"Big Old Cottonwood" a Poem by Imogene Bolls

        Elder RiverSoul, emeritus professor of biology, keeps the memory of his deceased wife Imogene alive through readings of her published poetry.  

      RiverSoul explains the inspiration for "Big Old Cottonwood" comes from "the house my parents bought, moved onto a lot in Onaga (Kansas), under a huge cottonwood tree, and completely renovated.  When the tree blew down in a big wind and rain storm, I counted 99 annual growth rings.  Mother lived many years of her widowhood in that house. "

                             

                             Big Old Cottonwood 

                            They bought the lot because it stood

                             to shield them from Kansas storms.

                             Little did they know how much

                             there'd be to shield against.

                             Sturdy-trunked, rough-barked, its

                             dark limbs climbing one another

                             through light shimmer of leaves:

                             no other tree grieves quite so well.

                             Framed by this sill stark

                             as a Wyeth window, it stands

                             against the losses of a lifetime:

                             a skeleton of tree-house hanging on;

                             the skin off bold, young knees, now grown...

                             to the death-closed mouth of him

                             who chose and loved and cursed 

                             all in the same breath

                             its very size that defies pruning.

                        

                             And now, still, even in this gentle

                             summer breeze, it moves as if to shelter

                             her who, mourning, stands bereft, alone

                             against uncompromising sun, the wind

                             and rain and hail: the sting of days.

                             Life asks enough, even of trees.

                             

--submitted by Elder RiverSoul

"Big Old Cottonwood" appears in Earthbound, Bottom Dog Press, 1989. 

Image by Lynn Greyling from Pixabay    

 Please contact us if you would like to submit a story, poem, reflection, or essay.                    

"A Winning Mom" by C. Burr

 

Image by Daria Głodowska from Pixabay

 

I met my friend "Moriah" over two years ago through Thrive!-- a local nonprofit organization "dedicated to reducing poverty by building skills and relationships that strengthen families and individuals."

 She is a single mom working up to fifty hours a week while raising four children, ages 10-14.  She grew up in foster homes, achieved her GED, works for less than $15 per hour, and was recently accepted to receive a House for Habitat home, which will require over 200 hours of her help during the construction.  All her children plan to go to college and maintain As and Bs.

Recently, Moriah texted me about her 7^th-grade daughter “Serenity,” who wanted to quit track after two days of practice:

Serenity don’t like doing [track] every day. She asked to quit but I told her since she started, I’d like her to finish. 

She said, “Okay Mom, then I’m going to lose every race!”

            I said, “Okay. I’ll still cheer for you!” 

She asked,” Y’all cheer for a loser?” 

I said, “Yes.  You’re my daughter and you’re a winner in my eyes.  You tried.”

For more information on Thrive copy and paste: https://www.thriveflinthills.com/

Please contact us if you would like to submit a story, poem, reflection, or essay.

Elders Respond: "What are You Reading and Why?"

 

The photo is of books recommended by elders who meet in a study group called "Theological Reflections."  Other elders and regular readers of this group blog responded to the question "What are you reading and why?"  Some have provided succinct reviews after the titles.  Others have elaborated on books that have inspired them over the years and have written lengthy reviews.    For more book reviews, see "Contributors--"BOOKS WE READ."

Myster E

The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton. I got the idea to read this book after I read that Jackie Kennedy gave it to Robert Kennedy after JFK's assassination. The passage that was relevant to the events then is by Aeschylus: "God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."  

It is a fascinating book that describes the beginnings of our Western culture.  Here is an excerpt:  "We think and feel differently because of what a little Greek town did twenty-four hundred years ago. What was then produced of art and of thought has never been surpassed and very rarely equaled, and the stamp of it is upon all the art and all the thought of the Western world."

Elder Debouli

Rough Sleepers, 2023:  This is about a physician, Dr. Jim O’Connell, who worked with the homeless in Boston for over 30 years.  It opened up a world for me that I have only touched on the fringes.  It is inspiring in its humanity.  One of my favorite authors Tracy Kidder followed this doctor for months before he wrote the book.

The Book Thief, a novel by Markus Zusak, 2005.  This story is about a young girl who couldn’t read in WWII Munich, Germany, and started stealing books.  It gave me tremendous insights into what it was like for poor families in Germany and how they were also victims of Hitler’s war machine.  Her family hid a Jew for many months and he taught her to read.  Incredibly well written.  I couldn’t put it down.

Modern Loss:  Candid Conversations about Grief.  Beginners Welcome by Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, 2018.  This book covers many forms of grief through stories and pictures.  I read parts of it after a friend's daughter-in-law died at the age of 41.  It is a fresh approach to grief. 

Breath by James Nestor, 2020.  My daughter-in-law who is becoming a myofunctional therapist highly recommended this.  It talks about the importance to our overall health of how we breathe, and how many of us have poor health because of how we breathe.  It has good ideas for persons with asthma and respiratory illnesses but is very applicable to all of us. 

The Little Liar by Mitch Albom, 2023.  A great novel by a well-known author.   This is about the Jewish community of 50,000 persons in Thessaloniki, Greece, in WWII.   It was the largest community of Jews from the diaspora at the time.  Only about 1500 Jews are living there now.  I read it because my husband’s aunt’s family was killed by the Germans in WWII (she was saved by my husband’s uncle).  She never spoke of this or her Jewish heritage even to her children that we have remained close to.  The story is fiction but rich with the culture of Jews in Thessaloniki at that time.  

Note:  Two of Elder Debuli's book reviews appear in another Elders Speaking blog post -- Autism in Hells and Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity.  Her review on Great Bones: Taking Control of Osteoporosis by Keith McCormick will appear in a future post.

Elder D.C. 

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate.  A story of women dealing with the harsh realities of life following the Civil War, and how it impacts modern reality in a poor Southern town.  

Elder K, L.  

I am reading Think and Grow Rich (by Napoleon Hill) with my son to help him expand into his greatness (because that is the richness we are going for.)

Pussy: A Reclamation (Regna Thomashauer) because I think that the feminine power is the power that will heal the world and the more that we can tap in and share our gifts with the world, the more the human race can step into the next evolution of being.

The Go-Giver  (Bob Burg and John Mann)  The book is short and on my list of good reads. 

Elder Wren-Wren said the following book made a big impact on her: 

Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot To Take Over America, and the Woman who Stopped Them.” By T. Egan. 

Please contact us if you would like to add to our list of book reviews. Tell us what you are reading--or what books have made an impact on your life.