Looking for the Wise Elder in Me

For those of us
on the other side of sixty
Okay maybe 70 
or leaning towards 80

It's true we may forget
a thing or two
And reach for the railing
going up and down the stairs

But overall we are in the amazing
Time of Elderhood 
where we have a certain amount of 
accumulated experience that
must mean something

For ourselves personally
but also for those of any age
trying to grasp the bigger picture
of how to move forward in this world

First step is to appreciate
we, as a species, are relatively
quite young in Geologic Time

Second is we didn't come with a Plan
Or, for that matter,
a Promise

Instead we came with Possibility.

Yes, we have stories and ideas
and often imagine we are here
to Dominate

But I put it to you that the way forward
maybe has more to do with 
Caring for one another

Letting go the idea of control
as a primary power and
understanding the real power is
in the fact of all of us in this together
on this small planet
in this vast universe

Why do you think the astronauts
who venture far out into the cosmos
often return with a changed perspective?

The earth is our home.
The whole earth
and the whole of us.

The question for us now
is how we will survive
if we can't live with gratitude
for the life we share here.