This last year has had some moments, not least getting back fit after a new hip. It was harder than expected, especially as I had a serious setback from trying to climb the ski mountain in snow two months after the operation. Diminished is how I seemed to those who know me. Lately I have been trying to undimish myself, and thankfully I am almost back to fully fit, and getting quite strong. The physical setback had quite a profound effect on my mental health but that is now also healing. Lucy has been a patient helper with my aches pains and moans, what a star. Perhaps its these hurts and setbacks, the losses, the downs that teach us the biggest lessons. Somehow we get up again. I want to live better, and more gently on this small planet. I want to love those close to me, family and friends. And be more active against injustice and ecocide.
How we live and what we leave as legacy was recently brought home by the brevity of a gravestone. Born - died. An entire lifespan condensed to a dash, a hyphen. The birth and end dates can sadly, be too close for some who went too soon. The dates mere bookends to life. The dash between matters, it’s a lifespan, and it’s going to be our eulogy. That little hyphen should be lived well and filled with love and gratitude. At the end that is all there is to life. Two dates conjoined by a little dash, with the love you gave and received the only after life, dates and a dash chiseled on your temporal stone. Time erodes, moss covers and we are forgotten.
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
