Friday, October 9, 2009

rubies...

it's our 40th year of marriage. our ruby year.

he went to nepal, and i asked him to bring me a ruby.

i was thinking- just a stone, or a pendant, or something little...(i do have an agatha christie fountain pen with the snake with the ruby eyes and it is one of my most treasured possessions)

he came back with a tiny box. gave it to me with a shy, excited grin.

inside, a stunning ruby ring, surrounded by diamonds.

my heart leaped...i felt like i'd just gotten engaged again. what is it about rings and diamonds and a girl's heart? (i may be almost 60, but inside, i'm 16.)

my sweetheart. the love of my life. he brought me a ruby ring.

my finger feels heavy with the power of this lovely emblem of our enduring union. flanked top and bottom by my two eternity rings, one diamond and one ruby...

i love it. i love him. i love being married. i love that we have survived this long, through good years, bad years, very bad years, and we have hung on. there is something to be said for staying together.

my ruby ring says it all.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

an american indian's version of the 23rd psalm.

The Great Father above is a Shepherd Chief. I am his and with him. I want not. He throws out to me a rope, and the name of the rope is love, and he draws me to where the grass is green and the water is not dangerous.

Sometimes my heart is very weak, and falls down, but he lifts it up again and draws me into a good road.

Sometime, it may be very soon, it may be longer, it may be a long, long time, he will draw me into a place between mountains. It is dark there, but I'll draw back not. I'll be afraid not, for it is in there between the mountains that the Shepherd Chief will meet me, and the hunger I have felt in my heart all this life will be satisfied.

Sometimes he makes the love rope into a whip, but afterwards he gives me a staff to lean on.

He spreads a table before me with all kinds of food. He puts his hands upon my head, and all the "tired" is gone.

My cup he fills, till it runs over.

What i tell you is true, I lie not. The roads that are "away ahead" will stay with me through this life, and afterward I will go to live in the "Big Tepee" and sit down with the Shepherd Chief forever.