MAYBE TONIGHT? I have been triply blessed in my life to have had a wonderful father, step-father, and father-in-law. Only my step-father remains on the planet, but the relationship with all three is vital, evolving, and very much alive. My relationship with my father was complicated in many ways, partly because he developed early onset dementia when I was still quite young. He didn’t know who I was by the time I was fifteen. As heart-rending as that was I know it was a necessary part of my human evolution. I know it was part of a bigger picture. I have had numerous opportunities in my life to find resolution with that pain. Two of those opportunities have included my relationships with my step-father and with my

THE HOURGLASS My grandmother used to say that she had an hourglass figure, but that most of the sand had run to the bottom. I so relate. That does not refer to my physicality. It refers to my incarnation. Having recently added another digit to my age I am keenly aware that I have lived far more years than I will continue to live. I know many people for whom that notion induces stress and even dread. Not for me. I feel it as an opportunity. As a wake-up call. As a chance to come off auto-pilot and direct my remaining sand in conscious, creative, and contributing ways. I want to spend my remaining time on this planet leaving it better for my having been here. Maybe

LOVABILITY My parents worked so very hard to make me lovable that I didn’t know I was. I do not fault for them for that. They wanted to be sure I fit into the world. That I was accepted and acceptable. How could they have known that I would grow into an adult for whom fitting in was not a goal? That being accepted by a world that was governed by values contrary to mine was not a priority? My life path has been about learning that I am lovable as is, even though I frequently make mistakes that are a result of loveless perception. The efforts to be acceptable and lovable are rooted in the false belief that we are not already that. Those efforts result