From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (127)

More About George

If I want to tell more about myself, the very best might be to just start by saying "I love..." and then list things that I love.

So: I love......

....Tafelkop. The big world of which I am a part, silence and to walk.

The Conversation

...time spent with my M. Where we talk for long stretches, and laugh, or are just quiet together for long periods of time.

Elements From The Conversation

....our granddaughter, Ariana. Who loves books very much and keeps asking: "Oupa, tell me a silly story!"

....books. And dogs. And cats. And tea.

....a good conversation. Sculpting and woodwork. To write.

....poems. More so by the day. Basically impossible to pick a single one, but on my birthday, this one from Billy Collins. It talks about things one thinks about at 60.

Design

I pour a coating of salt on the table

and make a circle in it with my finger.

This is the cycle of life

I say to no one.

This is the wheel of fortune,

the Arctic Circle.

This is the ring of Kerry

and the white rose of Tralee

I say to the ghosts of my family,

the dead fathers,

the aunt who drowned,

my unborn brothers and sisters,

my unborn children.

This is the sun with its glittering spokes

and the bitter moon.

This is the absolute circle of geometry

I say to the crack in the wall,

to the birds who cross the window.

This is the wheel I just invented

to roll through the rest of my life

I say

touching my finger to my tongue.

Billy Collins                                             

Music

.....all music, but especially Jazz. Its creative, unpredictability. That it does not shy away from silence and takes all the time in the world to say what it wants to say.

....contemplative spirituality that continuously weaves me into all the elements of ordinary life and sensitizes me to experience and recognize God in everything.

When I Returned From Rome 

A 

bird took flight. 

And a flower in a field whistled at me 

as I passed. 

I drank 

from a stream of clear water. 

And at night the sky untied her hair and I fell asleep 

clutching a tress 

of God’s. 

When I returned from Rome, all said, 

“Tell us the great news,” 

and with great excitement I did: “A flower in a field 

whistled, 

and at night the sky untied her hair and 

I fell asleep clutching a 

sacred tress…”

Francis of Assisi                                         

.....you. Thank you.

George & Matilda