We were invited to go to Norfolk for the weekend of August 10 – 12, 2013 with Steve and Jo Hackett…….now just to clear the air here let me tell you who these people are……….

Steve Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career.

Jo Hackett is my husband, Roland Clarke’s ex-wife….I think it is lovely that two people who shared their lives for a time can look past whatever troubles caused them to drift apart and be friends……and both Steve and Jo are the best people anyone can be friends with.

Now that the air is cleared on to the story of our little outing…….

Steve and Jo came and picked us up from our house on Saturday the 10th of August at approximately 2pm local time.  We got onto the M25 and headed north to Dartford Crossing which is a major road crossing of the River Thames connecting Dartford in the south to Thurrock in the north, via two road tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. It opened in stages, the west tunnel in 1963, the east tunnel in 1980, and the bridge in 1991. Until the opening of the bridge, built to the east of the two tunnels, the crossing was known as the Dartford Tunnel. The two tunnels are 1,560 yards or (0.9375 Miles) long, while the cable-stayed bridge is 449 ft high with a main span of 490 yards. The crossing carries nearly 160,000 vehicles a day and forms part of London’s orbital route, the M25—although the crossing and its approach road are actually the A282, allowing traffic prohibited from motorways to use the crossing. Southbound traffic crosses the four lane bridge; northbound traffic uses both of the two lane road tunnels. However, in bad weather or high winds, the bridge is closed and the crossing reverts to using the tunnels for both directions……..what an adventure and it only cost us £2.00 on a toll road. It was a very beautiful drive on the way and we talked and played music and just had a great time.

We arrived at our destination at approximately 6pm after stopping in Aylsham to pick up the take away Chinese that Jo ordered on the way.  It was I think a bitter sweet reunion for Roland and Swan (Jo’s mum) as they had not seen each other for about 8 years and Swan now suffers from Alzheimers.  Both Roland and I were welcomed into their home as if we were a part of the family. We got the car unloaded then sat down to a lovely Chinese meal with a glass of White wine. The rest of the evening was spent catching up, making a few plans for the future and just enjoying the relaxing environment and great company!!!!

Sunday morning after a bit of a restless sleep due to being in a strange house and bed we prepared for a lovely day spent with Steve, Jo and Swan. The first stop of the day was Oxnead/Brampton along the River Bure where we stopped to see the Haflinger Stud Farm and the beautiful horses there.

After this it was on to……

Skeyton and The Goat Inn for lunch. It was a nice pub, fairly updated and modern, although it still retains a thatched roof on the older buildings. They had lovely food and I got to try some Newcastle Brown Ale. Roland went into the Handicapped rest room and had a bit of a problem when the hand rails came off the wall in his hands due to a builder trying to take short cuts……it is a good thing he did not fall and hurt himself, but he felt really bad about what had happened. The owner came to make sure Roland was okay and assured us that she would be calling her builder the next day and having a few words with him, meanwhile her husband was dashing about trying to find something to fix the problem. http://www.skeytongoatinn.co.uk/

After lunch it was off again to Horning where we again met up with the River Bure.  Horning is a picturesque waterside broadland village and if you only visit one broadland village, then Horning has to be that one. The village lines the northern bank of the River Bure, stretching for about a mile, and has many waterside properties (best viewed from a boat). There are waterside pubs, shops, restaurant, tea-rooms, boat trips and other attractions to enjoy. Horning Ferry is on the outskirts of the village, about a mile along Lower Street. It is well worth a walk on a fine day and there is a marina, leisure club and the Ferry Inn. The church of Horning is another mile walk along country lanes, but you are rewarded by a fine church and a path leading to views of the River Bure.

    

Our next stop was Hickling. The village comprises two main parts, Hickling Green and Hickling Heath. Hickling Heath is the part which usually attracts the most tourists who come on boat trips and moor up at the staithe.

Hickling village is situated on the edge of the Hickling Broads. By using the water-ways it is possible to reach Catfield Dyke, Potter Heigham and even Great Yarmouth. Because it leads to the sea the waters are slightly tidal and, depending on the time of year, the water levels can heavily rise or fall. There are many thatched huts dotted along the broads, one of the oldest being Turner’s Hut.

Adjacent to the village is the site of Hickling Priory, a house of Augustinian Canons which operated from 1185 to 1534.

We next went to Mundesley which is a village on a cliff overlooking the North Sea. We all thought it might be time for a bit of Tea so we parked and went into The Ship Inn.

