When I have seen Time’s fell hand defaced

The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;

When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed

And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;

When I have seen the hungry ocean gain

Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,

And the firm soil win of the watery main,

Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;

When I have seen such interchange of state,

Or state it self confounded to decay,

Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate

That Time will come and take my love away.

This thought is as a death which cannot choose

But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.

Shakespeare Sonnet 64

Looking back on the movement of time over this past year it is worth reflecting a while on what has gone before.  A year of love, loss, change, grief, joy, and every moment choosing anew to live this life just as it unfolds.

For many of the families I have had the priviledge to be of service to this past year, the year has included the great loss of a precious child, and for the some even more than one, from the newly born, to adolescents on the brink of adulthood, and includes the very recent loss of a dear young boy I had the joy in helping care for at home these past nine months, who waited until Christmas had just passed before he too took his leave from this world, leaving a family, like many others, with beautiful memories and trying to make sense of it all.  This search to make sense of our world may be that which enables us to keep facing overwhelming circumstances anew, even as we wish to turn away from them and have them be different.

A visit this past week to Helen Martin’s Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda was a fascinating and unsettling reminder of how we all try to make sense of our particular experiences and world view, bring light into the shadow parts, and reflect our desires outwardly, and how some of us, at the extremes, fail this journey, even as we strive desperately in the expression.  The Owl House visit will probably find its way into many more posts in the next while, such is impact of her work and struggle.  A visit that left me with a reminder to accept the struggle, the difficulty, the shadows, the fear “that time will come and take my love away”, and be grateful for the light, for the passion, for the joy and the love.  Grateful for a capacity to meet the journey this life offers in its unfolding.

Thank you for taking the time to meander through my blog musings these past four months, and for the many kind responses I have received here and personally from around the globe.  If anything I write inspires you to take more time and care with your every moments, to be more present for those you hold dear, to be mindful, courageous, compassionate, loving and kind, then that is enough for me to continue this vulnerable journey of musing in public and making sense of my life and thoughts in this form.

May 2013 bring you many blessings, peace, joy, and the capacity to face your life with passion and live to the fullest.  If you don’t already know the Great Secret, it’s worth repeating – this life will end for all of us one day, so be sure to live it fully.