Belonging is when
we are born into a family,
shaped by those around us,
the moments in our lives,
the travels of the heart
Deciding where we belong
~ a grand adventure full of vulnerability and excitement,
placid lakes or frothing rapids of change.
To live calmly
amid the noise of life ~
a challenge that returns
belonging to our heart.
“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
~ Maya Angelou
(1928 ~ 2014)
Short and sweet
So much to eat!!
We laughed a lot
We talked more
Heavy is my head
It’s time for bed!
“Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast.”
~ William Shakespeare
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| Regina General Hospital and Nurses Residence |
Each year we gather, still standing although our Nurses Residence and Hospital are gone with the tick of the clock. Vanished into a parking lot. Our numbers have gotten smaller with the passing of time but we are still laugh, visit, reminisce, and sing. Family stories have become histories. What once was career, advanced education and travel, is now full of grandchildren and great grandchildren, nephews and nieces ~ ~ and travel. At the end of our gathering each year we sing our school song: “We Are the General Girls!” some voices not quite as strong, but all still full of the joy and hard work of our nursing years.
“Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch.”
~ Judy Blume, author
Intending to follow
the direction of my heart,
I set out without a map.
As a child, instruction from parents
~ and any adult ~
composed a singular map
Adults were all knowledgeable?
An adult for many years,
the truth of what I have known
has been pared, shifted and changed
with many maps needed and used
Lives lived by example
Instructions books
Text books
Advice from family and friends,
Books of all kinds
Noticing nature’s ways of growing
I set out with many maps in my heart.
“Maps are way of organizing wonder.”
~ Peter Steinhart, writer and naturalist
Sisters
Breakfast with another niece,
her husband,
a grand niece and grand nephew;
our brother (dad and grand-dad) and
one very elderly, sweet dog.
A Dinosaur game ~
absolutely new to me;
little dinosaur shapes
on game cards;
complex rules second hand to the kids!
I just couldn’t get the rules so lost twice.
Shopping at Indigo and Canadian Tire
Supper out with sister was
a fitting close to this visit.
(more stories and memory work)
Sisters
The End (of this visit)
“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door
leaving those who look through to guess
about what is seen during the moment.”
~ Carl Sandburg, writer
(1868 ~ 1967)
Sisters
A trip out of town
Niece, her husband
and grand niece
Visiting, jigsaw puzzles
and stories
A loop around home town
before return to city
Supper out with brother
(more stories and memory work)
Scrabble (I won)
Sisters
“When you finally go back to your old home, you find
it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood.”
~ Sam Ewing, baseball player
Sisters
A cousin
Stories and old photos
Supper out (more stories)
Scrabble (I lost)
Sisters (research)
“In every conceivable manner,
the family is link to our past,
bridge to our future.”
~ Alex Haley
Four geese flew low
preparing for the long flight south
it is always comforting to hear
that soft ruffle of their wings
then I know that a part of nature
is blood and bone as are we ~
traversing life on the silent wings of
ancestors, family and friends.
“You are born to fly, and in dreams you remember the soul has wings.”
~ Robert Moss, Australian historian
Yesterday vanished into memory,
today ~ a birthday delight with family,
tomorrow is an open, uncharted road.
“I have gone into yesterday and tomorrow
and both were a real as today ~
which is like the dreams of ghosts!”
~ Robert E. Howard, author
(1906 ~ 1936)
When I stand outside
the life I’ve chosen to live
I see loneliness or a life
without meaning yet
When I step inside the life
I’ve chosen to live
I feel fulfilled and
meaning is all around.
When I stand outside the life
I’ve chosen to live, I love the busyness of community 'til
I long for the quiet of home
When I step inside the life
I’ve chosen to live
I sit down with pen and paper
to frame the meaning of my heart.
When I stand outside the life
I’ve chosen to live,
my life is a joy
with friends, with family.
When I step inside the life
I’ve chosen to live,
I miss them all but am surrounded
by the gift of their presence in my life.
“Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.”
~ Laozi, philosopher
(604 BC ~ 531 BC)
An old and stately tree grows
between sidewalk and fence
never pruned of family
feels and lives through seasons
lives a steady life to grow
wider each year.
Each spring branches out
tender sprouted limbs with
a new crop of leaves
roots growing deeper with time
between sidewalk and fence
an old and stately tree grows.
“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.”
~ George Santayana,
philosopher and poet
