When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.
When I first sang along with this song so many years ago I never gave it much thought that one day this might apply to me. This is not to say that I have reached that plateau in my life where I am looking at the long, downward path that can only lead to a gradual (or perhaps a speedy) circling of the drain.
Yours sincerely, wasting away . . . .
I feel I have a few good years left in me as I reach a milestone celebrated in song. But then there is that nagging question . . . .
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four? *
* John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1967 © EMI. Check out the "Looking Toward Portugal" Facebook page for more information and photos.
Where has the time gone? I have suddenly realized that it has been several weeks since I have posted anything here. I guess I have been off in the clouds somewhere. That often seems to be the case recently.
SallyAnn spent three weeks in Florida and I had the house to myself with a long list of writing projects I wanted to accomplish. And there was the stack of books I have been meaning to read. And although I was very successful in putting many hundreds of words down on paper, none of them found their way to Looking Toward Portugal. There are lots of ideas swirling in my head, and some half-baked drafts piled here on my desk, but nothing seemed to gel into place. At least not yet. John Quincy Adams perhaps said it best. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” These will all come together soon with a little more tender care.
I guess it happens to the best of us. You find yourself working hard on one project, and suddenly you realize your mind is slipping away to other topics, and you feel the crushing need to drop what you are doing in order to capture a thought or a phrase before it slips away. Suddenly you find yourself building on it to create something new. Mind you, I am not complaining. This certainly beats sitting here drumming on the desk with a pencil and wondering what to write next. Heraclitus teaches us well. “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.” And with good character comes good writing.
Hopefully you will find some of it here sooner rather than later.
Check out the "Looking Toward Portugal" Facebook page for more information and photos.