We didn’t stay long as the rest rooms were out of order, which seemed to be a problem at most of the places we visited along the way, so we left and walked across the street to the public rest rooms. After this Steve went and got the car and we loaded everyone in and we were off to…….

Heydon is about 5 miles north of Reepham, and has no through road, making it isolated except from the south. It consists of a large green, surrounded by picturesque houses and cottages.

The village is listed in the Domesday Book as “High-Down”, and was home to a weekly market.

Erasmus Earle, one of the most noted lawyers of his time, was lord of the manor in the early 17th century. The 19th century lord was William Earle Lytton Bulwer (1799–1877), elder brother of the author Edward Bulwer Lytton. The village is still owned by the Bulwer Long family, one of only around a dozen English villages that are entirely privately owned.

Heydon became Norfolk’s first conservation area in 1971 and has won its Best Kept Village on two occasions. The village retains an old-fashioned character with no new buildings having been added since the Queen Victoria commemorative well was built in 1887.

The village has a pub, the Earle’s Arms, and there is the Elizabethan Heydon Hall, built in 1582 by Henry Dynne and extended in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The late-medieval church of St Peter and St Paul is home to notable wall paintings, rediscovered in 1970.

Heydon is often used in television and film productions. The village was used as the setting for the Anglia Television soap opera Weaver’s Green. Films partly shot in the village include The Go Between (1970), Riders (1993), Hitler’s Britain (2002), Vanity Fair, The Woman in White, The Moonstone, The Peppermint Pig, and A Cock and Bull Story (2005). http://www.heydonvillageteashop.co.uk/index.html

That was our day outing with Steve, Jo, and Swan……we left to go home on Monday the 12th. All in all we had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves immensely…….after we got home is another story for a different day….but let me say that I somehow see a move in our future if we can make it happen!!!!

Till next time from the Duskweald………

Juanita

 

Here it is the 12^th day of April 2013 and it is raining outside…..when does it not ever rain here in England? For now I am just going to think that all these raindrops are “tears” from heaven.

We lost Rolands mum, Nidia, on the 8^th at age 84, and this just added to the ever mounting sadness that the first part of April brings to this family. Two years ago on the 9^th we lost our daughter and on the 12^th we lost my step-dad. So it has been very trying to say the least.

I sit and wonder about Nidia………and why I felt like she did not like me at all……it didn’t matter what I did to try and please her, it just didn’t seem to be enough……..she burned many bridges with me in the short 3 years that I knew her……oh I did love her…..she was my mum after all and the only one I thought I could talk to when I couldn’t talk to my own mom in the USA…….but she would never understand or talk to me in a way that a mother talks to a daughter and for that I am sad……was it because I was American? Or was it something else, maybe a dark secret that kept her from letting me into her world? I was told that I was not the only one who she would not let in…….she treated Rolands first wife with about the same contempt that she treated me with……I only wish that we could have gotten to know each other a little better as I am sure there would have been many good stories to tell….about her family, her childhood…..but she was not one to open up and say to much at all about her past life……unless it was to boast about how many accomplishments she had done in her life and maybe it was to make her feel like she was superior to other women…….I guess we will never know now.

I am sure she was a good mum, although there is another woman who cared for Roland and his siblings, and to me she is the best….she was there to pick them up when they fell, kiss the boo-boos better, and tuck them into bed at night……this woman was Caroline Gingell…….she is 88 years young now and I am so looking forward to the day when I can go to the West country and meet her…….she has already told me she will tell me all the exploits of the naughty boys, although she says she probably made them act that way…….she sounds like a character!!!!!

All I can say is Nidia has definitely left a void in some lives……and I hope Roland will have no regrets for not being able to go see her before she passed……..she will always be loved no matter what she did to me…..I just wish that she had realized what she was throwing away when she turned her back on me!!!!!

There is some happiness to the month of April……My son was born on the 22^nd, a grandson on the 24^th, and great grand daughter on the 25^th………our rainbows at the end of a long storm!!!!!!

 

Till next time from the Duskweald……….

Some days it is really hard to put thoughts into words…..today I will try!!!!

 I have thought about what to put in my blog for a few days….I have so many thoughts going through my head but today is different…….today I want to try and tell you what it is like to be in love with and married to a person with MS or Multiple Sclerosis. I was never exposed to any real disability issues growing up….oh I remember a few families in the neighborhood who had disabled kids but I never really questioned why they were the way they were……that is until they died so young from whatever disease caused them to be different from everyone else….it scared me to think about losing someone at such a young age and never really quite understood the impact that different diseases and disabilities had on a person and those who loved and cared for them……until now……you see my husband has MS…..he has Secondary Progressive, which is characterized by progression of disability from onset, with no, or only occasional and minor, remissions and improvements.

