Love Thursday : Valentine

Lover's Feet by Me, Maggie Ann.
...

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the back of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words doing out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is. --W.S. Merwin

Humanity,
Thank you.
Remember that I love you.
In this season I wish you
blessings of joy and peace.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Yours faithfully,
Maggie Ann.

He knew love.

When I came to know love thursday I also came to know that it would be something that nurtured my creative soul, and right now, with the bleakness of this hard life surrounding me I need nurturing. So, in all my gratitude I say thank you.

Here is my first photograph for this beautiful ritual. Last night when I was contemplating what I would post this moment came to mind and I knew it was the right image for today.

Here is Ms. Delilah-dog and Mr. Marley-cat, a few days before Marley passed on to where it is better. Marley came into our lives after living anonymously in a metal cage in an overpopulated and dank pet store. We saved him, we brought him into our home where he would never again know a barred cage. And yet, Marley was in a sort of prison his whole, all to brief, life. We knew he was puny, we had several veterinary visits, and countless worried nights. Marley didn't play much, he was more content laying on one of our laps or with Delilah. All the while I had a feeling that he, perhaps, would not be with us long. It shredded my heart. There were nights when all I could do was weep for Marley, I mourned for the life he would possibly never have. Eventually Marley's symptoms got worse, and still there was nothing we could do. We came to understand that Marley had a fatal virus, FIP, that could not be treated at such an advanced stage. We came to understand that he was either born with this disease, or contracted it in that pet store. My heart screamed that nothing about this was fair. My sweet boy who had such light in his eyes was not meant for this broken world. He is now in a place where he will not suffer, and that is consolation. And while he was on this earth he knew love, and he taught me so very much about love, especially loving those things which cannot be fixed, those things that we must love through their brokenness. Marley taught me how to love the world better. And that too is some consolation, while he is absent from my lap.