Reflections

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

A few years ago, a friend from my student days got in touch and expressed an interest in meeting up. 

I hadn’t heard from him for a good forty years and we hadn’t been close friends, but I remembered him well and recalled that we had always got on ok. He had married and raised a family, so I hadn’t expected him to stay in touch. I had heard on the grapevine that he and his wife had separated So, we met up and enjoyed catching up over a few beers.. 

During the next couple of years, I sent the occasional email, but received no reply, so was content to let sleeping dogs lie for a second time. However, when he contacted me again, out of the blue, I was quite simply no longer interested in meeting up with him. 

He thought I was being unreasonable, and pointed out that he had other friends with whom he rarely kept in touch. Having made the effort once, though, with a view to possibly reviving an old friendship, I felt no inclination do so again, especially as I was busy at the time and not feeling very sociable anyway. 

As my mother used to say, if a friendship I worth having, it is worth keeping, works both ways, and deserves better than being taken for granted. 

REFLECTIONS 

I provide the fuel
for a season’s fires to help us
feel safe and warm
as the world, it grows colder,
all the children
of Earth Mother growing older
time on her side
but on ours, too, if only enough to make
our presence felt 

I light such flames
as take their cue from life forces
likely to inspire us
to love, hate, laugh and dream
of ways and means
more likely to make life the better
for being kinder,
mind-body-spirit all the stronger for making
its presence felt 

I keep them burning,
those seasonal fires lit to help u
feel safe and warm
if only for such dreams as urge
rough sleepers
to waken and try again to make a life
that’s better, kinder
to a mind-body-spirit craving more than being
daily passed over 

I am wishful thinking, close kin to one called fate,
if only for having let a season’s fire go out

Copyright R. N. Taber 2020