 I find every day is a challenge in one way or the other. Rolands symptoms vary from day to day and he has his good days and bad days. Today is another bad day for him, the weakness, feeling overly tired and just wanting to stay in bed….and so I encourage him to do that. Some days I find myself feeling overwhelmed with his disability and find it hard to cope. Roland told me from the very beginning in 2009 about his disability so I knew what I was getting into, although some in my family thought me crazy. We used to get out and do things and enjoy nature and taking pictures, but it makes me tired to get him ready to go anyplace…..so I choose to stay home. I am afraid to leave him for any length of time….the fear of him falling and laying on the floor with no help….so I only occasionally step out and go next door for coffee….just to get away.

 It is so hard for me to think about how he is now, with this debilitating disease racking his body. I sometimes just wish that I could take his pain away, even for just one day so he could enjoy being pain free and being able to get up and walk like it used to do…….but I know I can’t do this for him. Seeing him suffer like he does takes a lot out of me and some days I get angry and lash out at him……its not his fault but there is no other outlet for me. I find my release playing MMORPG’s like Star Wars: The Old Republic. I find it hard to understand how people can turn their backs on someone when they find out they can no longer do the things they used to do. I find this happening with him a lot in the last two years. People who are supposed to be “friends” are no longer there…..why? Are they scared the MS will rub off on them? Sometimes I just want to scream at them and tell them “look what you are doing to him by acting this way!!!” Even his own family sometimes….I just don’t think they understand what is happening to him and why……..yet they make excuses about why they can’t come and visit him here at our house…..they want him to meet them some place……I really wish they could all understand……what he goes through day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

 I try to encourage him to write to keep his mind fresh so it doesn’t turn to mush……but it seems like in the last few months he has trouble saying the words he wants to speak…..oh the words are there…..they just won’t come out the way he wants them to. I asked his MS Nurse what do I have to look forward to because it scares the hell out of me to think of him leaving this world……she said the MS wouldn’t take him but the complications can and will……..eventually……I hate the thoughts of losing him…..after all I have buried two other husbands…..one to a massive heart attack and one to cancer……and I surely don’t want to do that again…..not now…..and those thoughts scare me……..all I want is to share my life with someone and be able to sit and watch the sunset together……….but Roland and I promised each other at least 40 years…..so we have about 37 more left to go!!!!! I just hope and pray that whatever higher power is out there will give me the strength to carry on when I feel weak….so to answer that question about what it is like to be in love and married to a person with MS…..we have a very loving relationship that no one can ever take away from us…..it is sometimes frustrating, there is anger, and there is the being scared of what is to become….but until that day we will live each day like it is our last!!!

So until next time from the Duskweald………..

Sitting here at my computer, looking out the window to a wonderland that is winter. It is very quiet in the house and I can hear the gentle ticking of the clock on the wall. It brings back a flood of memories for me of sitting in my grandmothers home in front of the windows where the sun streams through the lacy curtains and floods her violets with life giving sunlight. She had a cuckoo clock and I will never forget the sounds of that clock for the rest of my days…..such a gentle sound and it soothed me when I wanted to forget the world and how some people made me  feel.

I miss spring and I know it will be here soon. It means life starting over again, although in our life we never seem to be able to recycle like the flowers in spring. Oh to be able to hear the gentle wind blowing through leaves of green and smell the earth as a spring rain brings life to its essence. I miss being able to go outside and walk around a lush garden of fruit trees, Iris, and green grass with no shoes on. Don’t you just love the feel of the earth beneath your bare feet? I remember walking around our garden in the house we grew up in, it was like the one described above, and I loved to sing, sing like no one was listening as I walked around that garden. I watched striped caterpillars on the milkweeds transform into beautiful Monarch butterflies, and watched as the new born kittens in the garage nestled together in a big furry ball while the momma cat was out hunting for dinner.

Those were the simpler days…..we left our doors unlocked at night with no fear of anyone coming in and doing terrible things to the family or stealing your possessions. Oh to have those days of being carefree back again, but wait!!! I do have them…..locked away in my memory so that I can bring them out once in a while and remember the smell of the lilac bushes, or running through my grandfathers cornfield, or feeling the rush of air over my face as I ran through the fields on horseback. The taste of the tomatoes out of my moms garden or the bread she made out of the zucchini she grew. The taste of rhubarb with salt, or the green apples from the trees, but the best taste was the gooseberries we took from over the fence of grandpas neighbor. And I will never forget the love that was put into all those quilts my momma made to keep us nice and snug on a cold winters night.

