Aging as a non-linear concept and something beautiful

Days traverse the calendar in linear fashion, but it seems that aging, at least in how it applies to me, never occurs in quite the same way. It may lay silent for a year or so and then unwraps itself in powerful bursts.

I look at the back of my hands and they've grown much older in a single year. In this same time, the lines in my face have deepened and the texture of me, both physically and emotionally, has changed.

* * *
The Russian and Autumn Olive are blooming now. Some think the fragrance is sickeningly sweet but I like it, even though they are invasive and were planted to re-vegitate surface mined areas. The nearby Egypt Valley Wildlife area is lousy with them which prevents the usual local hardwoods from establishing. They were about as good of an idea as Multifloral Rose was when it was introduced to this country as nature's living fence.

* * *
Translations of poetry are, at best, dangerous - so, I won't. However:

Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon,
Et les soirs au balcon, voilés de vapeurs roses.
Que ton sein m'était doux! que ton coeur m'était bon!
Nous avons dit souvent d'impérissables choses
Les soirs illumines par l'ardeur du charbon
~ From: "Le Balcon", Charles Baudelaire