0007 I Thought Of Her

and suddenly this morning, I thought of her; not in the Christmas way - thinking of you at this time, we must meet, sometime in the New Year… but with the sense of loss and the sense of gratitude so strongly present together that there’s no point in balancing the two; they live in two different worlds; remembering how I would phone you who had time for everybody and never looked at the clock or watch as we talked about ourself until time itself were weary.. (then came the pointed, quiet alignment...) knowing what a treat it was going to be but I’d have to be on my mettle.. and when welcomed, and the tea made, it was as if you rejoined a conversation about things that really matter which you and she – well, OK, she – had been talking about, gently, seriously, all her life; and yet as if she had never formulated a thought about it before, until you brought it up; and together, you and she would hear the sound of wisdom as if it were newborn that day, in that tidy room. Loss; and gratitude. A single lady of advancing years, serious eyes, with a sparkle waiting there, a smile ready at the corners of her mouth as if it waited on the prompt of love in some high golden play. I’m told she had more annual Valentine cards than anyone would have known.