this very moment

This is a book composed of small moments: each one consists of a photo and a small poem. When each is viewed through the lens of the reader's heart, it is the author's hope that it will open into a larger moment, rich with personal meaning.

This way of thinking-that the moment holds limitless meaning-began in the author's childhood. Her father was an outdoorsman who delighted in sharing the smallest of discoveries-secretive Trailing Arbutus in early spring, minty teaberries at the edge of the woods-and how living with an awareness of and love for them is endlessly enriching.

Her mother had a strong love of color, but it was destined to be ended by blindness. The poet remembers her mother saying with poignant urgency, "Look, Kathy! Look at those yellow leaves. And then, sadly, "Yellow is the only color I can still see." For all these intervening years-sixty, at least-color has called to the author, often in her mother's voice, "Kathy, look!"

The author guesses that you, the reader, also have a lifetime of such happenings that have shaped the gifts you have to share. It is her hope that this book of small poems can be a tribute to life's small moments-moments that have taken on enhanced value, moments burnished by the understanding that, as we age, each one holds the potential to be the ultimate moment.

As seen through the eyes of an elder in a culture now shaped by the young, may these photos and the tiny poems that accompany them help you savor this very moment.