How important it must be to someone
that I am alive and walking,
and that I have written these poems.
This morning the sun stood right at the end of the road
and waited for me.”
~ Ted Kooser. March 20, The vernal equinox.
Preface of Ted Kooser’s “Winter Morning Walks: One hundred postcards to Jim Harrison“:
In the autumn of 1998, during my recovery from surgery and radiation for cancer, I began taking a two-mile walk each morning. I’d been told by my radiation oncologist to stay out of the sun for a year because of skin sensitivity, so I exercised before dawn, hiking the isolated country roads near where I live, sometimes with my wife but most often alone.
During the previous summer, depressed by my illness, preoccupied by the routines of my treatment, and feeling miserably sorry for myself, I’d all but given up on reading and writing. Then, as autumn began to fade and winter came on, my health began to improve. One morning in November, following my walk, I surprised myself by trying my hand at a poem. Soon I was writing everyday.
Notes: Related Ted Kooser Post: Lucky I am to go off to my cancer appointment. Ted Kooser Bio. Photograph – Jianwei Yang, In the Morning Light, Vancouver.
I love the image of the sun at the end of the lane waiting for him. Isn’t it amazing how a sight that we’ve seen hundreds of times can, when seen through a new lens, become freighted with meaning?….
WLS – how the lens with which we see our daily unctions can chance profoundly with minor adjustment..
Yes. The punch line close got me too. Totally WLS. A slight bend on presentation and an entirely new and elevated experience.
You matter. You are love and light. I am grateful for your daily words.
Awwwww. Thank you Millie, your kind words mean a lot to me.
and where it will always return to wait –
Yes.
Light is so full of energy and love. I can clearly see that the Light was holding you as closely as possible until you were able to experience its full glory.
Beautifully stated…thank you.
It’s the most beautiful thing I have came across lately. Exquisite.
Me too. And profound to the core of my being.