Thoughts Like A River, Flowing & Rocking, Rocking & Rolling--

Zooming back in time-- Last Saturday November 7th, was a mini Luncheon Reunion Day for three former high school gals, in Hartford, our old stomping grounds. Hartford has certainly changed, some buildings are now replaced with pedestrian walkways, & or one way directional streets, but to us it will always be a special place, a point of destination during our youth, for socializing, Saturday shopping trips, theatre, concerts, the museum & sporting events.

Time seems not to be going "by so slowly", as in that Righteous Brothers song, "but time can do so much", still remains true to heart. So we had a toast, wishing one another continued good health & from our friend's beautiful skyscraper apartment set off to the Wadsworth Antheneum for lunch.

We ended our mini reunion visit with a special tour of a historic building of the 1800's, the Elks Club, of which my friend & her husband are active members. We were introduced all around to their friends, & it was easy to tell just how valued & loved she & her husband are by these very hospitable people. The tour of this large unassuming building had aspects of a visionary delight, with it's original antique wooded columns, stained glass windows, & stained glass vaulted ceiling. It was a real pleasure to know that she & her husband have such a supportive community of friends that work together doing good works for the children of the city, along with having an interesting & extended social life of all it has to offer. The entire visit was quite the tapestry to take in.

During my high school years I lacked the confidence & courage to step outside a multi layered peer group & basically allowed many of my God given talents to be squandered, for I was of course from the 60's generation & having a war rage in the background, eventually proved impossible to ignore, no matter how irresponsible some of us chose to be, which many of us were. When my husband & I became parents in the early 70's we therefore chose to be "fully present", & to not allow our children to squander away their potential for future opportunities, their birthright. I have been most blessed, as my present life allows me to now pursue topics & fields of study that are of interest me, on my own terms, to continue to be a seeker--

Meanwhile, returning back to our neck of the woods, far from the buzz & hub of city life, a Stonewall Preservation Workshop that was in the works to take place, had been on my mind for such a long time & was soon approaching. My recent visit with my friends, all these different locals, different cultures, memories of the past, coming together, & standing apart, all, everyone, each with their own, unique, foundation of stone.

I just love the sense of rocks, seeing them, touching them, arranging them in my garden, growing up with them & growing older too, they never change. The experiences of a time wrought life certainly chisels us, chisels us down to the bare essential-- bones of the earth, our rocks.

Thank you-- Robert Thorson, for explaining, & bringing more fully to life, visually & with prose, why it is we love these things, that we love. Like a rock.