Best wishes,,,

I hope the video works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeK_aAWjmfw

This is my last post here at the Grip and there are a few things I need to say before I go.

I’m indebted to many people here. I’m grateful that I was ever invited. I’m grateful for the sense of family that the Grip provides. And I’m grateful for all the commentators who are kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to make us bloggers feel as though what we’ve got to say has been worth reading. You wouldn’t believe how important some of those comments can be to a writer’s confidence and self-esteem. Thank you. Considering I’m writing this on thanksgiving, it’s ironic that there is a lot here for which to be thankful.

I truly wish I could continue writing here at the Grip. However, as the saying goes, wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which fills up first. I don’t need to participate in that experiment to understand that wishing won’t help me to any great extent.

I’ve got one or two things happening in my life right now. Things that are making my existence ‘interesting.’ I’m using the word ‘interesting’ here in the same sense it’s used in that fabled curse, when some bastard wishes you a life lived in ‘interesting times.’ Well, at the moment, my life is distressingly interesting. I won‘t bore you with the details. The bottom line is that it would be imprudent to carry on blogging at the moment when there are other aspects of my life that seem to be redefining the word ‘crisis.’ However, I’m reassured by the words of the truism: what doesn’t kill you only prolongs the inevitable.

I believe that Mike Kimera is going to be filling in the Thursday slot from next week. I do hope regular readers will make him feel welcome. I also hope no one will mind if I occasionally visit when circumstances allow because this is one group of friends with whom I want to remain in contact.

And I’m going to sign off with a poem from one of my favourite poets.

A Dream Within a Dream
by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Best wishes to you all…

Ash x