Monday, September 30, 2024 at 10:51 PM

I wish I could tell you how I feel about so many things. I wish I could explain to you my love of music and what it does to me, always. I wish I could tell you how reading has expanded my mind into a limitless fountain of knowledge. I wish I knew why nature attracts me the way it does, and always has. I wish that the beauty all around us was as available to each and every one of us. In spite of its presence everywhere, not everyone can see or appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. It’s not that they are blind, just blind to what is right in front of them.

And so, the music and the books and the poetry and nature have followed me all these years. They have made living rich, and full of grace. Like walking in the rain, getting soaked and happy. Or seeing a woman in a summer dress that you can see right through. What could be more beautiful than that? Seeing a pair of swans on the lake in the deep midwinter, one black, one white. Waking up in the morning to complete silence, not wanting to break the spell by moving, or getting up. Smelling your baby’s neck. Scratching an itch, and I mean that literally.

I believe that we are all born with the ability to see and feel the beauty and wonder that surrounds us, that is ever present in our daily lives. Well, maybe not everyone; some people are wired differently, and may see beauty in things we think are horrible. It’s like being a painter, an artist; they see and admire the same subject in many differing degrees. Same with an author or a poet or a filmmaker or a conductor. The point is that we don’t have to appreciate the gifts about us in the same way; that we see, and appreciate those gifts is what is important!

My favorite book of all time is Great Expectations by Dickens. My favorite author is Stephen King. My favorite classical composers are Bach and Beethoven. My absolute favorite composer is Miles Davis! My favorite songwriters are Kris Kristofferson, who died today, Townes Van Zandt, Dylan, Jacques Brel, Sam Cooke, Paul Simon, all of the Beatles, especially George Harrison. My favorite city is Prague. My favorite season is fall. My favorite woman are women. My favorite times of the day are dawn and dusk. My favorite color is blue. My favorite part of any face is the eyes. I can’t name my favorite poet; there are too many.

I have lived and loved and traveled and have stopped always, to take in the beauty of living and life and love, of this earth, this ever-changing world of ours. It continues to dole out its gifts on our ever restless souls, day in, day out. Wat a ting.

Life is short, so short that we don’t have time to take in everything it has to offer. But we can try like hell to take in as much as possible. To expand our horizons to places we’d never imagine going to. Experiencing the beauty, the awe, the magnificence of nature and earth and all the creatures and humans that we come in contact with, on our journey through that unpredictable world of life and living.

What is the secret of life? Wine, women, and weed!

Glen