(My first scene of 2006)

A New Year 2006 has finally greeted us today. Hope this year will filled with love and life and peace for you and those around. Betty xx

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean -the one who has flung herself
out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out
of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and
forth instead of up and down
-who is gazing around with her
enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and
thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open,
and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall downinto the grass, how to kneel down
in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how
to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

* * *
Caterpillars cocoon and turn into butterflies.
Change, the only constant of life, is always happening to these morphing creatures. I always wonder if the animal ever knows in which phase it finds itself.
My life is no different. When I’ve got the elated feeling of having done something I wanted to do (or felt I should have done), have I spread my wings or am I just a caterpillar preparing to cocoon?
Perspective on this question eludes me, so all the while I’ll live my life.
I have passions,
relationships –new and old
I live in new places
I learn new things
I love
I hurt
I grow
I build my spirit
I share
I care for myself, my family, and others I have yet to meet
I seek new challenges, answers, peace, and freedom as I live my “one wild and precious life,” grateful for that which has been afforded me.