Remembering

Monday at Uncle Babe's funeral, Charlie mentioned that it was Mum's birthday and she would be 95. Mum loved the Psalms and 84 was one of her favorites.
Advancing still from strength to strength, they go where other pilgrims trod, Till each to Zion comes at length and stands before the face of God.
Shortly before she passed into glory I was singing psalm 30. She recited these words and said, " You must remember this.."
For sorrow like a pilgrim may tarry for the night, but then a shout of joy comes when dawns the morning light.

October

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and flowers of May

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And goldenrod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs

Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,

In idle golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour,

October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Remembering...

My mother loved to quote poetry. She had quite a lot memorized from childhood days on. As far back as I can remember she would recite this poem on the first bright blue October day. Today was such a day.