Happy birthday, Joan!

 

as one

I fear the cusps of my past:

each time I made a choice

that led to who I am today,

or might have led to who I am not,

each pivotal step from a today 

toward a tenuous tomorrow,

I applaud my earlier self when I chose

the direction I think now to be better,

such as how I found my way to Outward Bound 

and that led me to an MAT in English,

to when I learned of CFS 

while student teaching in Winston-Salem,

to my finding myself at home

as an educator there for over half a century,

what scares me, 

yet what thrills me even more,

are the decisions that somehow 

led me to partnering with Joan,

I fear, in retrospect, decisions by either of us,

that might have led away from,

and not toward the other,

when my fears grab me in the middle of the night,

I look over and think of Joan,

and the world seems to fit better,

I can hazard that I might be right

for this amazingly wonderful person

who sees me as I hope I am,

not as how I fear myself to be,

I thank both of us for choosing well

at important cusp after cusp in our pasts,

thank you, Joan, for being you,

and for how well we can be as one.

for Joan Dickinson Walker

with love from Henry H. Walker

September 10, ‘24