A Tidings of Magpies

Through all of youth I was looking for you without knowing what I was looking for or what to call you I think I did not even know I was looking how would I have known you when I saw you as I did time after time when you appeared to me as you did naked offering yourself entirely at that moment and you let me breathe you touch you taste you knowing no more than I did and only when I began to think of losing you did I recognize you when you were already part memory part distance remaining mine in the ways that I learn to miss you from what we cannot hold the stars are made Also quite lovely in paragraph form... “Through all of youth, I was looking for you without knowing what I was looking for or what to call you. I think I did not even know I was looking. How would I have known you when I saw you - as I did time after time when you appeared to me as you did, naked, offering yourself entirely at that moment, and you let me breathe you, touch you, taste you, knowing no more than I did. ...

You don't have to look far to see hundreds of thousands of people who have had to deal with very bad news. The Susan G. Komen Walk for Breast Cancer as shown by Rudee for instance. Being around people who have been delivered bad news is not new to me. I was talking with my patient, Ms. M., this weekend. She was supposed to have been in the middle of a cross-country road trip with her husband, destination northern California. Instead, she was lying in a hospital bed, paraplegic after falling from her horse. I was asking about how her family was handling all this and I asked about her horses-who was caring for them? Her horse's name is Ephraim. "I was going to change it, but after a while it grew on me and seemed to fit him. He's a sweet, sweet boy. So gentle. Goofy. A big galumph." I said that I bet he missed her. "My daughter went down to the barn the next morning to feed him. When she got there he just lowered his head and buried it in her chest." My ...

excerpt from The Blue Robe BY WENDELL BERRY How joyful to be together, alone as when we first were joined in our little house by the river long ago, except that now we know each other, as we did not then; and now instead of two stories fumbling to meet, we belong to one story that the two, joining, made. And now we touch each other with the tenderness of mortals, who know themselves: art by Sarah Faragher

You taught us well, sir. Thank you.

...and I'm paraphrasing because I was driving and not taking notes. "If they don't pass the bailout package soon it will be a calamity." " Except for the word "calamity." Haven't heard that word since grade school and I am loving it. If ever we needed a song it is now. Bring it on, Doris.

WHAT A DIABOLICALLY INGENIOUS WAY TO UNITE THE COUNTRY AKA DEFCONOMY 2 The economy is "cratering" according to Senator McCain and life seems very uncertain these days. We certainly are heading for a depression, although I think with the modern semantics it's called something else. I doubt that I'm alone in wondering how this will affect my family specifically. I'm guessing there will still be sick people who need hospital care so job security is less of an issue for us than others. If the Republicans get into office I am concerned about the talk I hear about running healthcare as a free-market business. That has worked wonders for the airline and the banking industries. And anyone who doesn't think the government isn't already determining how healthcare is provided is not aware of all the minutiae of paperwork by CMS(Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services). It rivals Peter Sellers in absurdity. The girls will still get through college. We'll have to lo...

I OWE HOW DAMN MUCH??? Could someone please remind me about the party? Am not remembering any frivolities. The memories are a bit grainy, much like this video, but sounds like it was fabulous fun for a select few. And after all, the piper must be paid. Damn pipers. I knew I should have stayed in band.