#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Fresh morning ice on the bank of the Charles

Remarkably, it’s colder than yesterday this morning. And I am happy, because the spots where the river has swelled onto my trail are now frozen and I don’t have to walk around them. And the brook, where it has made my usual trail impassable for two weeks, also froze, so I can cross and go my preferred way. And I was happy because of all the spontaneous, captivating ice art, so my walk becomes a stroll through an art gallery along the river and the brook that is making itself into a pond. I saw a woman reaching, reaching – what is she reaching toward, I wonder, and I know: she is reaching toward her freedom and delight in being sixty, knowing who she is and what she’s done and how she likes to be and what she wants to give.

Woman Reaching

Another thing to appreciate and remember about this day: the pleasure of answering the phone, listening to one of my grown children ask to process something, and then, just listening as she solves her frustrations and hurt, all the emotions bubbling up and spilling over, and I only ask a clarifying question or two, and then, I hear her spontaneously express a metaphor, an image, a powerful one that her imagination and intuition show her to solve her feelings and her needs and find a way to be true to herself and also compassionate toward someone else. It’s a lovely experience, hearing her apply all her own wisdom and clarity and strength, and I feel like getting to be her trusted, chosen listener is a privilege and a joy I will never take for granted.