Help!

Listening to the Beatles tune "Help."

It occurs to me, "what a tremendous insight into what happens to us as we move into the final third of our lives."

This is a time filled with tradoffs.  While we can't "do it all" anymore, the tenderness we experience as our spouses, kids, and friends "stand in the gaps" is profound. 

Life is good.

Paradise Found...

Summer.
Deck brittle with age, surrounded by color, a wall.
Satin petals: Red, Pink, Ivory, Maize.
Thorns a reminder: look, don't touch.

Water droplets perfectly formed, wait to escape.
Bees busy, a harvest of nectar.
Woman sits, watches, filled with joy at the sight.

She labors with tender care.
Scarred by thorns, undaunted.
She plants, she feeds, she waters.

The full bloom of her effort,
a feast for the eyes
Delicious to smell.

Autum.
Sun's path plunges
colors blaze then fade.
Not an end; pause, to rest.

Winter.
In time she protects for the deep white sleep of winter.
Well covered. Glory there still, but not.
They wait.

Spring.
She prepares the soil, a feast.
They awake from slumber, race to come out.
Canes the channel of life, carry lovely crowns through voyage to summer.

Summer.
In full bloom they linger.
Celebrated, loved; a reminder,
In the begining God...