The fire in leaf and grass
so green it seems
each summer the last summer.The wind blowing, the leaves
shivering in the sun,
each day the last day.A red salamander
so cold and so
easy to catch, dreamilymoves his delicate feet
and long tail. I hold
my hand open for him to go.Each minute the last minute.
–Living, Denise Levertov
I think this was actually Johnny Thomas’s first birthday since John Thomas is right there, but 16 month-old me was being bossy and sticking my nose in the middle of things.
When I was little, I remember thinking that 16 was so old and I’d never actually be that old myself, and it was a very strange thing to think about. That mark obviously came and went. Call me shortsighted, but 30 was definitely never in my field of vision. Yet, here I am.
At 4:30 in the afternoon on September 1, 1980, I emerged in Omaha, Nebraska and not only did my own life begin but, knowing what I now know, I started a whole new volume of my parents’ lives.
There is now an urgency to each of my days that I’ve known before, but never with such persistence. In the last year it became an intense and omnipresent knocking on the door. So, I find myself happily working on exciting projects from morning till late in the evenings, driven to do the very best I can. Where could I possibly have gotten such energy?
I hope each of you has as much joy in your lives as I am lucky enough to have at 30, which is still so young. There is so much to do.