A photo of me at home

A photo of me at home
A new photo of me and Jean at home

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Living with MND - 2006 - My thoughts

These are the thoughts from Gordon for 2006 - added as promised. The poem below may not be easy to read for the non-scots readers, but I am sure there are 'translations' out there, if not get in touch via the blog, and I can do a rough translation for anyone who wants it. (If I get asked, I will put it up on the blog for all to see)

My Thoughts

The body’s deterioration over the year had left me in no doubt that life was quickly drawing to a close, but then November brought a very positive mind-set. Unlike the following poem the change for me was over a week period, but never the less, it had many similarities. “The Respite” composed by the Scot’s poet W. D. Cocker. 

A road a’ maun travel baith willin’ an’ laith;

An’ there I fell in wi’ a chiel they call Daith.

He stood as though mowing, o’ reapers the king,

The blade o’ his scythe was set back for the swing.

But as I drew near him he swithered a wee,

An’ seemed to misdoot gin his tryst was wi’ me.

I glowered in his een, but he steppit aside,

He shouthered his scythe, an’ he said “Ye can bide”

An’ I’m back in my bed, but o’ this I am shair,

I’ve met him, I ken him, I fear him nae mair.

 

I can’t explain the change of mind-set, and attitude in November: on hindsight however, I’m inclined to put it down to my fatalist lifetime fixation “what’s in front of you will not go past you” (this was always a favourite saying of my Mum’s)

Regarding religion: First, I’ve always believed that the best things in life are free, and I have always felt I’m nearer to my creator in the countryside than in any church I’ve ever been in. I have never thought of being religious, yet, I suppose I abide by the Ten Commandments pretty well. However, I’m of the firm belief that after death there is no afterlife. Maybe it’s having been in the horticultural profession for fifty years and I see myself as “a real basic son of the soil” that I’m completing the cycle of returning to the soil.   

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