Work, Gratitude and Blue Waves...Are My Boots Old?

Yay blue wave blue wave blue wave blue wave and the future looks like the blue wave - rainbow colored,  Republican caucus 90% white men.  Democrats 38% white men.  Go figure..... (update 12/27/2018 - still a ways to go until we are back to a place of the rule of law, respect for our institutions  and a framework that supports all of us.).   

Are my boots old?  For some reason, this poem and image caught me and it resonated.  My boots are "new" - my self is "old" or getting old.  Recognizing what is.  What is and what it means.  Discovering and getting more willing to accept, inquire about and be calm with.   Acknowledging that the blessing of being in this space and time is that the old is new and comforting. 


  Messenger
by Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
          equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
          keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
          astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
          and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
          to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
          that we live forever.