Watching a child stare with wonder at the “dingle starry” night. Watching them run tirelessly across the park “happy as the grass was green”. Hearing them running “about the happy yard and singing as the farm was home” is mesmerizing and inspiring.
Some people have the gift of retaining that childlike wonder until they “wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land”.
I am snatching bits and pieces of the famous Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas’s brilliant Fern Hill. It was one of the favorites of the father of Editor in Chief of Centennial Media, Michelle Stacey, who wrote touchingly in the Huffington Post, about responding to her Father’s call that he was ready to die. The poem is based on Thomas’s childhood experiences on a farm in Wales. The poem is a celebration of the wonder, magic, and joy of this world that many of us experienced and have a hard time remembering as we grow older.
This conversation is about that young child growing older and continuing to see life through his once-child's eyes. And it becomes a touchstone for each of us. Yes, life is a gift. But, if we are fortunate, it also provides us an opportunity to prepare for and experience our own and possibly a loved one’s passing to a different but no less wondrous new adventure.