"You asked me if I would be sad when it happened
and I am sad. But the iris I moved from your house
now hold in the dusty dry fists of their roots
green knives and forks as if waiting for dinner,
as if spring were a feast. I thank you for that.
Were it not for the way you taught me to look
at the world, to see the life at play in everything,
I would have to be lonely forever." (From Ted Kooser's poem Mother)
I have read that poem several times over the course of the last couple of days. Today, I read it as the workday was drawing to a close and no sooner did I reach the end of the poem then did tears start to flood my eyes. "Were it not for the way you taught me to look at the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever."
Her greastest lasting gift to me was the gift of love. Love of life, love of nature, love of family, love of people, love. She gave me eyes from her tiny window in the screen door. I love the world. I love the magic of new buds, the smell of wind over meadows, the taste of rain, and the sparkles of sunlight through blue spruce. I love my life and do not want to miss a second of it...but I miss her. three years later, I still feel the pain of separation, but I am not lonely. As in the poem, the way she taught me to see the world and live, live, live will never cause lonliness.
