Ginger was never happier than when she was with people. In fact, she thought of herself as a real “people person.”
I posted this poem and these comments on my Facebook page today
after the poem popped up among my Facebook memories from a year ago.
PRAYER WITH GINGER IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
Dear God, thank you for Ginger
in this, the time of Covid-19.
Thank you for her consistent
and enduring attendance — to
wherever in the house we may go.
Faithful. Room to room. By our side.
Or under foot. She is here. There.
Everywhere. Like you. And when
we want to eat, she reminds us all
creatures look to you for their food
in due season. And when we want
a brisk walk, she reminds us — no,
leads us — to green grass. Where
she lieth down. And when we find
beside her bowl more water outside
than IN, we remember like hers,
our cups also runneth over. Yea.
So teach us to number our days as
she does: One, One, One, One . . .
And may we apply our hearts to
wisdom. In your house forever. Amen.
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APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY Month, and on this “Throwback Thursday,” I include my own poetry which I posted on this day 1 YEAR AGO featuring our own Ginger the Mystic (more on that below).
I have made a tradition of sharing some of my own poems during this month each year, not because they hold a candle to the other works of art I put up, but because the whole point of the poetry month is to get it down off the shelf and appreciate it and practice reading and/or writing it and to open up our hearts to living (as Mary Oliver says) our “one wild and precious life.”
ABOUT Ginger the Mystic:
She did not make it through this tide the world has been in for over a year. But the pandemic meant for her that during her last 6 months, she enjoyed having us both at home with her pretty much ALL. THE. TIME. — after which, she gently slipped away full of gratitude, blessing life and everything and everyone in it as she went. Truly, she taught us to number our days like this: one, one, one, one, etc.
She is now memory. But as is the case with all whom we love and lose…she is not ONLY memory, but active in our lives. Think of how she STILL makes us smile. The way she STILL makes us grateful for the small things. Still.
Have a blessed day.
Ginger, at home. (2015, photo by Joanna Lile)
