The Long Road (Cliff Eberhardt)

Historically, my birth day/week/month has been a time of reflection about the previous year and the upcoming one: hopes, dreams, goals, expectations, resolutions, etc. - it's a perfect occasion to assess my role on this planet and how I'll do things differently (or not) over the next twelve months...

My trip to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (with a few days on either end) was almost a week, my return flight into Ft. Lauderdale was delayed Monday evening and I hit the ground running, back to work that Tuesday morning - this past weekend was full with obligations, not to mention birthday festivities, and then Monday rolled around again. I'm still tired and back to overwhelmed, with very little opportunity to ruminate, much less put my thoughts into any semblance of coherence.

So... I'll continue to post relevant songs/books/poems/quotes until divine inspiration strikes - it will happen when it's meant, I have no doubt...

SONG: The Long Road by Cliff Eberhardt

BOOK: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections (Library of America) (Hardcover) by Jack Kerouac

POEM: The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice --

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

QUOTE: "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson