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Sunday, September 25, 2011

FOR GRANTED

Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.” Thornton Wilder, Our Town

I woke up the other day uncharacteristically crabby, and my husband chastised me, questioning where was my gratitude. Normally I am a cheery, pollyanna sort of person, bad moods rarely make up my days. I felt such contempt in my momentary mental malaise and his observation shamed me within seconds.

Today I have been lamenting on life, the beauty in the grandiose and the mundane. That made me start thinking about cemeteries. Have you ever visited a cemetery for no reason? Maybe you visited a historical site and found yourself strolling amongst stones of strangers who lived far before your time. Walking around a place where nature lives on yet people do not is a humbling experience. It makes you realize whatever worry that had occupied your mind really doesn't matter in the scheme of the universe.

DISEASED
Everyday we awaken, we are terminal.
Temporarily renting our bodies,
forever coveting our souls.
Our breath, countdown
to our very last gasp.
We dine, maybe eating our last supper.
Our insides weep, yet we hold
a stellar performance of smiles and satisfaction,
withholding the inevitable outcome.
Death looms in the shadows
stalking us, living prey with plans
to be abandoned with cold wreaths and stones.
Cemetery holds the final court,
waiting for yet another of times demise;
Still as the silence that surrounds
the mausoleum at midnight.
Left behind and forgotten,
as a lone barren tree
taunts with its lingering longevity;
shadowing the pillars and graves
that lie void of life and energy.
(c) Rose Bruno Bailey


Taking life for granted - we are all guilty from time to time. It is easy to get lost in self pity and forget how magnificent it is to awaken each and every morning to the sunrise and the aroma of a fresh pot of brewed delicious coffee. The little things make up just as much satisfaction in our lives as the major moments. Forget fearing the future and live in the present. Loving, being loved is the absolute greatest feeling we can experience ever, no matter a prince or a pauper. This we should never forget, even in our lapses of appreciation of the blessing of life and this perfect earth we call home.
Love and light
Rose Bruno Bailey




7 comments:

  1. Wonderful post, and touching poem. As strange as it is cemetaries are somewhat soothing to me. There is something beautiful there, but I think it has more to do with the way people honor and remember their loved ones even when they are gone.

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  2. Thanks and I agree whole heartily. It is unusually prophetic that I wrote that last night, as today I woke up to tragic news. A co-worker of mine from NYC was shot and killed last night at a party, and she was a mere twenty four. We must tell the ones we love what we feel, and appreciate them always.We have a second chance each and every day we awaken.

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  3. This touched my heart! Thank you dearest Rose.

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  4. How beautiful...you made me cry again....Jan

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  5. Thanks Ally and Jan. I appreciate your kind words.

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  6. Hey Rose,
    For a first time reading yesterday, I loved it!!! I have to read through things a couple of times before they really sink in... I was thinking, before I read your blog, about gratitude and how I had not been as grateful as I should be...
    Thanks,
    Brian--

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