Today is your birthday
Your day of continuation
You continue the practicality of Carolyn
The conviction of Bodgie
Lily’s willingness to push boundaries
David’s enthusiasm for helping others
And my love of the outdoors.
Love you dearly
Wishing you a day of celebration of
All that you are
A blessing
To us all
An old Hassidic rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell exactly when the night had ended and the day begun (daybreak is the time for certain holy prayers).
“Is it when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” one student proposed.
“No,” answered the rabbi.
“Is it when you can clearly see the lines on your own palm?” another asked.
“Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell it it is a fig or a pear tree?”
“No,” answered the rabbi each time.
“Then, what is it?” the pupils demanded.
“It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that they are your sister or brother. Until then it is still night.”
As told by Jack Kornfield in his book:
Bringing Home the Dharma:Awakening Right Where You Are
Today is a little sad. I have to clear everything off the porches and cut back plants because they are starting the siding on Tuesday. I went through the tub with the squirt guns in it. I kept thinking that maybe some kids would come here someday and reawaken the fun of our annual family reunion squirt gun adventures but that hasn’t happened so it’s probably time to give them away. And I am wondering how I will hang up things to the new siding. It’s easy to pound a nail in the wood. So today is a day of letting go of things old with memories, and on Tuesday I will need to start embracing the new.
In Denver acting out because of everything she has experienced and learned and all that is in her heart.
Steel gray clouds
blanketing this forest in snow
black and white lines,
snow marking the trees.
In solitude
I find
quiet and peace
and god in each snowflake.
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| Taken at a dance when they were in college at the University of Missouri. |
What would you say
When you hear?
We’ve been apart so long.
Duty is the strongest word.
Do you love me enough to say
“Do your duty as you see it.”
I think so.
I’m about to go again.
Into another, let it be the last.
This will be the last.
Tho’ it may seem overlong
Then I’ll be home.
Remember - when in school?
Remote as that time may be.
Reveries of time gone by.
I remember the phrases
I look at our picture.
It reminds me of --
‘I could not love thee half so much,
Loved I not honor more.”
Honor and love.
These two things have made me.
The Honor of my country
The Love I hold for you.
We have not chosen the easy path - you and I.
Wealth and comfort have been cast aside.
Wonder and continuing wonder for me.
The words “I love you” seem too simple
Though what else need be said.
The “I love you” is it
This letter was written on his return from Vietnam. He left us in Missouri to finish school and moved to Virginia alone for his next assignment. We followed as soon as school was out. The quote is from a poem by Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta, Going to War
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| Carolyn and Whit Wallach 50th anniversary August 18, 2001 |
June 1, 1979
Carolyn,
Almost all the love songs have been sung telling how I feel about you.
The poems we have enjoyed have only touched on how much you mean to me.
I thought about creating a new love song/poem for this birthday.
But what I wish for you this year goes far beyond melody or rhyme.
You are strength and stability. Your presence in our home and in our endeavors, makes it worthwhile.
Without you what we are doing wouldn’t be worth the effort.
Honey, there’s not much I can buy you with money.
I hope you can accept this little note of love.
Many more birthdays are still before us. May we share them together.
I love you.
Happy Birthday,
Whit