Oh so many memories….I must get busy and write them all down and share those memories with my family before it all fades and is forgotten like a beautiful sunset on a warm spring day.

Till next time from the Duskweald

 

 I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body – the wrinkles, the baggy eyes and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don’t agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more kind to myself and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend. I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying things that I didn’t need, like wind chimes, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to overeat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to play MMORPG’s until 4:00 am and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 70s & 80s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will. I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the bikini set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten and I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when a beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turn gray and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. I can say “no” and mean it. I can say “yes” and mean it. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day.

Till next time from the Duskweald take care!!!!!!

I saw this posted someplace else today and wanted to share it with you all…..take care until next time from the Duskweald!!!!!

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, “Tell me what do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft.She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked. “What’s the point, grandmother?”

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity–boiling water–but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her granddaughter.

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

—AUTHOR UNKNOWN —

It has started snowing here where we live and I sit by the window looking outside to a beautiful white blanket spread out on the ground.  It is cold out there and the wind softly rustles the branches on the bare trees.  I watch the birds flick dead leaves up to see what nice fat morsels they can find under the snow.  The kitties, Willow and Kefira sit in the window and watch the snowflakes falling to the ground and every once in a while Kefira will jump at the window trying to catch that one elusive flake of frozen water.  It is quiet outside when it snows, except for the occasional chirp of a lonely bird or the sounds of the breeze.

Winter brings back a lot of memories for me growing up in Utah….lots of nice memories of playing in the snow, sledding, ice skating, but best of all are the memories of coming in from the cold and wet and my mother making us a large cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows floating on the top.  I have always dreamed of living in a house with a white picket fence and a fireplace to stay warm and cozy on a cold winters night.  Part of that dream has come true for me living here in our house.  It don’t have the white picket fence, but it has a fireplace.  Maybe not the burn real wood kind of fireplace but it serves its purpose for me.  All I am lacking is a nice bearskin rug, nice and fluffy laying on the floor in front of said fireplace to sit on or dig my toes into and staying warm while I sit on the floor, legs crossed working puzzles and sipping hot cider.  But aside from the picket fence, not having a “real” fireplace and lacking a bearskin rug I do have with me the most important thing in my life……my husband Roland…. and to me that out weighs all the others things.

Winter brings a new world to your doorstep.  Different smells and sights.  I open my door and can smell the wood burning fireplaces from the neighbor wafting in the air.  The smells of my momma baking gingerbread or cinnamon rolls.  Winter brings memories of times past, the ones you can never get back once they are gone and it makes me excitedly wait for spring to start new memories that will be forgotten with the next winters snow.

Till next time from the duskweald….take care and stay warm!!!!!!

This is the speech I gave after I wised up and knew I could no longer put off going back to school and getting a diploma, this was in 1986 and I was 35 years old.

       Graduation Speech

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to tell you about a young teenage girl.– The setting is the main office at Ogden High School on a warm spring day.  The scene opens.  The girl is standing at the secretary’s desk:  “I’d like to see the principle”, she says.  “He’s busy”, the secretary answers.  “I don’t care if he is busy, I want to see him NOW!”  The secretary leaves the room and the girl thinks to herself, “I don’t need a diploma to get a job and I’m really getting tired of everyone telling me what to do.  Besides I have better things to do than sit in a stuffy old classroom learning about the Russian Revolution and dissecting Louisiana bullfrogs.”

Cut and fade to the principle’s office.  The girl is sitting across from the principle.  “What can I do for you?” he asks.  “I want to drop out of school,” she replies.  “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”–”Yes”.  Nothing else is said.  Just an uneasy silence and the rustling of the termination papers being prepared.  Standing up he hands them to her and tells her “Good luck.”  So 16 years ago, May 18, 1970, 2 weeks before graduation the girl dropped out of high school.  This scene has probably been repeated millions of times all over the world with one significant variation, I was that young woman.—–

