Have you noticed how some of us, seniors and others, are not receptive to the beauty that surrounds us? How we have personally-fabricated expectations, rather than being open to what is before us? I confess to being guilty of this blindness in many instances. Recently, in thinking hard about someone very close to me, I realized how limiting this approach to the world left her. And, it also cut off the opportunity to share our shared experience.

Eye of the Beholder

by Donna Copson

Chickadee, junco, mockingbird
Faithful companions all
Studies in black and white and gray
“Do you ever get any pretty ones?”
She asked.

Long autumns in Virginia
Full spectrum of ruby, orange, gold and plum
Each in its turn
“You don’t get the big color like we do up north,”
She asserted.

April at Versailles
Sun glinting off the mirrors
Outside, the green parquet
“It’s not what I was expecting,”
She opined.