family · photography · poetry

Today Is Good

Sally

I’d rather be right where I am today
Yes, I would
Yes, I would
Today is good

I’d rather keep in step with time than stay
Yes, I would
As I should
Today is good

Sometimes my heart begins to stray
To other times, to other days

My memories may not obey
This need to stay
Here in today

The day will come when I will say good-bye

Yes, it will
A moment still
And so until

I’ll lean into the sadness and I’ll sigh,
This is good —
For I have stood
Right where I should

Sometimes my heart begins to stray
To other times, to other days
My memories may not obey
This need to stay
Here in today
Here in today

My first thought when I saw the photo challenge was Simon & Garfunkel’s El Condor Pasa. 

My second thought was wishing to go back in time to when my children were young and my parents were both still alive. I quickly realized that wasn’t a healthy road for me to go down.

So I ditched Paul Simon’s sparrows, snails, hammers, and nails, and wrote this about my need to stay in the moment.

Published by Sally

13 thoughts on “Today Is Good”

  1. Wow! This hit hard! I love all your photos that go so well with it. Lovely, lovely work. I can’t express how much this affected me. You have a beautiful perspective, and from what I get a glimpse at, a wonderful life full of memories worth cherishing.

    1. Thanks! While you’re right that I HAVE had a good life, it has not been without its difficulties. I’m learning that leaning in and embracing those challenges is the key.

    1. One of my daughters got a turntable for her birthday and has dug out our old albums to listen to. Simon & Garfunkel are getting a lot of play in our house these days.

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  7. You have such talent…not only in your writings, but in knowing what is right! Your family is blessed to have you!

  8. Sally, my heartstrings are still buzzing even after taking a pause, a breath and a beat to compose myself. As bumpy as the road to here has been I still wish my adults more grown up than me a lot of the time children were still tots with wide eyes and happy gappy grins, I still wish my father was here and my grandmother too. I still wonder how I made it to 57 and regret not bottling every single moment. But happy is how I choose to be and to be happy I have to be content and to be content I have to cherish the moment and not allow myself to gape into the rear-view but rather just to glimpse and smile. Thank you. Just thank you. (And for the S&G which however poignant, I do very love) 💕

    1. Thanks, Osyth. You’re always so kind. This post was more of a reminder to myself of where I need to be than where I am.

      Yesterday my frustration level was at an all-time high as I caught my father dismantling photograph albums. “I know what I’m doing,” he said defensively as I scolded — but he doesn’t. Clearly he doesn’t. And it makes me sad and angry and sad some more. I forgot that the day was good.

      But today is a new day. And, as Anne of Green Gables said, it’s a new day “with no mistakes in it.” She also said, “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” So — today is good. It has to be.

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