I remember shortly after that, riding with a girlfriend to Rapid City S.D. But after 30 days of bumming around and no clear cut goal materializing I decided to head home to Utah.  I thumbed my way as far as Craig, Co. where I met some men in a hotel lobby.  After I explained my situation to them they offered to take me with them the rest of the way.  I didn’t know what these good samaritans had planned for me until a stranger came to my room and told me that he had overheard their conversation and that they were going to rape and kill me a few miles outside of town.  This stranger had saved my life—twice—literally.  Once that night and one week later when he asked me to marry him.  Now I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about my high school diploma, for I had met my prince in shining armour, he would provide everything I needed.  Three years later as I was performing my dutiful housewife role, cooking, cleaning, and basically caring for my working husband, our first child was born.  Then in April of 1976 our second child arrived.  I thought I would be happy and secure forever, but in April of 1977 my fairy tale existence shattered like a broken piece of glass.  My prince had a heart attack and required open heart surgery.  He recovered quickly but the Dr. said no heavy work, which meant he could never again do the job he was trained for.

Suddenly I was the bread winner.  But who is going to hire a 25 year old high school drop-out and pay her well enough to support a family?  Needless to say we ended up on welfare, a fact I’m not proud of.

In the fall of 1978 I returned to school to study office occupations.  After six months my counselor placed me into a job which I was under qualified for and it didn’t work.  I was hurt, frustrated,and angry at the system and in that mood we left for Texas.  My husband eventually found work, but we were not happy living in tornado alley.

Eleven months later we were back in Craig, Co.  My husband found employment as a detox counselor right away and after the arrival of our third child I found employment at the local hospital as a Nurse Aide for $5.25 an hour.  I had taken training a few years earlier and finally my education seemed to be paying off.  I worked this time not out of necessity but because I wanted to.  I thought I was pretty lucky.  Everyone was in good health, we had good jobs, 3 beautiful children, and were buying a home.  Nothing could go wrong, right?  WRONG!!!!

In 1982 my husband again had surgery.  He was recovering nicely, but 3 days later he suddenly required emergency surgery and then was taken to I.C.U.  Due to respiratory failure.  I remember seeing him there, knowing that my future and my children’s futures were locked into all the tubes and his unconsciousness.

Eventually he got better and came home but things have never been the same.  He tried to go back to work but, because of his illness his employer let him go.  I continued working as a Nurse Aide until one year later I found myself pregnant again and was forced to quit my job.  It was back to welfare.  In December of 1983 our fourth and final child was born and 2 months later we came back to Utah.

By this time I had experienced all of life’s frustrations and disappointments.  I had finally grown up and learned that life is no Grimm s fairy tale; there are no princes in shining armour to protect you from the world.  There is no guaranteed free lunch.  I realized I had to come back to school because a person can’t depend on someone else his whole life.  And also employers figure that if a person doesn’t have enough gumption or initiative to do a good job for himself by completing high school, then that person probably will not perform well for them.  So the uneducated person is always left out in the cold.  I have been through the don’t call us we’ll call you routine several times and this is what motivated me the most.  I was tired of feeling like a failure.

So here I am tonight, standing before all of you, 16 years later, with a sick husband, 4 beautiful children, inexperienced in the breadwinner role, and at the same time experienced in life, but the most important fact of all is I now have a High School Diploma.  I thought I would never get this far, but I have my family to thank for their encouragement and patience, and for giving me some motivation to pursue my dreams.

I think the biggest thank-you should go to the Weber County School District for having a program like second chance high school.  I would also like to give a big thanks to the teachers for if it wasn’t for all of you, I wouldn’t be here now.  Again I thank all of you and this comes from my heart.  Before I close I would like to recite a poem I wrote:

THE GRADUATES

The graduates are going forth–
God bless them every one!-
To run this hard and stubborn world
Just as it should be run;
But much I fear they’ll find that facts
Don’t always track with dreams;
And running this old world is not
As easy as it seems.

The graduate is prone to think
His wisdom is complete.
He’s but to ask – the world will lay
It’s trophies at his feet.
But school-days done and work begun,
He learns to his regret
The college of experience
He has not mastered yet.

The world has garlands and applause
At graduating time;
But may forget him the next day,
When he attempts to climb.
Life is a battle where each one
Must seek and hold his own.
He who would rise above the clouds
Must scale the heights alone.

This is the rule of life to-day,
As it has ever been:
The world bestows its smiles on those
Who have the strength to win.
Beneath all outward semblances
It looks for merit true.
It little cares how much you know,
But asks,– what can you do?

Thank you

I may decide to use this as a basis to start a book about my life, God knows I have been through so much and feel the need to write about it before I can no longer remember……….