I went to my Post Office Box 205 today (P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816) to get my paper mail, and there were actually more messages for me than Maria or Minnie! One beautiful letter was from Dave Holley in Burlington, North Carolina, who sent me a postcard he had purchased of the border collie Rose, in a snowstorm, one of my favorite photographs of this wonderful creature. This storm inspired my novel, “Rose In A Storm.” It seemed as if Rose had come to visit me, I have never seen her here before, not even in my imagination.

“Here it is!,” Dave wrote, “the last one of my carefully hoarded note cards. What better place for it, then to just “send it home.” I thank you that that, Dave, it was nice to see Rose, it did choke me up for a second or two, I will always remember the day that photo was taken, the snow was so blinding and deep I could not get hay up to the Pole Barn and the sheep would not come down through the deepening drifts. I kept slipping and falling into the snow. Rose came up behind me, she always had this telepathic sense about her work and what I needed.  I send Rose up to get them, and she disappeared into the snow as she battled her way up, and suddenly, as I knew would happen, the sheep came thundering down to the feeder, Rose behind them, using the path she had forged with her body, that day and the next few days.

There were some lambs up in the barn, I’m not sure they would have all made it without Rose. She always got it done, she touched the hearts of so many people.

Dave told me very kindly that my thoughts and writings have brought him to a new realization:

“That, even in the face of advancing age and faltering health, there is yet, still, time and opportunity to each day, to try to become a better person. I believe I have achieved some measure of success in that goal.”

That is a wonderful message Dave, it seems to me from reading your note that you have, you are a brave man with a good heart, it is an honor to get a letter from you. I had one thought reading yours, and that is this: it is so important to consider the language of life, the way we see ourselves, the lessons we learn from the outside world that make us apologize for ourselves, make us sorry for living. We are all growing older, our health is faltering from the time we are teenagers on.

I’m not sure what faltering health means, I do not ever refer to myself as being of advanced age, or of faltering health, your letter is the personification of health to me. I hope you never speak ill of your life, or diminish it. In exchange for your letter, I am sending you my Creative Aging Manifesto, part of my Ted Talk to be released soon. When we apologize for ourselves, this enters our consciousness and that of the people who know us and talk to us. Your health is private, personal, it is up to you to define it. Our culture has given us no healthy language for aging, but language is important, it is identity.

I am in my 60’s now, things hurt, I give myself several insulin shots a day. I consider myself to be healthy. I love my life, every day of it, that is health to me. I have learned to never speak poorly of my life. I appreciate your message, thanks so much for it.

And thanks for writing me at my Post Office  Box, P.O. Box 502, Cambridge, New York, 12816.