So I have been taken on a rocky road for almost a month now. Sick as a dog, exhausted, hospitalized, sent home to heal. Felt so weak I just lay and cried. Got up and tidied up the house, tried to focus. All I can focus on is the breath.

Called Don Theo, who is working on me long distance. A great blessing to have him in my life. He is a teacher who does not teach and a friend who does not live around the corner.

So I just listened to Cohen’s song “You Want It Darker.” Someone made an artful video to accompany it. Here is a brilliant comment made by someone who just listened to it.

“This is a beautiful and apt tribute to the man who raged and prayed at his God and did not gentle into that night go. He and Bowie both upon imminence and pain of death said fuck you and bless me I’ll create to my last breath and all the worlds I’ve created by my living breath, my prana, these exhalations of word and song still proliferate like so many galaxies and self spawning universes and I too am now ready to sit beside the councils of Olympus and Himalaya and Kilimanjaro and Harney Peak. I’m ready Lord. You want it darker? Hell, you got it!”

This is where I am now; I can identify. I will create until my last breath. Hallelujah.

Vicki Woodyard