Sanctuary OR Thoughts on Growing Old

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Many years ago, someone told me that the best thing a person can do with his or her life is to be sure to create as many happy memories to fall back on during less happy times. Oh, but how true! ]

Growing old can be tough, painful and lonely for some if not many of us although, of course, old age has no monopoly on any of these. 

Happy memories are not for crying over because they are in the past, but for celebrating and providing a sanctuary of thoughts as we run the gamut of life's harder times, thereby making the Here-and-Now less tough, painful or lonely...if we let it; they may also inspire us to create more such memories because  it's never too late all the while we can raise a smile and laugh enough to encourage others into our lives. As my dear, late mother once commented, no one enjoys the company of a perennial whinger.

SANCTUARY or THOUGHTS ON GROWING OLD

When I walk in the Valley of Memory,
all those I have loved greet me there,
light in their eyes like the sun in summer skies,
past harsh words, beyond pain or care

When I walk in the Valley of Memory,
I rejoice to be all that I can,
mistakes redeemed, life all that it seemed
to the child I was and young man

When I walk in the Valley of Memory
lambs among wolves play at ease,
rain washed clean, the grass growing green,
flowers, icons of love and peace

When I walk in the Valley of Memory,
a breeze recites poems in my ears,
trees sing songs about rights instead of wrongs
and all raison d’être reappears

Whenever I leave the valley, as I must,
for the world as it is, a sorry place,
I feel safer for knowing it’s there for the going
as a cold wind rips at my face


Copyright R. N. Taber, 2014