Love letter Whit to Carolyn

Taken at a dance when they were 
in college at the University of Missouri.

 
Jan 66

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

Birthday Love letter 1979 Whit to Carolyn

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

Listening to the Heart Sutra

 Many days I just have to listen to the heart sutra chanted by the brothers and sisters of Plum Village.   

May we be safe and protected.  May we be surrounded by love and kindness.  And may we live with ease.  

Link here. 

The story of stuff - a beginning

 Starting a new project.  This is the beginning.  23 and me said I might have old age Alzheimer.  So in case I forget, here it is before I do.  

There is a lot of stuff around this house.  I remember that one of my mother’s greatest frustrations as she was leaving us, was trying to tell me the stories of all her stuff.  The same thing happened with Isabella when one day she had to leave her home.  So I am telling the story of stuff here. There will still be many things that you will wonder “what the hell” about.   The stuff has no value except in its story.  The stories I am not telling are the ones you get make up if you decide to keep whatever it is.

When I was in junior high and high school, I liked to look good and that meant wearing fingernail polish and lipstick. When I was thirteen, it all began with just a bit of light lip gloss.  That is what I was permitted.  In high school, I had a spice rack on the wall with all my bottles of polish and colors of lipstick.  I found this cute little poodle to hold one bottle that it is still holding.  Price for the bottle about 25 cents.  Cathy would sneak into my room and get into my make up which drove me crazy.  I found this at grandma’s house and decided to put it in my downstairs medicine cabinet.

This is an eye glass that grandma used whenever we got something in our eye.  She would put water in the cup, hold it up to our eye and then tell us to blink.  It was torture. I was one of those kids who hated getting my hair washed in the bathtub because I did not want water in my eyes. And later I hated opening my eyes underwater when I was learning to swim.   Perhaps there was a connection. 

In the margins

 Writing found in the margins of some books 

The Selected Poems of Li Po

But you drew conclusions

it is all a dream

that each of us can appreciate

from our own perspectives

Du Fu A Life in Poetry

Waiting in a coffee shop

Mother’s Day

are our lives

colliding or coinciding

sometimes it is hard to tell

the coffee is warm and good

Du Fu awaits

perhaps I should enjoy the calm

before the storm

Thank you, Mark,

for sharing an ancient incarnation

of Mary Oliver

Climbing down from mountains and memories

Such contradictions

joy of family and children versus

living as a hermit

does this say anything about the value of women

alice walker

over-

coming

speech-

lessness

All a sad reminder of how we perpetuate through our ignorance

I learned that Alice also cried for the world in a ritual, a ceremony of healing, to show that we are connected to those we love and to the beautiful flowers, grass, stones…

“Whatever has happened to humanity, whatever is currently happening to humanity, it is happening to all of us.”

New Cathay

Contemporary Chinese Poetry

Edited by Ming Di

A dichotomy

alone in a strange city

walking the streets

to a restaurant

passing locked  cars

waiting for someone to

descend a workplace elevator or

staircase and 

emerge.

Connected because we are

the awakening yellow leaves

the flowing river

the red hat sunset

reflected on the steel gray clouds overhead.

Not connected because

I know no one

we each do not know the other

where am I.

Goldie

     Yesterday I finished building an extra fenced space for the chickens and this morning I let them out to use the space. I gave them warnings about the bees and the bees warnings about them. They were so happy to get grass. I sat with them for a while and then decided it was time to have lunch. When I finished eating I thought I would walk over and check on them again.  As soon as I opened the door,  I heard horrible shrill squawks. And then I saw the hawk who had Goldie down. I raced to the chicken yard, shouting, waving my arms to make him give up his prey, but it was too late. The hawk had done too much damage for me to save her. I held her and stoked her head while she died. And now I have six chickens. I hate losing chickens. Below is a video of my girls last Christmas. 

For Carrie

 On this day

holding you for the first time

our eyes met 

touching each other’s hearts

becoming family 

Forever and always  

I love you.