a poem and a thought for Nelson Mandela....

Late Ripeness 

Not soon, as late as the approach
of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me
and I entered
the clarity of early morning. 

One after another my former
lives were departing,
like ships, together with
their sorrow.

And the countries, cities, gardens,
the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better
than they were before. 

~ Czeslaw Milosz


Madiba:

May the departing of your earlier lives carry away your sorrows and leave you only peace. May the door you must walk through open onto calm seas. May the people who have loved you find the strength and the grace to let you go. And may you know how much you have done for humanity and how much we needed you, in your time.