It's another perfectly lovely fall day! High and blue, windless, the leaves still, the shadows deep in the corners of things. It's my husband's birthday, yesterday was Dawn's birthday, and November 8th was Brian's birthday, so today is the day of the November Birthday Party! A celebration of three birthdays in one, with homemade Indian food, German chocolate cake, and family! There could not be a more perfect day for me, married to the man I have loved all these years and continue to love, celebrating birthdays of people I love, celebrating their lives with food and fun and a gorgeous day!
Imagining Heaven
makes me uneasy and superstitious, so instead I read books
where people understand purposes and goodness,
and am full of wonder. Some days, especially, I know
how impossible it is that heaven exists; I unfurl on the couch
like a fed snake and won't leave the house
until the day is inhaled back into its sea.
As a child, my imagined heaven revealed how basic
were my wants: a red porch littered with projects,
many animals, benign accidents to be tidied;
all movement like ice skating and everyone about twenty.
If there were a heaven we would be given a glimpse of it
once in a while, as we stumble over memories—
on a long drive, a flash comes and we try to reel it back—
wasn't that a dream? Where was that? What a marvel,
how terrible—to have nearly lost that game, that trip,
the buttons on that dress, the grief of that cold water
on that early May morning; his room without pictures,
her jewelry box, that bowl of oranges. I can do nothing
so I put myself in the old heaven, sprawled out
on the red floor. I am youngish, the dog is with me,
I can whistle and do, having left behind this life
in New Hampshire with the car and children.
Alison Powell
I don't have to imagine heaven, I have it every morning, when I wake up to such love, and such a pretty place, and look out my window and feel blessed! The poet's imagined heaven showed how basic her wants were as a child, well, I think mine are still pretty basic and having all that, I like to spend some time acknowledging my blessings, being grateful, and hoping things continue on, that having left behind childhood, I still imagine heaven in the same way, a place where you have what you need, people love you for who you are, and surrounded by beauty you recognize it and feel part of it, and of all that love. I would like the whole world to imagine heaven and look around and find themselves surrounded by it already! It's a prayer of mine, and I think I will just keep on praying it!
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