#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.

Not all things are blest, but the

seeds of all things are blest.

The blessing is in the seed.

~ Muriel Rukeyser

I woke before sunrise and sat in front of the window with coffee. And then I couldn’t sit any longer as I watched the sky above the river, above the black trees, redden. So, I put my coffee down and went in my pajamas and a coat and slippers across the field to watch the sunrise on New Year’s Even morning. Nourish beginnings.

I walked around the river’s edge and returned, confusing Charlie & Suzi, but soon enough I dressed and went out into the bright morning and we walked for real, this time, a good long way, and I was thinking about the year completing, the year starting, this day of ending/beginning, and I came to the place near the wetlands that spill over from the Charles where the Trustees have a sign, and I thought, what if the sign isn’t about the trail, but is about the new year. I am on the path I want to be on in my life today. I appreciate the way my path connects with so many others whose qualities and gifts, disciplines and practices enhance my life:

my husband, Frank, who, even after decades of sobriety, wakes and goes to his morning meeting every day because that’s the core of his spiritual life;

my dear friend, Deb, who practices medicine, who listens to children, who listens to parents, who cares about healing illness and gives of her intellect and spirit with so much energy to others every day;

to Tom, poet, mentor, whose precision and breadth and depth of knowledge is his way of giving to others to help them craft and shape their best work;

to the members of all the writing groups I lead, their risk-taking, their willingness to work, to commit, to show up for telling their stories, listening deeply to others, and being authentic and kind and vulnerable and wise. . .

oh, so many, too many to mention all at once tonight, but, for now, I’m grateful to be on the path I have the great good fortune to be on, a writing life I have the privilege to wake up to today, this last day of wonderful year.