It seems you had a lifetime
to make the decision
not from a clutter of youthful options
but now when the wine is ripe,
the range of vision reduced
by what you’ve chosen not to follow,
the many things you will not do,
when the sleeping shape beside you asks
will you love?
Of all the activities I have done in my life, Being a loving person is my highest and most rewarding adventure. All my joy is known because I am capable and interested in loving.
With Palm Sunday and Holy Week in my thoughts this question comes again . Will you love? It has been asked me all my life by the God who lives within me, and as your words say my answer becomes clearer at 87 as Love remains as options and activities recede. LOVE is the rock,the stronghold I trust and is all that I count on–it encompasses my world..
Thank you Don, for describing my reality so beautifully and a blessed Easter to you.
That’s always the question isn’t it, whether posed in context of “youthful clutter” or the limited options of the ripened vine. It’s just more poignant and important now. Thanks for another nice piece, Don.
I feel the Love, Don… thank you, Brother.
Well said Don.
Yes, I will love. And then, it’s how do we show the love?
And how do let love shine through the challenging times when we pull away, withdraw or in not so many words, say no?
I feel so blessed by your grace Don. So thankful for your musical words that convey such soulfulness over and over again.
It’s time for bed where a glance of the sleeping shape beside me never ceases to amaze me! How blessed we are to be alive!!
” … the range of vision reduced
by what you’ve chosen not to follow …”
Thank you! What if … lofty principle had not held me from embracing the shadow at my side … ?
I understood “sleeping shape” to refer to your life partner. Then,Marco referred to it as “shadow.” I suspect if I ask you “which is it?” you’ simply say “yes.”
The C&W tune, “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” comes to mind; then an image of my king-size bed that could sleep 4; then another, of a sleeping shape, not beside me, but far across to other side…I turn away, hurt and lonely, then within…the voice asks, “will you love?” I roll back over and journey across the expanse to my beloved, giving without concern… Shadow? Shape? Whose to say?
Wordy comment, but that’s the power of deep poetry. Thank you, Don.
Don…I am reminded of the “feel” of Mary Oliver’s THE JOURNEY for some reason….brilliant!
Will I love? Astute question that can animate me into acknowledging the lingering lethargy hiding in the darkness of my soul. Will I lead an insipid rest of my life or an inspired one?
Thanks for your beautiful and poignant nudge, Don!
Loud & clear, Don.
That is really the only question and how I live my life describes the answer.
Want to say more?
I’m not sure if you are asking me if I want to say more, but here is something else – –
I think the question “will you love?” embraces other questions such as:
“will you stay?”
“will you persevere?”
“will you do the right thing?”
And the answer to all is “yes” because the answer to the first and really only
question “will you love?” is yes. Yes, I will; yes, I have been; and yes, I always will – without a doubt and without hesitation.