Your Book of Days

You lie in your bed, a tired, old woman.
Caught between here and there,
God only knows the day of your journey.
For now you wait, sure of only one thing,
that your yesterday and your today pale in
comparison to your tomorrow.

What of yesterday?
Yesterday holds the love of a man who has known you,
inside and out, for fifty six years.
The warmth of his embrace, his lips on the nape of your neck.
His look across a crowded room. How he made terrible coffee
and always thought he was right about everything.

Yesterday holds four children, each so different,
yet so much the same
- good and bad - joy and hurt.
How they disappointed you
and how they surprised you,
again and again.

Yesterday holds the smell of turkey roasting in an oven
or fresh bread being cut.
It holds the taste of an orange,
the feel of chocolate in the mouth,
the tang of a new wine.
It contains the colours of the setting sun,
the scent of the ocean, the smell of a baby,
and the beauty of a single rose.

Today is for reliving your yesterdays -
and looking ahead to your tomorrow.
For tomorrow you will go with Him who holds your future,
and you will realize that it was Him who held your yesterdays, all along.