FIRST LILY

This first of my lilies bloomed today - it must have been for Alma.
 
I followed Alma and BikerBear a lot in my first years here and always received such warmth, kindness and encouragement from them both. This is what Blip is all about  - the difference we make to each others' lives although we may never have met; the sharing of stuff that amazes, amuses and awes us - yes, and all that makes us ache and sorrow too.  

So this is for Alma; someone who did so much more than 'simply visit this world' :

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.


Mary Oiver