I have laughed by Donna Ashworth

One of my all-time favorite books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is full of passages that have stuck with me over the years.

"Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true."



I have found this to be true. Not only for books, but for music, and for poetry.

If our minds and our hearts are open, magic will find its way to us.  As will truth.  And, if we're lucky, maybe even a little wisdom.

I have a birthday coming up this month. I'll be 74 years old.

Not as many summers ahead of me as behind me.

I'm experiencing hearing about death and illness visiting long time friends my age. An age I didn't give much thought to as a young woman, younger girl, little girl. Why would I?

We live our lives in phases and passages.

We enter each in slow evolution, not really noticing time passing as it pertains to our age. Until, all of a sudden "I'm 74" strikes a more strident note than just words.

It's no longer just another birthday.

It's a passage.

Perhaps the final passage. 

 That's the circle of life.

Depending on which report you read, life expectancy for a woman in the United States is around 76-78 years. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20220831.htm

Do I spend a lot of time focusing on that number?

Of course not.

We all know women who are well past their 70s who are still fierce and vibrant.

But.

Life is not static. It can change in seconds. (This is the excuse I use when the travel bug bites and I start planning another trip to Paris 😊. 'tis a valid excuse to my mind 😉 ).



All that simply to say this poem by Donna Ashworth found its way to me at a most opportune time - - -

I have laughed.

Oh how I have laughed.

I have laughed so hard with so many wonderful people that I now wear the marks.

Mother Nature has engraved me as one, ‘who laughed whenever she could’.

I wear the tattoo of the joyful, and that makes me swell with pride.

How can I hate upon these lines when I remember the nights, the music, the dancing, the fun, the tears of laughter and the blindingly joyful light.

Give me a mark for every night I felt alive and I will show them to the world with pride.

I have laughed.

Oh how I have laughed.

I hope you have laughed too my friend.

And if you have not, start now.

It’s never too late.


 -  - - Donna Ashworth

From ‘LIFE’ : https://amzn.eu/d/9Y6E6kz