Yet another year has passed and I’m still here.

Happily so, though I can’t claim it’s a hop, skip and jump. Good grief! Did we ever really do all those things?

I definitely do my best with walking and exercising. Molly, bless that sweet dog, does her part for we walk together each morning to get the papers. As it turns rainy and grows colder, I might be tempted to postpone were it not for the dog and, all right I confess: coffee and juice wouldn’t be the same without the headlines to ponder.

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old,” Franz Kafka (1883-1924).

So that explains why I’m still ticking! Guests (though numbered now of course) forgive what may seem like rudeness for I don’t hesitate to interrupt a comment – theirs or mine – as I grab my special binoculars to spot what might be an unusual bird.

Same when I’m outdoors: bugs, weeds (NEW flowers), most everything is a piece of wonder for me.

Will Durant has always been one of my favorites. I regrettably set his final volume away for summer – simply too much else that required my time – but look forward to picking it up once again . . . as soon as these final fleeting days of autumn sadly depart.

“Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” I guarantee I still have much to learn and look forward to each new discovery.

Albert Einstein: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

OK, I can hear some negative remarks that, because of my age and the forgetfulness which comes with it (don’t you believe it!) that I’m simply rediscovering the same things over and again. No way! There’s far too much out there just waiting to be appreciated.

H. L. Mencken said, “An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will make better soup.” One can be an enthusiast without being blind. I’ll enjoy my roses on the bush. (As of October 31st, there are many buds waiting to develop – and enough good weather I expect to see them bloom. Idealist? Nah. But definitely never a pessimist either.)

Well, that’s certainly part of the good part.

“Then you get older, and time grows scarce. The release of a pointless day or evening becomes rare even though you end up needing it more and more.” Sam Smith, Road & Track, March-April 2020. Isn’t this the truth? I doubt if a day passes when I don’t say at least once (perhaps oftener) that I need more time. Who keeps stealing those precious hours?

I have treasured this for many years and feel it’s time to share. Called simply “A Maxim,” it was written by Carl Dennis and printed at some time in The New Yorker.

A MAXIM

To live each day as if it might be the last

Is an injunction that Marcus Aurelius

Inscribes in his journal to remind himself

That he, too, however privileged, is mortal,

That whatever bounty is destined to reach him

Has reached him already, many times.

But if you take his maxim too literally

And devote your mornings to tinkering with your will,

Your afternoons and evenings to saying farewell

To friends and family, you’ll come to regret it.

Soon your lawyer won’t fit you into his schedule.

Soon your dear ones will hide in a closet

When they hear your heavy step on the porch.

And then your house will slide into disrepair.

If this is my last day, you’ll say to yourself,

Why waste time sealing drafts in the window frames

Or cleaning gutters or patching the driveway?

If you don’t want your heirs to curse the day

You first opened Marcus’s journals,

Take him simply to mean you should find an hour

Each day to pay a debt or forgive one,

Or write a letter of thanks or apology.

No shame in leaving behind some evidence

You were hoping to live beyond the moment.

No shame in a ticket to a concert seven months off,

Or, better yet, two tickets, as if you were hoping

To meet by then someone who’d love to join you,

Two seats near the front so you catch every note.”

Susan Crossett has lived in Arkwright for more than 20 years. A lifetime of writing led to these columns as well as two novels. Information on all the Musings, her books and the author may be found at Susancrossett.com.