins committed,

“Amazing grace!

How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost,

but now am found,

Was blind,

but now I see.”

What can I see now

that I did not see before?

What do you see

that you did not see before?

“‘Twas grace that taught

my heart to fear,

And grace my fears

reliev’d;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!”

by

The Golden Rule

A local church

has a sign,

“Come if you are spiritual

but not religious.”

In conversation,

in polls taken,

many people define themselves

as spiritual but not religious.

Perhaps this is a trend,

but for each person

there may be individual explanations

or definitions

what that means.

At a time when

world news bring

daily reports

of religious conflicts,

disagreements,

horrendous violence,

what does religion mean?

Christians, Jews,

Muslims.

Each religion

seems to have

conservative,

traditional, liberal and many variations and

definitions within each.

During hundreds of years of history,

religions have been the

source of conflict.

At other times,

the values of religious spirituality

have helped people live

in peace.

Conflicts, killings, destruction

make news.

Will the human race find

the qualities which

help people

live and work together?

Every human being

can

treat each other person

as

they

want

to be

treated.

The Golden Rule

is a

good place to begin.

Peace.

Love.

by

Ritual

Ritual

Tradition

Out of the darkness of winter

Primal celebration

Holy Week

Passover

Easter

Some continue to come together

Honor

those who have gone before.

Some are too busy

or don’t believe rituals and traditions

are important anymore,

at least to them.

Have we lost a gift of community

leaving rituals and traditions

in the past?

Can we find a way to be grateful for the gifts

of life, light, new growth?

Seeing beauty

All around

Can bring dissonance

into harmony.

Seeing beauty, being grateful

for a bird’s song,

green shoots poking through layers,

for the smile of another.

Love is the ritual we can

all share.

by

Unresolved

Catch your behavior.

Choose what you want,

and don’t pass on unresolved issues.

It can take generations

to undo the damage of one

dysfunctional person.

I’ve heard “reincarnation” described as the genes and behavior that pass from one generation to the next and the next. Being conscious of what you may pass on and what old wounds you hope to heal is a lifelong awareness effort.

LL 96