I’ve been in a pondering mood lately. Going far beyond my regular early morning meditations. Contemplating concerns near and dear to my heart. Confronting those concerns that inflict fear, anxiety, and regret. Embracing those that stir joy, hope and purpose.

This then is but one tiny slice of all of that…

I am a quote person. Wherever their source – from books, famous people, poems, speeches, friends & family – I collect found quotes which more clearly express what I often struggle to articulate.

Then there are those quotes I don’t always understand…

Once upon a time many years ago, shortly before Ma passed away, I received a card from her in the snail mail. This was nothing unusual. Even though we lived a short distance away from each other and visited often, talked on the phone, and ate Family Feasts together regularly, she was known to snail mail surprise notes via USPS…just because.

Inside this particular note card was a handwritten quote by Omar Khayyam.

“The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.”

Omar Khayyam, from The Rubaiyat

At that time, I was puzzled by the quote. And pondered it over the years following her death.

Just recently, I had a spontaneous AHA moment. Seemingly out of nowhere and for no discernable reason or circumstance: I got it! As always, she fed me what I needed when I needed it. I even understood its relevance at the time Ma wrote it out and sent it to me.

Serendipitously, sometime in late March of this year, Paul McCartney dropped the lead single, Days We Left Behind from his latest album The Boys of Dungeon Lane scheduled for release the end of this month.

I took a listen. 

I heard echoes of Omar Khayyam.

I heard Ma.

Thank you, Sir Paul.

“No one can erase the days we left behind.”