In case you haven’t received it, below is our annual Thanksgiving “Card” which is always a poem composed by our thoughtful dad and a few pictures to keep you updated.
Family and Friends,
It's hard to believe, but this is the 40th year that we have sent a Thanksgiving Poem, Picture, and Update to friends and family.
And every year there is more to be thankful for!
The poems tend to evolve and almost write themselves. This year it turned to the season of Autumn (a season of our lives.)
We hope you feel our love as well as our thanks. Attached is the poem/update and three pictures.
Eyres
THE RICHNESS OF AUTUMN (thanksgiving 2011)
Juxtaposition of cool air in my nostrils and hot sun on my back
Slanting, revealing light, deeper shadows, flaming foliage
Surprising snow skiff or frost some mornings
Autumn, always the favorite season
And now the season of our lives
Our axis tilts slowly, and stretches our mortal year across nine seasons
A long, growing spring through school and mission and marriage
An early summer of new babies and politics and another mission
A midsummer with full-bloom cacophony of conceived children and books
The lush late summer’s Eyrealm missions and marriages
Indian summer of central three-campus kingdom and orbiting satellites
And now full autumn, rich and boundless
Then fall, more as a mellow invitation than a lowering threat
Followed by early winter’s renewed energy and new snow
And finally the reflective soft silence and reward of deep winter
We love the sixth season because it is now, the last third of the second third
Late enough for perspective but early enough for energy
We wait to see if country or church will be turned by our friends
Bright leaves, some flying in the wind and some still on the tree
I am the eyre or seer into the eyes of our nine noble ones
Family members 40 and 41 set to enter this estate as grandchildren 22 and 23
We float on new volumes and audiences to the domains of daughters and sons
Wrapped in each other’s oneness, flying far and then homing again and again
To the warmth of three campuses that become physical legacy
Fresh books on entitlement and spiritual solutions
A little early snow from a surgery shoulder and a bungled back previews winter and
Enhances returning equine and athletic appreciation
Abundance abounds and giving lags receiving so we get constantly and gratefully more behind
(Only our ever-indebted liabilities can balance His ever-given assets)
Our thanks-giving forms in the mould of our inability ever to repay
Next to Him, it is you we thank
Friends and family who see our hearts and know our love
This Thanksgiving of 2011
Richard and Linda (the north lake, the central mountains or the south desert)
Saren and Jared + 5 (Ogden), Shawni and Dave +5 and Josh (Phoenix),
Saydi and Jeff +4 (Boston), Jonah and Aja +4 (Maui), Tal and Anita +1* (NYC)
Noah and Kristi +4* (San Diego), Eli and Julie (D.C.) and Charity (San Francisco)
*new one arriving any day
WE GIVE THANKS!
No comments:
Post a Comment