What's tear, what's decay

What's tear, what's decay

Gems or dregs

Impressions of age.

To give and to receive

To give and to receive
Ageing on humility
and gratitude.

We age

We age
and we forget,
intent, journey
and destination,
what's for just
what's excess.

May our heart

May our heart

Open to full bloom

to daily wonders,

Grateful for every presence.

"I am grateful ...."

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

Henry D Thoreau

"O murmuring heart ...."

O murmuring heart! thy pleasures may decay,


Thy faith grow cold, thy golden dreams take wing;

Still in the realm of faded youth and joy,


Heaven kindly leaves some bird of hope to sing.

Albert Laighton

"The complete life ...."

The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquility of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

W Somerset Maugham

"... Knowing how to come to the end ...."

“… Knowing how to come to the end of things, one comes to the end of them.  This is also living on the proper path ….”

“The Ten Wings Commentary of the I Ching”

"In the end ...."

In the end

these things matter most:

How well did you love?

How fully did you live?

How deeply did you let go?

Buddha