The following is part of an e-mail that I sent a fellow blogger (and neighbor) today. It pretty much sums up why I've been lacking on posts lately. I've been feeling a bit empty on ideas.

...However, my posts have been sparse as well. I'm getting a bit bored by winter and school. That probably sounds terrible, especially admitting I'm bored with school. I don't think it's school so much as the fact that that's all that's happening lately. And, I know I'm bored with looking at these same walls so much. You have to sit on your butt a lot, acting very patient as they drop their pencil for the tenth time, while teaching kids. I welcome that in the late fall, after all the work of harvest and butchering. Not so much now. Not exactly practicing thankfulness, am I?...

I did, however, just finish a book that was depressing and inspiring at the same time. As We Are Now, by May Sarton, is a short novel about the plight of the elderly. It's a peek into the mind of a woman approaching the end of her life, feeling unloved and unwanted. It's a hard read, but worth it. The thoughts the author opened my mind to are a whirling today. Now, I want to soak up love, touch, color, service to others, work and play...memories, I guess, saving them up for a day when my physical usefulness to others may be over. Saving up "family" for a day when I might be spending a lot of time alone. I feel grateful that I have children around me now. All too soon they'll be off living lives of their own.
There are other things whirling around in my brain because of the book as well. My own grandparents, the elders in our community. Who touches them? Can you imagine not being touched for days and days together? I am constantly touched, hugged and kissed by sticky little fingers and faces, loved on by husband, prayed over by family and friend alike. How many people sit alone in home or apartment, or nursing home with no family near? How many memories and how much wisdom passes silently out of this world, forgotten forever?

Well, now wasn't that just what you expected to read here today? ;)