Tuesday, May 29, 2012

GRATITUDE - May 28, 2012

I AM GRATEFUL FOR GREAT MEMORIES.

The brain is an amazing recording device.  It can harbor slights and disappointments from your childhood and ruin your life forever.  Conversely, it can hold near and dear, thoughts close to you to relive over and over again for your life, forever.


William Earnest Henley
Here we are, on the cusp of some minor, but somewhat invasive procedure where I get to have a camera in a tube poking around in my heart.  If they find what they suspect - a blocked artery - I get to go for a ride in an ambulance to another hospital for some more advanced work inside my heart.  


That said...I may not be able to do my blog tomorrow night, but should all the gods permit...I will double up to catch up later this week.


I am supposed to be cognizant with the first procedure (now, that is scary) but, my cardiologist said I won't feel it, as there are no nerves in your heart (gee whiz, Mr. Science, I didn't know that).  Over the past couple of years with the Cancer gig,  I have had the opportunity to be hooked up to or enclosed in, etc. with time on my hands to just think.  


I have so many great memories that I am still not through reflecting on them when they come get me out, unhooked, etc.  How truly blessed I am.


I am rich beyond my wildest dreams with family, friends and some truly amazing adventures...tomorrow is just another one.  Soon, it will be added to my memory book.


A memory/  My favorite poem:  I memorized poem this in 1959.  I was 12 years old.  I was in seventh grade at Mills Jr. High School in Rancho Cordova.  My mom was head of the English department.  My English teacher was Sandy Grong.  We had to find a poem that meant something to use, memorize it and recite to the class (I got an A). 


Fifty-two (52!!!) years ago and here I am with the perfect opportunity to recite it once again...what a great memory opportunity...just sayin'.

Invictus 


"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul


In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeons of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.


Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me unafraid.


It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am  the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Earnest Henley

Some may have heard parts of this inspiring poem before, few in its entirety.  All of us have known this great Scottish poet since childhood in a character from one of the most well-known literary classics.

He suffered from tuberculosis and had his left leg amputated below the knee when he was in his late teens.  How is that for a 'fell clutch of circumstance'?  Spending time in the TB ward, Henley became great friends with a fellow TB patient - Robert Louis Stevenson....and thus was born In 'Treasure Island', the large barrel-chested, red-bearded pirate with a heart of gold - Long John Silver.

Even the most well-read may not know a literary fact even more cool.  The now adult, William Henley, had a daughter that was sickly, bed-ridden and ultimately died about the age or five or six.  A family friend, another great author, befriended little Margaret and because of a speech impediment, she couldn't pronounce 'Rs', Margaret called the man her "Fwendy-Wendy".

The friend?  J.M. Barrie.  The star of his subsequent book:  Wendy Darling of Peter Pan.

See - when we endeavor to become an educated, creative person and hang out with other intelligent, imaginative, people...we can possibly live on forever.  We never know whose lives we touch.  We are the masters of our fate.

Hope to be back blogging this week and perhaps touching someone's life in such a way...I just may become immortal.  I am truly thankful for this opportunity.

rlw


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