Blessed Morning

 It is a very blessed day here as it is Easter morning.  I am just starting my 1st cup of coffee and relaxing to the beautiful sounds outside.  Having mixed up the pancakes already I am waiting for Whitney to wake up so I can have a beautiful Easter brunch with her.  As I put the pancake batter together without even referencing a recipe I thought of my old recipe book and the cute little handwritten note that Whitney put on the pancake page so many years ago.

Time flies by too quickly lately.  In a few short weeks, my last child will graduate high school and embark on a life of her own making.  It seems only yesterday my children were small children.  A line from Wordsworth whispers so often:

"My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is the father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."

From the poem "Ode:  Intimations of Immorality, Recollections of Childhood", the above stanza has been a favorite of mine for over 30 years.

My love for Wordsworth poetry, for Romantic poetry, started when I was still a child and watched "Splendor in the Grass" with Natalie Wood.  All these years later, I still study Wordsworth and think about what all those very old words actually mean.  It would be years after my first viewing of the movie before I discovered that Wordsworth wrote the famous lines spoken by Natalie Wood.  I had recorded the movie and actually could pause it to read the words written on the blackboard behind her.  I didn't make this discovery until years after I first read "Ode:  Intimations of Childhood", so I was thrilled to know that two profound poems that influenced my life were written by the same man.

"The Child is the father of the Man.."  Both Child and Man are capitalized, giving them significance.  A quick internet search can provide anyone with multiple explanations about the meaning of the words, but for me, these words still hold the same meaning that they did when I first read them at the tender age of 11 or 12.  I had been given a college literature book by a special woman Maidee Wheeler.  Her husband Herschel had taught school, I seem to recall.  In her garage was a box of old books, and the literature book caught my attention.  I would read through it, mesmerized by the new authors, poets, philosophers and essayists.  This book is one of my most treasured possessions almost 40 years after its receipt.  It is in these old yellowing pages that I first read Wordsworth.  I've been hooked ever since.

Spending time with my daughters who are now young adults makes me think of the "Child is the father of the Man" stanza more and more.  Where I once thought I had to provide all the insight, all the wisdom, I find myself amazed at how my young adult daughters provide wisdom so often for me on my new journey as an empty nester.  Even more amazing is the complete peace and joy I feel with my granddaughter, Jade.  She brings so much joy to my life, and I feel no pressure at all to impart some wisdom to her -- I just get to enjoy her.

When we take time to reflect (to recollect -- this is from the poem's title) on our own knowledge, our own experiences, we often encounter things on a much deeper level.  Published when Wordsworth was 37, I often wonder what experiences led to its creation.  The poem contains so much insight into the natural transition of a child into a father and then into a man.  For me at this point of my life, I am still a daughter and a mother.  My relationship with my mother is defined more and more by the expectations I have of the type of relationships I want to have with my daughters.

Even though i have so little time for reading poetry lately, words echo in my mind often.  I think about my very first exposure to many of these words and can remember the impact they had on my developing ideas.

Gotta get going on my day.................recollections can drag out for hours.