I can’t resist taking pictures crossing a bridge. Smart phones make that so easy.  I usually feel contemplative about the crossing.  Crossing from one place to another by rising higher and higher and further until the descent to the new place becomes inevitable.  The ups and downs in life, getting from one place to another.  

 This year as I reflect on a loss and honor a memory of one whose life’s tale is now over, by chance I found this meaningful Robert Louis Stevenson verse:

“I read, dear friend, in your dear face

Your life’s tale told with perfect grace;

The river of your life, I trace

Up the sun-chequered, devious bed

To the far-distant fountain-head.

Not one quick beat of your warm heart,

Nor thought that came to you apart,

Pleasure nor pity, love not pain

Nor sorrow, has gone by in vain;

But as some lone, wood-wandering child

Brings home with him at evening mild

The thorns and flowers of all the wild,

From your whole life, O fair and true

Your flowers and thorns you bring with you!