The sun climbs slowly over the mountains

Inexorably marching onward to conquer the day —

Just as last night, ten thousand stars danced overhead

In a clear desert sky in the patterns of a thousand lifetimes

A life has its days and it’s years

Some come in storms or end in storms

Some arrive unknown or leave unseen

But all have their time, and no more

My mother knows this of her own life

She has enjoyed our visit and so have we

We don’t know that the next time we come to this place

It won’t just be to bury her

This valley in the desert

The joy of my parents’ old age

My tenth trip in sixteen years

A place I too have grown to love

A community where 75% of the people

Are retirement age

Yet vibrant, full of life

Many affluent, many not

And it’s something like reading a wonderful book

Knowing the last chapter is coming

But that you wish would never end

But it must

So as the sun at last escapes the mountain’s shadows

I return to my days and my years

And bid my spirit and all spirits

Be at peace