Saturday, April 24, 2021

Abandoning Haste as a Life Choice

 


Marry in haste,
repent at leisure,
the playwright* said in 1693,
a lesson this wide-eyed girl
without a clue in 1963 
learned a bit too late
to do me any good.

Life has such haste and urgency
when we are young: the hustle,
the bustle, the fleetness, the flurry,
the scamper, the scurry.

No wonder I'm so tired
after all that rush and kafuffle.
No wonder I slowed it all down
the minute I didn't have to
work three jobs just to survive
any more. (Thank you, Old Age Pension!)
How I love my slow mornings
with large cups of tea, surveying
spring blossoms. My fridge magnet
says it all: "You know you're old
when happy hour is a nap."
It used to be a joke. Now
it is the truth.


Smiles. Day 24

*William Congreve, in The Old Bachelour

3 comments:

  1. And I agree and am nodding my head to every word. Not because I need a nap, but because every word is true, and has been fully experienced.

    Elizabeth

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  2. Ha ha --- Happy Hour a nap? Truly, hope the nap is followed by a glass of wine. Smiles.

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  3. True this. "It is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so God giveth God's beloved sleep." (Psalms)

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