Elizabeth Edwards and Optimism (Jane Hirshfield) and Signs (Hazel Collister Hutchison)

Boy, I am wrestling with my feelings after just hearing that Elizabeth Edwards died today.  I considered her a kindred spirit, a cancer buddy, a hopeful and resilient woman.... hopefully just as I am.  I was standing in the kitchen making brisket (ok, I've never made brisket before, but Katie made me do it), and out of the blue came the announcement on the radio.  I panicked.  I ran to the radio and turned it up; I lost it just a little.  I cried.  Katie looked at me and asked what was wrong, and I had to tell her that a brave woman, someone who made everyone feel as if they knew her, had disease just like mine and had died.  I hadn't even known she was sick.  I felt so vulnerable and sad and scared; the immediacy of my reaction surprised me a little.  I hadn't really realized how much I identified with her.  I rolled over in bed and cracked a rib a year before she did, and I am not the one who's dead.  Hmmmmm.  In fact she and I actually chatted just a little about our situations at a conference several years ago; she did indeed have a wonderful way of making everyone feel as if they knew her well.   Funny, I have been feeling pretty together, full of hair and hope, and most of the time able to exercise and feel normal.  I don't feel so normal right now.  But I don't feel alone, either.  There are so many of us out there dealing with something hard--illness, divorce, unrest, poverty, war, loss of  employment, aging parents, many things combined, whatever.   You know, I think it is most of us. Maybe it is the season, but there is both sadness and hope in the air.  Elizabeth Edwards, you were a role model and an inspiration to me, and I mourn your death and hope you meet your young son again who died years ago.  For all of us still here struggling with our own burdens, may we find a way to take time out to relax,  to focus on what we can be grateful for, and to feel the hope and wonder of this divine season.   How about a few poems.  The first is something I believe I have shared before, but it is wonderful, and it is in tribute to Mrs. Edward's resilience and spirit. The second is by a wonderful poet from Cleveland who's book has Marc Chagall illustrations-- called "Toward Daybreak".

Optimism (Jane Hirshfield)

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the  light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs--all this resinous, unretractable earth.

Signs (Hazel Collister Hutchison)

If it is a new star

Not still and very far,

It is the one,

If a glory makes the ground

Articulate,

Yearning up to light and sound,

Do not wait.

It may be a dark king

Bids you go

Or angels shining in a ring,

You will know.

And be sure to keep away

From walls of a house.

Look for mystery in hay,

Wonder in cows.

Cheers to all