Awake in Time

Annie Dillard:
"I am sitting under the sycamore by Tinker Creek. It is early spring...I have come to the creek-the backyard stretch of the creek-in the middle of the day, to feel the delicate gathering of heat, real sun's heat, in the air, and to watch new water come down the creek. Don't expect more than this, and a mental ramble.
I'm in the market for some present tense;
I'm on the lookout, shopping around, moreso every year. It's a seller's market-Do you think I won't sell all that I have to buy it?
Thomas Merton wrote, in a light passage in one of his Gethsemane journals: 'Suggested emandation in the Lord's Prayer: Take out 'Thy Kingdom Come' and substitute 'Give us time!'
But Time is the One Thing We Have Been Given, and We Have Been Given To Time.
Time gives us a whirl.
We keep waking from a dream we can't recall, looking around in surprise, and lapsing back, for years on end.
All I want to do is stay awake.,
keep my head up,
prop my eyes open, with toothpicks, with trees."

It's November 23rd again. I am Awake. I am entering a new year- my 31st.
And I feel so grateful to be Awake, fully inside of this- this experience we all try to name and explain.

Ask me what I want for my birthday:
To See.
To participate in Beauty and be graced to stand in Her Awe.
To share it with the warmth of those I Love.