Dusk

 

She Sweeps with Many Coloured Brooms

by Emily Dickinson

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,
And leaves the shreds behind;
Oh, housewife in the evening west,
Come back, and dust the pond!

You dropped a purple ravelling in,
You dropped an amber thread;
And now you've littered all the East
With duds of emerald!

And still she plies her spotted brooms,
And still the aprons fly,
Till brooms fade softly into stars —
And then I come away.

https://allpoetry.com/She-sweeps-with-many-colored-brooms,

Col's photo and the poem seem to go together well.  And the poem reminds me of how my parents wouldn't draw the curtains until the very last of the sunset had disappeared - till brooms fade softly into stars, as Emily has it.

And I hope so much that one day we will all sit together again, watching the sun set.  And that we will see sunsets without number - and every one of them will be different, such is the variety and immensity of Jehovah's creation.

It is being a busy weekend, for me, these days.  I was actually out on the doors yesterday, doing three return visits, courtesy of a brother and sister who picked me up and chauffered me and came with me to the doors - my voice is not too good, due to this lingering cold.  But it did make me realise that my days of going door to door really may be numbered, in that after being kept quite a long time at one door talking - or being talked to - I nearly fell over when I tried to move again. My legs and back just can't take it.

Then we went to a garden party in the afternoon - nice group of friends, all ages, including a tiny of one year old, crawling happily round the garden.  And Col and I sat out on the balcony later, over a glass of red wine, until it got dark. We talked a bit about old times and all our memories, but also about what we are doing now - for example, Col's latest find, what he calls a "hammy", a silver hammered coin, many hundreds of years old.

We both agree that it all underlines how short our lives are now, how quickly they go. But he is not yet ready to think about what the Bible has to say about it.  One day...?

And he supports me in being a witness in every way - even donating his last big container of milk from the freezer so I won't have to stop off at the Supermarket on the way to the Kingdom Hall - as today I am on Tea and Coffee Duty.  These days I am so feeble that even doing that seems like climbing Everest.  But I will have support, and my kind chauffeurs of yesterday even offered to take over and do it. But I think its best I do what I can for the congregation now, as it is not much these days.