Touch Me

So much to say today but the thoughts crash into each other and are conflicted.  If I say this… I’ll sound preachy. If I say that… I’ll sound commercial, trite and shallow.  Do I touch on nostalgia? Do I try to pull on your heartstrings and throw in a dash of guilt?  How do I reach you and where are the right words to paint the picture of what I want to get across?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for. I’m lucky to have a warm bed, food in my belly, and a roof over my head. My family is small and broken but it’s mine and I’m fortunate to have everyone close so that I don’t have to travel far on a holiday just to see them.

It hasn’t always been this way and I know, for many in my community and extended family that it’s a lot tougher this year than past years.  What is in my mind today is not sadness about the lack of festivity that comes with the big family gathering but the chronic lack of touch in our lives as we grow older.  Children grow up and leave, spouses pass on or marriages end and we find ourselves without daily affection or conversation.  The fall and winter of our lives can be desolate and cold and depressing without a decent amount of social or family support. It’s so easy to fall through the cracks, especially for those who are shut-ins, abandoned in old folks homes, neglected by family or shy. Do you know someone like that?  What can you do to reach out ?

(Excerpt and lyrics from the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber)

MEMORY 

Daylight, see the dew on the sunflower
And a rose that is fading
Roses wither away
Like the sunflower I yearn to turn my face to the dawn
I am waiting for the day

Now Old Deuteronomy, just before dawn
Through a silence you feel you could cut with a knife
Announces the cat who can now be reborn
And come back to a different jellicle life

Memory, turn your face to the moonlight
Let your memory lead you
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is
Then a new life will begin

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Burnt out ends of smokey days
The stale cold smell of morning
The streetlamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn’t give in
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Sunlight, through the trees in the summer
Endless masquerading
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading

Touch me, it’s so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me you’ll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun