Yet onward!

cinquefoil

My courageous daughter, Caitlin, has been on an incredible journey of illness and recovery these past seven weeks. Thanks to a wonderful medical team headed by Dr. Michel W. Bojanowski, and to the support of family, friends and even perfect strangers (who no longer are strangers!) with messages of hope, with visits, cards, letters and above all, prayers, I am overjoyed to let my blog followers know that Caitlin is now on the final leg of her journey back to health. She will leave the neurosurgery ward early next week, follow by an intense program of physical and occupational therapy, and then, finally, she will return home.

Thank you, everyone. May God bless you all.

Journey

Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass
And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind
Blow over me—I am so tired, so tired
Of passing pleasant places! All my life,
Following Care along the dusty road,
Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed;
Yet at my hand an unrelenting hand
Tugged ever, and I passed. All my life long
Over my shoulder have I looked at peace;
And now I fain would lie in this long grass
And close my eyes.
Yet onward!
Cat birds call
Through the long afternoon, and creeks at dusk
Are guttural. Whip-poor-wills wake and cry,
Drawing the twilight close about their throats.
Only my heart makes answer. Eager vines
Go up the rocks and wait; flushed apple-trees
Pause in their dance and break the ring for me;
And bayberry, that through sweet bevies thread
Of round-faced roses, pink and petulant,
Look back and beckon ere they disappear.
Only my heart, only my heart responds.
Yet, ah, my path is sweet on either side
All through the dragging day,—sharp underfoot
And hot, and like dead mist the dry dust hangs—
But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach,
And long, ah, long as rapturous eye can cling,
The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake,
Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road
A gateless garden, and an open path:
My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.

(Edna St. Vincent Millay)