One Art
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
How brilliant is this? I can't believe I have only just found it. I don't know what inspired the poet to write it. But what I recognised in it is the way that growing old is to lose people and things, one by one. So many old friends have gone, and I am a bit worried about Elizabeth who I have known since we were both four years old. No card this year - most unusual.
And a few years ago I realised that I would not be paddling in the sea again, or even walking on the beach along the seashore, which I loved to do. There will be no more days out in London, a city I have always loved and that I lived and commuted in when we were young marrieds. We had many dive trips in my expat years, but I did not realise that my last trip to the beautiful Maldives islands was indeed my last trip - nor that the flight back home to our retirement would be my last flight.
Of course I am also keeping my hope that I will "inherit the earth", and live forever on this splendid planet. But that is up to my Creator, not to me. And how we will travel then I don't know - or what the earth will look like after Armageddon. Jesus compared the days we are living in now to the times of Noah. And when Noah and his family came out of the Ark, the earth would have been so changed.
I don't think we will even want to look back to the tragedy we are presently living in then anyway.
We had have had some beautiful sunrises over the English Channel - see a couple of Captain B's photos above. The other day we had a stunning sunrise - lots of broken cloud and the colours were orange and yellow. I did try to capture it on my Smartphone camera but not only did I not even begin to capture the glory of it, but my horizon was tilted at a strange angle. At least my thumb did not make an appearance, so I am improving.
Our Grand Creator, Jehovah, made such a wonderful world for and has set in a universe whose size and magnificence is beyond our comprehension.
Tuesday was one of those mornings when the Channel had stayed out late and not got back in time as it was so grey and rainy it was impossible to tell if there was a sea there. It sneaked back home at some stage though. Col had a visit to the FLO, the Finds Liaison Officer, who is visiting our local museum on Tuesday. He had a find that needed to be reported - not a hoard, alas. And I have had Zoom sessions on most days this week. I have one this morning.
And it continues grey and rainy - no snow down here so far.
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