Thursday, February 09, 2017

Turning a corner...

Thursday,  February 9th, 2017

I am glad to report that my ego is subsiding!!  And what a comfortable feeling that engenders....

It appears that things that I thought (at one time)  only I was capable of doing properly and creatively are being competently and creatively accomplished by others, with ease and aplomb!!!  How arrogant my ego must have been, (she said, shamefacedly).

I now find it is amazingly wonderful to accept this epiphany quite humbly, and to relax into lovely old age, content to read and knit and weave and muse and listen to music.  I have even gone back to a 'cleaning lady' - in my case a sweet daughter-in-law, - and a son-in-law who keeps the snow at bay and the lawns trim and neat.

What does all this mean?  Have I turned a corner and am I now ambling contentedly along the grassy path that stretches out deliciously into the future, and ends in the 'next adventure'.

Before I was REALLY old I used to keep this poem on my fridge door to remind myself of the pits the years might lead me to stumble in to.

"Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. 
 Keep me from becoming too talkative,
 and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something 
on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other people's affairs.
  With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom it seems a
pity not to let everybody partake of it.  
But thou knowest, Lord,that in the end I will need  a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details;  give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others;  
help me to endure them with charity.
  But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -
 they increase with the increasing years
and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask thee for improved memory,
 only for a little more humility and less self-assurance 
when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others.  
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong....

Keep me reasonably gentle. 
 I do not have the ambition to become a saint
 - it is so hard to live with some of them 
- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy.
  Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, 
and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any.
  And Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.  Amen'

But that was in the days before I got ancient.  The days before I became so irked at the necessity of having to scroll down dreadfully far on my computer screen to fill out online forms with my year of birth.....

I am seriously thinking of giving up meetings where I have to read the minutes to know what has evolved, - especially the meeting for organizations where I pass myself off as a Secretary!!

It is so sweet when the little ones lisp, I am almost three......  not so adorable when one has to admit that they are almost ninety-three!  But it does elicit a gasp of what? Surprise? Sympathy?  A lessening of expectations?

Still, I am so glad to be rid of that dratted ego that sent me on so many wild goose chases!!!!

I have a vague feeling (not unusual these days) that I may have posted on this subject before, but there!  I am quite used to repeating myself.....


"The older I get the less I know.  It's wonderful - it makes the world so spacious."
Swami Chetanananda

Monday, February 06, 2017

Elephant

ABC Wednesday
February 8th, 2017
The letter is E for Elephant




 Here is a little offering to celebrate the elephant
in nonsense verse

Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,
who tried to use the telephant -
No! no! I mean the elephone
Who tried to use the telephone -

(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it write.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee -

(I fear I'd better drop the song
of elephop and telephong!)

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards


Laura Richards was an American writer of the late 19th century


who published more than ninety books, and was best known for the nonsense poems
 she created for children.

Laura Richard's father was Samuel Gridlely Howe, who ran the 
Perkins Institute for the Blind
where Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman were educated.

Her mother, Julia Ward Howe, 
wrote the words to the famous song
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

When Laura Richards grew up she and her sister
wrote a biography of their mother
that won a Pulitzer prize.

One of Richard's best books of nonsense poetry is called Tirra Lirra.
The poems use techniques like rhythm, alliteration
and startling imagery
to tell an imaginative story.

and they are downloadable.......


More great Es at ABC Wednesday here

with many thanks to all who maintain
this great meme..
in the past, in the present and in the future.